Executive Director of USC Sports Business Institute Releases New Book on Convergence of Sports and Entertainment
David M. Carter, the Executive Director of the University of Southern California’s Sports Business Institute and Professor of Sports Business at USC’s Marshall School of Business, has come out with a new book titled Money Games: Profiting from the Convergence of Sports and Entertainment.
The book, published by Stanford University Press, is the culmination of a comprehensive three year research initiative conducted at the USC Sports Business Institute. Money Games analyzes how the sports business industry has evolved and monetized the convergence of sports and entertainment by reaching sports consumers wherever they are: at-home, away from home and “at-venues.”
According to Carter’s Money Games, the rapid convergence of sports and entertainment has been key to the sports business industry’s continued growth and financial success. Professor Carter considers the implications for this convergence on television content, video gaming, athlete branding, the Internet, mobile technology, gambling, sports-anchored real estate development, venue technology, and corporate marketing.
Select Observations from Money Games:
* In this 24/7 media world corporate sponsors and advertisers will rapidly compromise their brands if they do not change the structure of their business relationships with athletes.
* Content will continue to be king but the battle over the revenue generated by new content platforms will lead to ongoing labor unrest between leagues and unions.
* Those utilizing new media technologies to reach fans, wherever they may be, must balance their marketing efforts with consumer expectation of privacy.
* Sports venues and surrounding sports-anchored real estate developments must continuously adapt their gameday presentation or risk losing patrons to an increasingly compelling home viewing experience.
* Municipalities considering investing in sports must appreciate how rapid advancements in the gameday experience will impact their return on taxpayer investment.
Money Games answers the core question: how can the sports business, as well as the media, technology, financial and real-estate industries, continue to profit from the blurring of sports and entertainment? Carter’s book offers guidelines for success and documents strategies that have been used and will be used to drive revenue.
Testimonials:
“Money Games presents a compelling perspective on the evolution of sports business and provides an excellent roadmap to maximizing the benefits and minimizing the pitfalls that arise at the intersection of sports and entertainment.”
-David Stern, NBA Commissioner
“As Major League Baseball has achieved record business performance in recent years, the line that separates sports from entertainment continues to diminish. Money Games examines the current business climate in the sports industry and identifies the challenges facing the various sports leagues in delivering fans what they want while keeping up with the different ways in which fans consume the games.”
-Alan H. (Bud) Selig, MLB Commissioner
The businesses behind Dubai Sports City, the branding of David Beckham, and the presence and popularity of fantasy sports leagues on the internet are unmistakable indicators that the sports and the entertainment industries are quickly becoming one and the same. Anyone that follows sports, either as a fan or a businessperson, has watched this convergence grow, and cannot fail to have been impressed by how the sports industry has parlayed endless fan interest into billions of dollars. If you are interested in making money in the sports industry or simply hoping to gain a better understanding of how and why major decisions are made, Money Games: Profiting from the Convergence of Sports and Entertainment (Stanford University Press, November 2010), by David M. Carter, is for you.