COHORT 2 STARTS 18TH MAY 2026

YOUR FAST TRACK INTO THE SPORTS INDUSTRY

TURN YOUR PASSION

INTO YOUR CAREER

The sports industry has no obvious way in. The networks are closed, the routes in take years, and even the best academic programmes can struggle to give students a real feel for how the industry actually operates day to day.

The Sports Business Accelerator is built for people who are serious about getting in and want to do it now. Ten live sessions with Nick. Ten live guest lectures from executives at the top of the industry. Ten video modules. Ten marked assignments. A one-on-one strategy call to map out what comes next.

Book a call to apply COHORT 2 - £2,825
Book a call to apply COHORT 2 - £2,825

Already on the self-paced course? Your £950 is offset - pay £1,875 to upgrade.

IS THIS FOR YOU?

YOU’LL GET THE MOST FROM THIS IF...

WHY SHOULD YOU TRUST US?

BUILT FROM 18 YEARS INSIDE THE INDUSTRY

Nick Robinson started as an intern at IMG, the original sports agency, then became Head of Football at Octagon. Aged 27 he set up International Sports Consulting, where he represents players from the Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1 & the MLS. As well as international rugby players, Olympians & Paralympians. he advises clubs on recruitment strategies and has negotiated commercial deals with brands and clubs across the world…and he's still doing all of this today.

The Sports Business Accelerator is the course where he distills nearly 20 years of experience into actionable lessons for you, and he holds nothing back.

It’s the course he wished existed when he started.

DON’T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT

RESULTS FROM THE COHORT 1

WHAT YOU WALK AWAY WITH

6 CAPABILITIES THAT TAKE MOST PEOPLE A DECADE TO BUILD

Most people who want to work in sport spend years figuring this out by trial and error. You won't have to.

Understand where you fit across the full spectrum of the sports industry and build your career from a position of clarity rather than guesswork.

Negotiate brand and athlete contracts at the highest level, with the tools, language, and confidence to hold your own in any room.

Manage athletes effectively, from academy level through to world-class professionals, knowing what they need to succeed and how to deliver it.

Navigate how clubs really operate, from the scouting department through to the Sporting Director, CEO, and Owner, and speak to them with authority.

Anticipate the situations, challenges, and decisions that define careers in this industry, learn directly from the experience of the people at the top of the industry.

Position your personal brand so that the people who hire in this industry know who you are and what you bring to their business.

WEEKLY GUEST LECTURES

WHO YOU’LL LEARN FROM EVERY WEEK

Every week, one of the most respected figures in the sports industry joins the cohort for an exclusive, intimate live session. The lawyer to Messi and Neymar. The Chief Commercial Officer of the Premier League. Cohort members hear their stories, get their advice, and ask unlimited questions about how to apply it to their own careers.

The kind of access that doesn't exist anywhere else at this price, and in most cases doesn't exist at any price. Many speakers will return for Cohort 2, and new names will be added ahead of the start date. Cohort members also get access to every Cohort 1 guest speaker recording.

Book a call & Apply for Cohort 2
Book a call & Apply for Cohort 2

THE COST OF THE ALTERNATIVE

THE LESSONS YOU LEARN HERE DON'T HAPPEN IN A LECTURE HALL

Most sports business courses are taught by people who have never managed a world-class professional footballer, never closed an eight-figure transfer, and never negotiated a brand deal on behalf of an athlete. They don't teach you how to sign your first clients or how to leverage competing offers for maximum value. That's a different skill entirely, and few people can teach you it because few people are actually doing it.

The Accelerator is built from inside the industry. It has the theory, but it has detailed practical applications from eighteen years of representing players, closing commercial deals, and advising clubs and brands. When the module covers negotiation, you get a walkthrough of a real deal: where the anchor was set, how it was re-anchored when the other side pushed back, and what the final outcome was. When it covers sponsorship, you hear from the Chief Commercial Officer of the Premier League about how the biggest deals in football actually get done. The sports law lectures are taught by the lawyers for Messi, Neymar and Declan Rice.

Every person teaching it is still doing this every day. Nick has built the course he wished he'd had from the very beginning. It would have saved him five to ten years of trial and error, and that's what it's designed to save you.

