A sports agent is a legal representative (hence
agent) for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches. They procure and negotiate employment and
endorsement contracts for the
athlete or coach whom they represent. In addition to contract negotiations, sports agents may also help their clients with financial planning, legal issues, and marketing. They may work closely with financial advisors, lawyers, and marketing professionals on behalf of their clients.
Description
Because of the unique characteristics of the
sports industry, sports agents are responsible for communications with team owners, managers, and other individuals. In addition to finding income sources, agents often handle
public relations matters for their clients. In some large sports agencies, such as
IMG,
Creative Artists Agency,
Roc Nation Sports and
Octagon, agents deal with all aspects of a client's finances, from investment to filing taxes.
Sports agents may be relied upon by their clients for guidance in all business aspects, and sometimes even more broadly. For example, hockey agents start recruiting clients as young as 15, allowing the agent to guide the athlete's career before the
NHLdraft, which happens usually at 18 years of age.
Due to the length and complexity of contracts, many sports agents are lawyers or have a background in contract law. Agents are expected to be knowledgeable about finance, business management, and financial and risk analysis, as well as sports. It is important for a sports agent to follow trends in sports. Other skills an agent must possess are excellent communication and negotiation skills. Agents must be highly motivated, willing to work long hours, and capable of multitasking. It is very common for agents to be in negotiations on behalf of several clients at one time.[1]
Some agents are part of large companies, and some are on their own.[2] The number of clients an individual agent can handle and how many clients his or her employing agency can handle in total are interdependent variables.
Before the 1990s, most
football players did not use agents. In some cases, they used their parents as agents. Because of most parents' naivety about the football business, these footballers were often given less-than-stellar contracts by football clubs, which yielded lower salaries than they thought they deserved.[3] In Sweden, there were only three licensed agents in 1995.[4] As of 2002, there were 33. According to
FIFA, there were 5,187 licensed association football agents worldwide, with 600 agents in Italy alone.[5] Since 2001, agents have not been licensed by FIFA. Instead, agents are now licensed directly by each association.
Sports agents generally receive between 4 and 15% of the athlete's playing contract, and 10 to 20% of the athlete's endorsement contract, although these figures vary.
NFL agents are not permitted to receive more than 3%, and
NBA agents not more than 4%, of their client's playing contracts.
Paul Stretford: English agent. Clients include,
Wayne Rooney. Set up Triple S Sports Entertainment Group in 2009 after leaving Proactive Sports, which he originally established.
Kevin Davies: Former English international player, owns his own agency: KCD Management.[27]
Rhydian Thomas: Wales-based sports agent. Founder and owner of GSF Agency, which he set up in 2015, having previously founded Complete Sports Management (CSM), which ran from 2001, managing international rugby union players. GSF agency covers South Wales and the West Country, identifying the best academy talent in the region. Notable clients include Sam Pearson. GSF Agency Web[28]
Colleen Howe (deceased): ice hockey, late president of Power Play International and Power Play Publications managing hockey careers and business interests of her husband
Gordie Howe and their sons
Marty and
Mark Howe.[37]
Joe Kehoskie (now baseball consultant/executive): Small agency; frequent media appearances regarding
Cuban defectors and baseball in Latin America.[38]
Mark McCormack (deceased): American golf agent, and principal originator of modern sports agency industry.[citation needed] First client was
Arnold Palmer. Founded
IMG (originally "International Management Group").
Gary Wichard (deceased): American football, three dozen clients, the inspiration for the movie Jerry Maguire.
Sports agency groups
There have been some efforts to transform the sports agency business from an individual, entrepreneurial business, to more of a corporate structure. These experiments met with varying degrees of longevity and success.
Roc Nation Sports – sports agency founded in 2013 by Shawn Carter, better known as
Jay-Z. Currently in partnership with CAA; first client signed was
Robinson Canó.[42]
Wasserman Media Group (WME) - acquired
Arn Tellem's basketball agency from SFX, and usually represents the most players in
NBA lottery draft each year.[45]
Some sports agency firms were once prominent, but are now gone or reorganized:
Assante Corporation – Canadian public company that acquired the Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn agency, then acquired other than agencies including Dan Fegan & Associates and Maximum Sports Management in an unsuccessful effort to build multi-sport corporate agency.[47]
SFX Entertainment (now
Live Nation, a publicly traded company) – in 1998 SFX agreed to pay up to $150 million in cash, stock, and bonuses for F.A.M.E., the sports agency run by
David Falk, the agent for basketball players
Michael Jordan and
Patrick Ewing. SFX also acquired two other major sports agencies,
Arn Tellem's agency (Tellem & Associates) and the baseball-oriented firm run by
Randy Hendricks and Allan Hendricks.[48] SFX would later reverse course, and sell off the pieces of its large sports agency business.
Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn ("SMD") – a multi-sport agency sold in October 1999 for reported $120 million to Canadian financial firm. Defections of principals, and litigation, followed. Originally led by entrepreneurial agents
Leigh Steinberg and
Jeff Moorad.[49]
A sports agent is a legal representative (hence
agent) for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches. They procure and negotiate employment and
endorsement contracts for the
athlete or coach whom they represent. In addition to contract negotiations, sports agents may also help their clients with financial planning, legal issues, and marketing. They may work closely with financial advisors, lawyers, and marketing professionals on behalf of their clients.
Description
Because of the unique characteristics of the
sports industry, sports agents are responsible for communications with team owners, managers, and other individuals. In addition to finding income sources, agents often handle
public relations matters for their clients. In some large sports agencies, such as
IMG,
Creative Artists Agency,
Roc Nation Sports and
Octagon, agents deal with all aspects of a client's finances, from investment to filing taxes.
Sports agents may be relied upon by their clients for guidance in all business aspects, and sometimes even more broadly. For example, hockey agents start recruiting clients as young as 15, allowing the agent to guide the athlete's career before the
NHLdraft, which happens usually at 18 years of age.
Due to the length and complexity of contracts, many sports agents are lawyers or have a background in contract law. Agents are expected to be knowledgeable about finance, business management, and financial and risk analysis, as well as sports. It is important for a sports agent to follow trends in sports. Other skills an agent must possess are excellent communication and negotiation skills. Agents must be highly motivated, willing to work long hours, and capable of multitasking. It is very common for agents to be in negotiations on behalf of several clients at one time.[1]
Some agents are part of large companies, and some are on their own.[2] The number of clients an individual agent can handle and how many clients his or her employing agency can handle in total are interdependent variables.
Before the 1990s, most
football players did not use agents. In some cases, they used their parents as agents. Because of most parents' naivety about the football business, these footballers were often given less-than-stellar contracts by football clubs, which yielded lower salaries than they thought they deserved.[3] In Sweden, there were only three licensed agents in 1995.[4] As of 2002, there were 33. According to
FIFA, there were 5,187 licensed association football agents worldwide, with 600 agents in Italy alone.[5] Since 2001, agents have not been licensed by FIFA. Instead, agents are now licensed directly by each association.
Sports agents generally receive between 4 and 15% of the athlete's playing contract, and 10 to 20% of the athlete's endorsement contract, although these figures vary.
NFL agents are not permitted to receive more than 3%, and
NBA agents not more than 4%, of their client's playing contracts.
Paul Stretford: English agent. Clients include,
Wayne Rooney. Set up Triple S Sports Entertainment Group in 2009 after leaving Proactive Sports, which he originally established.
Kevin Davies: Former English international player, owns his own agency: KCD Management.[27]
Rhydian Thomas: Wales-based sports agent. Founder and owner of GSF Agency, which he set up in 2015, having previously founded Complete Sports Management (CSM), which ran from 2001, managing international rugby union players. GSF agency covers South Wales and the West Country, identifying the best academy talent in the region. Notable clients include Sam Pearson. GSF Agency Web[28]
Colleen Howe (deceased): ice hockey, late president of Power Play International and Power Play Publications managing hockey careers and business interests of her husband
Gordie Howe and their sons
Marty and
Mark Howe.[37]
Joe Kehoskie (now baseball consultant/executive): Small agency; frequent media appearances regarding
Cuban defectors and baseball in Latin America.[38]
Mark McCormack (deceased): American golf agent, and principal originator of modern sports agency industry.[citation needed] First client was
Arnold Palmer. Founded
IMG (originally "International Management Group").
Gary Wichard (deceased): American football, three dozen clients, the inspiration for the movie Jerry Maguire.
Sports agency groups
There have been some efforts to transform the sports agency business from an individual, entrepreneurial business, to more of a corporate structure. These experiments met with varying degrees of longevity and success.
Roc Nation Sports – sports agency founded in 2013 by Shawn Carter, better known as
Jay-Z. Currently in partnership with CAA; first client signed was
Robinson Canó.[42]
Wasserman Media Group (WME) - acquired
Arn Tellem's basketball agency from SFX, and usually represents the most players in
NBA lottery draft each year.[45]
Some sports agency firms were once prominent, but are now gone or reorganized:
Assante Corporation – Canadian public company that acquired the Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn agency, then acquired other than agencies including Dan Fegan & Associates and Maximum Sports Management in an unsuccessful effort to build multi-sport corporate agency.[47]
SFX Entertainment (now
Live Nation, a publicly traded company) – in 1998 SFX agreed to pay up to $150 million in cash, stock, and bonuses for F.A.M.E., the sports agency run by
David Falk, the agent for basketball players
Michael Jordan and
Patrick Ewing. SFX also acquired two other major sports agencies,
Arn Tellem's agency (Tellem & Associates) and the baseball-oriented firm run by
Randy Hendricks and Allan Hendricks.[48] SFX would later reverse course, and sell off the pieces of its large sports agency business.
Steinberg, Moorad & Dunn ("SMD") – a multi-sport agency sold in October 1999 for reported $120 million to Canadian financial firm. Defections of principals, and litigation, followed. Originally led by entrepreneurial agents
Leigh Steinberg and
Jeff Moorad.[49]