Under the theme "Sport as a Financial Asset Class - What does the global landscape look like?", the Center for Sports and Business hosted the fourth edition of its partner day at the Stockholm School of Economics for its sports partners. Throughout the day, research was combined with practical workshops and networking. 

The event featured Tomas Hjelström, Doctor of Economics and member of the Center for Sports and Business, Fanny Almersson, doctoral student at the Center for Sports and Business, as well as CEMS students. 

Sports as a Financial Asset Class - What does the global landscape look like?

Professor Martin Carlsson-Wall, Director for the Center for Sports & Business, kicked off the Partner Day with a keynote on the financialization of sports in a global context.

In his keynote, Martin shared two observations. Firstly, post-COVID, differences between winners and losers risk to become even greater. Secondly, global sports need to handle risks of both exploration and exploitation. Moreover, he also touched upon the sports system in the Middle East, as well as the private equity industry, its development, as well as what it looks like in a Swedish context.

CSB database and future opportunities 

Next, Tomas Hjelström presented the database that has already been built up in the CSB with data from football clubs, as well as future opportunities that an investment in the database might hold.

The aim is to create an international financial and sports database primarily for international football and secondarily for international ice hockey. Data that has already been collected as of today relates to the Premier League, and Championship, while data collection related to Allsvenskan has been started. With the collection of a comprehensive data set, it will be possible to do, among others, the following analyses: What does the profitability look like in England, and how do the big six teams (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man United, Tottenham) compare to the rest? How does profitability compare to a typical business investment? Is solvency important for success in international football? Are the Big Six systematically better than the other teams?

Dual Clubs in Football - How is competitiveness created and what conflicts arise?

Fanny Almersson, a PhD student at the Center for Sports and Business and SSE's Accounting Department, discussed current issues from her dissertation project at Hammarby Football.

Among others, Fanny discussed the historical perspective of women's football as well as the aim of her study object becoming a dual club, integrating both the women's and men's teams. This, in turn, causes questions and issues related to the organizational structure, communication, budgeting, how are revenues going to be distributed, and how are new costs budgeted. She also presented her preliminary conclusions related to resource allocation as well as identity in a double club. 

Presentation of CEMS student projects

Master students from the CEMS program presented their student projects on the Swedish Golf Federation and Marathongruppen, which they worked on during the spring of 2024. 

The Swedish Golf Federation's student group presented their case of The Swedish Golf Challenge - Navigating New Trends in Club Memberships. Among others, they presented selected quantitative and qualitative insights and three perspectives on Swedish golf. They also presented questions and risks to consider, and courses of action for the Swedish Golf Federation.

The student group at Marathongruppen presented their work on Stockholm as a Running Destination - Strengthening Marathongruppen's position in the international mass running market to sustain long-term growth. Among others, they outlined a competitor analysis and a quantitative analysis of the current brand position and runner behavior and attitudes, as well as in-depth interviews regarding runner behavior and rationals, and identified opportunities for sustained growth.

Workshop: Creating a CSB Data Center, what data sources are available, and what main questions should be answered to strengthen Swedish sports? 

The partner day concluded with a workshop session in conjunction with the presentation of Tomas Hjelström and the creation and further development of a CSB data center.