THE PRICE IN CONTEXT

NO OTHER PROGRAMME OFFERS VALUE LIKE THIS

There are strong sports business programmes around the world. Here's what the leading ones cost, tuition only:

NYU Tisch Sports MBA

Prestigious qualification - theory, history, and academic frameworks

$ 30,000

FIFA Master (CIES, Switzerland/Europe)

Governance, law, management, and a serious network effect

₣ 25,000

University of Liverpool, Football Industries MBA (UK)

Core MBA blocks (strategy, leadership, finance) plus football modules (management, finance, law) and industry-facing work

£28,000

Real Madrid Graduate School (Universidad Europea), MBA in Sports Management (Spain)

A club-side commercial lens, with sport-specific execution.

€32,450

THE SPORTS BUSINESS ACCELERATOR

Live cohort: 10 x self paced modules and assigments plus:

10 x live weekly sessions, 10 x live industry leading guest lectures + Q&A ,

10 weeks of continuous cohort, accountability and direct access to Nick + coaches, final 1:1 career strategy session.

Membership of The Game Plan Alumni Network

£2,825
£2,825

EVERYTHING INCLUDED

WHAT YOU GET ACROSS THE 10 WEEKS

WHAT’S COVERED

TEN MODULES ACROSS THE FULL INDUSTRY SPECTRUM

From entering the industry to negotiating global transfers , sports sponsorship, commercial strategy and social media - every module is built around real cases and real application.

  • Entering the sports industry

    • Industry evolution

    • Dr. Erkut Sogut's advice

    • Reality check

    The 100 point shot

    • Nick Robinson's 100 point shot

    • Daniel Geey’s 100 point shot

    • Miles Jacobson's 100 point shot

    Developing your USP

    • Your Unique Selling Proposition

    • Languages as a competitive advantage

    • Leveraging unique skills and background

    • Building a profile before you need it

    • Closing

    Getting your first role

    • The application game

    • Surviving rejection

    • Ambition v execution

    The sports industry landscape

    • Your core operators

    • Where the jobs actually are

    • The hidden reality. Glamour vs grind

    • Closing

  • The Sporting Landscape

    • Sport Isn't One Industry

    • Industry Terms

    • Football: The Transfer Market Casino

    • Rugby: The Salary Cap Straightjacket

    • US Sports: The Franchise Fortress

    • Olympic Sports: The Sponsorship Survival Game

    The Agency Game

    • More Than Negotiators

    • The Business Model

    • Layering Revenue

    • Scale vs Service

    How to Behave

    • Values & Reputation

    • Company Culture

    • Negotiating Without Burning Bridges

    • The Rainmaker Risk

    Contracts & Deal Structure

    • Transfer & Playing contract

    • Sponsorship contracts

    • Athlete sponsorship

    • You're Really Just a Dealmaker

    Building Your Client List

    • Starting From The Bottom

    • The First Client Paradox

    • Sponsorship and Rights Holders

    Developing From Here

    • Progressing through the industry

    • The Sports Framework

  • Introduction

    • Welcome to Module

    • The Core of Athlete Management

    • The “Day Job”

