The sports business has become one of the fastest-growing industries in recent years. Sports organizations now have the potential to generate massive amounts of revenue through a variety of different channels, including broadcasting rights, advertising and branding. However, the rise of sports-related business has so far received relatively little attention from management scholars and social scientists. This book argues that we can no longer afford to ignore this important economic and social phenomenon. It presents a conceptual framework based on the concept of value creation to show how we can understand and explain the success and failure of sports organizations. Key concepts are illustrated with case studies of sporting organizations, including Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and the Americas Cup. Written by a team of authors from one of Spain's leading business schools, it provides a unique set of theoretical and practical insights for researchers and sports organization managers.

Review of the hardback:‘As a rapidly growing, increasingly lucrative industry, sport needs and deserves to become the focus for more coherent and systematic academic analyses. With this book, the industry gets exactly this; the authors have brought a new level of sophistication to our understanding of the sport industry, casting new light on many of the most important phenomena that we are now witnessing across sport.’

Simon Chadwick - Chair in Sport Business Strategy and Marketing Director of Centre for the International Business of Sport (CIBS), Coventry University Business School, UK

Review of the hardback:‘Professional sport is big business. Yet, as illustrated by the problems in boxing, cycling, yacht racing (the America’s Cup in particular), and motor racing, it is a business in urgent need of better management. By focusing on the processes of value creation, Gómez, Kase and Urrutia offer an approach to sports management that reconciles sporting performance with economic performance. The case studies, especially of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, offer striking insights into the role of strategy in the management of professional sports organizations.’

Robert Grant - Full Professor of Strategic Management and holder of the ENI Chair of Strategic Management in the Energy Sector at Bocconi University, Italy