Everywhere we look, no matter the industry, technology is at the forefront. While athletic competition is at the heart of sports, technology is the backbone of the business of sports.
Over the years, the proliferation of technology in the sports space has generally followed the industry’s aggressive growth trajectory. Like most industry verticals, sports experienced a period of outsized growth followed by an era of consolidation. We partnered with SBJ to provide a deep look on this evolution.
Kyle Charters, Teamworks’ CFO, helps to explain the impact technology will have on the sports industry over the next decade.
“Every successful sports league has more or less followed this path: Phase 1 — multiple emerging leagues, Phase 2 — franchise expansion, Phase 3 — a league emerges as a winner; Phase 4 — consolidation, where the emerging winner achieves revenue growth via media and sponsorship deals,” said Kyle Charters, Teamworks’ CFO. Charters was named one of SBJ’s Forty Under 40 in 2021 and served as a managing director at investment banking firm, Inner Circle Sports, where he advised on Teamworks’ Series A, B and C funding rounds. Continued Kyle, “The NWSL, for example, has progressed through this evolution probably faster than any other league.”
Kyle’s hypothesis — If the last decade in our industry has been about driving top-line revenue, the next decade will be about managing and optimizing the bottom half of the P&L.