    • What You Will Learn

    Athlete Management Fails

    • The Recurring Mistakes

    • Friend over advisor

    • Short-term thinking

    • Susceptibility to intimidation

    • Negotiation

    • Market Knowledge

    • Sponsorship

    • Off-field Aspects

    • Entourage

    • Greed

    • Behaviour Management

    The Total Life Manager

    • Beyond the Highlights Reel

    • The Global Network Example

    • Closing

    Young Talent and Managing Sudden Wealth

    • The Young Striker example

    Career-Damaging Blind Spots

    • The Risks they don't see coming

    • Betting

    • Social Media

    • The Company You Keep

    • Contracts They Didn't Understand

    • Tax and Financial Structures

    • When Silence Is the best plan

    • The Broader Point

    Strategic Player Acquisition

    • Strategic Player Acquisition

    • Pillar One: Talent

    • Pillar Two: Character

    • Pillar Three: Strategic Fit

    • The Framework in Practice

    • Signing Your First Players

    • Representation Agreements and Mandates

    Career-Long Partnership

    • The Foundation of my Business

    • The 4 Phases of a Player's Career

    • The Emotional Side

    • The Hard Conversations

    • Closing

    The Global Network Model

    • The Global Agent

    • How to Build Real Infrastructure

    • Strategic Deal Architecture

    • Reading the Market - Chain Reactions

    Cultural Intelligence

    • Why it is Important

    • Culture Shapes Career Priorities

    • Clubs’ cultural differences

    • The Narcissistic President

    • The Stalemate

    • Communication Styles and Negotiation

    • Beyond Culture: Personality Still Rules

    Integrity in Sport

    • The Integrity Advantage

    • Case Study: Two Agents, One Opportunity

    • Conclusion

  • Pre-Negotiation Preparation

    • Welcome to Negotiation

    • The First Move

    • Market Research and Due Diligence

    • Understanding the Other Side

    • Know Your Own Position

    • Define Your Walk-Away Point

    • Map Your Strategy

    Setting the Arena

    • Timing and Sequencing

    • The Sequencing Trap

    • Location and Setting

    • The Right People in the Room

    • 3D Negotiation

    • Sequencing Within the Room

    Tactical Tools

    • Understanding Leverage

    • Credibility and Perception

    • Real Leverage Examples

    • Building Your BATNA

    • The Reputation Risk

    • The Power of Silence

    • Anchoring

    • Handling Their Anchor

    • Who Goes First?

    • Concession Strategy

    • Deadlines and Time Pressure

    • Using Deadlines Yourself

    • Resisting Tactical Pressure

    Channels of Communication

    • Written vs Face-to-Face

    • Internal Influencers and Alliances

    • Bypassing a Blocker

    • Leveraging Allies

    • Media and Public Narrative

    • Teammate Communication

    Negotiating Under Pressure

    • Managing Your Mindset

    • Stay Grounded in Facts and Process

    • Use Breaks to Manage Stress

    • Prepare for Worst-Case Scenarios

    • Breaking Deadlock

    • Key Takeaways

    Long-Term Thinking

    • Short-Term Wins vs Long-Term Success

    • The Danger of Crushing Wins

    • The Rise and Fall of Aggressive Agents

    • Consider Flexibility as a Long-Term Win

    • Honesty as a Long-Term Win

    • Consider the Player's Broader Goals

    Adapting to Personalities and Styles

    • Different People, Different Approaches

    • Handling Different Executive Personalities

    • Adapt Your Communication Style

    • Pacing and Leading

    • Adapting to Hostility

    Deal Structuring and Protections

    • Building Value in the Small Print

    • The Hidden Value in Clauses

    • Protecting the Downside

    • Option Clauses: Read Carefully

    • Sell-On Clauses

    • Legal Review Is Non-Negotiable

    • Closing

    Avoiding Rookie Errors

    • Avoiding Rookie Errors

    Conclusion

    • Negotiation Mastery

    • A Final Word

  • The Commercial Engine

    • Module Introduction

    • Why sponsors pay billions for sport

    • The McCormack origin: how athlete endorsements were invented

    • My gateway: consulting at IMG

    • Sport is something media can't replicate

    What sponsors actually buy

    • The four things sponsors pay for

    • Brand strategy typology

    • Return follows product fit, not the cost

    • Activation is where the return actually comes from

    The value of unclaimed real estate

    • Clean assets command a premium

    • The All Blacks

    • Twickenham becomes Allianz Stadium

    • The first-mover premium

    Club Sponsorship Decoded

    • Anatomy of a club's commercial inventory

    • New season, new kit

    • The superstar effect

    • Wrexham: how to hack football's commercial model

    Athlete Commercial Strategy

    • The reality: most athletes are not commercially valuable

    • Building an athlete’s commercial profile

    • Sell the activation, not just the athlete

    • Take the opportunities others miss

    • Timing windows: when athletes have leverage and when they don't

    • Knowing your athlete

    Negotiating Sponsorship Deals

    • What you're trying to achieve (and avoid)

    • The Nike Champions League clause

    • Boot deals: the first endorsement trap

    • Category exclusivity: protecting your commercial inventory

    • First refusal clauses and non-compete windows

    • Covid and why saying no is so important

    • Activation, risk, and the part of job nobody tells you about

    Ego vs Economics

    • The naivety of youth

    • The Cost of Getting It Wrong

    • When Strategy Beats Status

    • Closing

    Where Sponsorship Is Heading

    • The Trajectory

    • Tighter Measurement and the Unbundling of Rights

    • The Cautionary Categories

    • Women's Sport

    • AI and the Future of Sponsorship Contracts

    • Where This All Leads

  • What is sports law?

    • There Is No Such Thing as Sports Law

    • Why Legal Awareness Gives You an Edge

    Contract Law

    • Release Clauses: Confidentiality and Payment Traps

    • Representation Agreements and Where Agents Lose Money

    • The Gross-Up Clause

    • Image Rights: Where They Came From and How They Work

    • Image Rights: What Clubs Are Really Paying For

    • Coaching Contracts and the Cost of a Sacking

    Commercial Law

    • Intro

    • The Clauses That Cause The Biggest Tension

    • The Collaborative Approach to Restrictions

    • Control: The Common Thread When Deals Go Wrong

    Dispute Resolution

    • Intro

    • The Neymar Release Clause

    • Messi v FIFA: Winning a Case Nobody Expected to Win

    • The Football World Is Small

    Litigation, Lawyerball & Legal Reality

    • How Sports Litigation Works

    • Player Contracts = Employment Contracts

    • Building a Defence: What Actually Happens

    • Lawyerball: Man City - APT

    • Lawyerball: The European Super League

    • The Player-Club Standoff

    • Gentleman’s Agreements

    Crisis Management

    • When Reputation Needs a Lawyer

    • Blackmail and Extortion

    Immigration Law

    • Post-Brexit Work Permits and the GBE System

    • Immigration as Sporting Strategy

    The Grey Zones

    • Financial Manipulation and Salary Cap Scandals

    • Bloodgate

    • Corruption

    • Anti-Doping: Strict Liability and the System’s Unintended Consequences

    How High is the Bar?

    • Closing

  • 75 Years of Content

    • How Sport Became a Digital Media Industry

    The Platforms

    • Instagram

    • TikTok

    • YouTube

    • X, Facebook, and Snapchat

    • LinkedIn

    Measuring Value on Social Media

    • The Metrics

    Athlete Personal Brands in the Social Media Era

    • Athletes v Influencers

    • Alisha Lehmann

    • Ilona Maher

    Clubs and Rights Holders

    • Club Side – Social Media as Commercial Inventory

    The Digital Past

    • The Digital Past

    The Money, the Rights and the Content

    • The Rate Card

    • Club Rights vs Player Rights

    • Building the Content

    NIL

    • NIL

    The Bigger Picture

    • The Bigger Picture

  • The Most Important Department in Football

    • Introduction

    How Recruitment Departments Actually Work

    • The Model

    • When It Works

    • When It Doesn’t

    The Scout

    • The Job in 2026

    • Is Live Scouting Still Relevant?

    • Talent Selection vs Talent Potential

    • The Signings That Scouts Like to Remember

    The Head of Recruitment

    • The Role Nobody Fully Understands

    • Succession Planning

    • Agent Relationship Management

    Sporting Director

    • The Role England Couldn’t Define

    • Managing Up and Down

    • The Head Coach Relationship

    • What the Job Takes From You

    • The Southampton Model

    Data and the Future of Recruitment

    • Data and the Future of Recruitment

    How to Get Into This Side of the Business

    • How to Get Into This Side of the Business

  • How the E-Sports industry works

    • The module I know least about

    • Who actually controls E-Sports

    • The commercial architecture

    Boom, bust, and what's left

    • Why the money flooded in

    • The structural problems

    • How it unravelled

    • When footballers tried it

    • Who survived and why

    Olympics, Saudi Arabia, and phase 3

    • Olympics, Saudi Arabia, and phase 3

    Getting into the industry

    • Where the real opportunities are

    • Learn the structure

    • A gap in the market

    • What to actually do

    The closing thought

    • The closing thought

  • What Is a Personal Brand?

    • What Is a Personal Brand?

    Your Personal Brand

    • Day 1 of Your Personal Brand

    • Building Authority Before You Have It

    The In-Person Brand

    • What People See Before You Open Your Mouth

    • How You Conduct Yourself Once You're in the Room

    Authenticity and the Snowball Effect

    • You Don't Always Choose Your Brand, Your Brand chooses you

    • Malleability in Action

    • Your Brand Travels Ahead of You

    • 3D Personal Brand

    • Values as a brand

    Two Personal Brands That Changed the Industry

    • Mino Raiola

    • Jorge Mendes

    What Not to Do

    • Losing Composure in Public

    • When Your Brand Takes a Hit

    Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

    • Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

    • The Mechanics of a Good Post

    • The Return on Personal Brand

    • De-platforming

    Proof of Work

    • Proof of Work

    • What You Can Do Right Now

    • The Evidence That It Works

    The Accelerator Close

    • The Accelerator Close

THE POWER OF THE COHORT

THE NETWORK YOU BUILD HERE WILL STAY WITH YOU FOR YOUR ENTIRE CAREER.

By the time the cohort ends you'll have built direct relationships with people at the top of this industry, alongside a cohort who share the same ambition. The WhatsApp group doesn't go quiet when the programme ends. The conversations keep going. In a people-driven industry where so much depends on your network, that counts for more than any qualification.

The part we didn't expect from Cohort 1 was what happened between the members themselves. They became each other's accountability partners and sounding boards. They had one-on-one conversations offline. For those who could make it, there was an in-person meetup at the end that none of us had organised. Some walked out with friends they'll have for the next ten years. A few walked out with potential business partners. We didn't design that part, but it has become one of the things Cohort 1 members keep mentioning when they talk about the programme.

The cohort is small by design. That's what makes the sessions work and why the relationships last. Once these seats are gone, the next cohort opens after this one closes. If you want May, this is the moment.

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Book a call to apply COHORT 2 - £2,825
Book a call to apply COHORT 2 - £2,825

Already on the self-paced course? Your £950 is offset - pay £1,875 to upgrade.

FAQ

  • A lot of the value attributed to the MBAs and the Masters is in the institution awarding the qualification, and the reputation that qualification carries.

    The Sports Business Accelerator is different in that it has all of the theory, and on top of that it adds something that doesn't exist anywhere else: it teaches you what actually happens inside the industry, and how to excel at it.

    The reality is that these prices will increase. This was launched in 2026, and in the early stages it's been priced deliberately to give access to as many serious people as possible.

  • Yes. You can pay in full at £2,825, or in three monthly instalments of £995.

  • Yes. Complete the first module in the first week. If before Module 2 is released you get in touch, you'll get a full refund. The content speaks for itself, but you shouldn't have to take that on faith

  • Plan for four to five hours a week. That's the video module, the live session with Nick, the live guest lecture, and the assignment. Some weeks will run lighter, some heavier depending on the assignment.

  • Every live session and guest lecture is recorded and available to cohort members the next day. You won't be the only one who can't make every session live. Beyond the live sessions, Nick is active in the cohort WhatsApp group five days a week, so a lot of the questions that would come up live get answered there too.

  • Yes. Most of Cohort 1 worked full time through the programme. The live sessions are scheduled for early evening UK time to account for that. The video modules and assignments are designed to fit around your week. What you need to bring is four to five hours of focus, not a cleared diary.

  • Yes. The course is built for people serious about getting into the industry, including people starting from zero. Cohort 1 ran the full range: students, graduates, and current players at one end, to professionals from law and finance looking to move across and entrepreneurs who had sold their business and wanted a new challenge at the other. The common thread was ambition and willingness to do the work, not prior experience.

  • Yes, and several members of Cohort 1 were already working in sport when they joined. The access and the live lectures are with people who have been at the very top of the industry, and unless you're already operating at that level, there's real value in the rooms you'll sit in. The goal for members already inside the industry is to move them towards a leadership role.

  • No. Cohort 1 had members in the US, Holland, Sweden, England, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, France, and Croatia. The industry is global, and so is the cohort. Live sessions are scheduled to work across Europe and the US east coast, and recordings are available for anyone further afield

  • Think of the sports industry as one big Venn diagram. If you want to work as an agent, you'll need to understand athlete management, contract negotiation, sports law, sponsorship, and social media. Everything intertwines. Every module adds to your sports business arsenal. And you're also building a network with people you'll grow alongside and be doing business with in the near future.