Business Development Manager Sports Tech (Multi Sports Global)

Role summary

Lead commercial growth for a multisports learning, training and tournament platform by building partnerships with sports academies, schools, federations, brands, players and coaches worldwide. Own the full sales cycle from lead generation to contract negotiation and postsale relationship management. Combine sports business knowledge, analytics literacy, and consultative selling to design partnership models that drive adoption, revenue, and measurable athlete outcomes.

Key responsibilities

• Market development & outreach
  
• Identify and prioritize target segments (academies, schools, federations, clubs, brands, pro players, coaching networks) across regions.
• Build and maintain a global pipeline through direct outreach, referrals, events, and channel partnerships.
• Represent the company at conferences, tournaments, and industry roundtables to generate leads and raise brand visibility.
• Partnership sales & account ownership
  
• Lead endtoend sales: discovery, product demos, pilot design, commercial proposals, negotiation, and closure.
• Structure flexible commercial models: subscriptions, perathlete licensing, revenue share for tournaments, sponsorship integrations, and enterprise deals for federations/school networks.
• Manage key accounts and act as the primary relationship owner to ensure renewals, upsells, and longterm value.
• Solution design & pilots
  
• Translate customer needs into tailored pilots and implementations that showcase learning, training and tournament features.
• Define success metrics and KPIs for pilots (engagement, retention, performance improvements, tournament participation) and secure stakeholder buyin.
• Coordinate crossfunctional teams (product, customer success, coaching, analytics) to deliver pilots on time and to spec.
• Sports business strategy & monetization
  
• Develop gotomarket strategies for new regions, sports verticals, and product modules (learning, training, tournaments).
• Identify sponsorship, brand activation and merchandising opportunities with commercial partners.
• Create pricing strategies informed by competitor benchmarking, willingnesstopay, and value delivered.
• Data & analytics enablement
  
• Use platform analytics and sports performance data to build business cases and ROI narratives for partners.
• Work with analytics/product teams to define data requirements, dashboards, and reporting that partners need for decision making.
• Present insights to stakeholders (coaches, federation execs, school principals, brand managers) to drive adoption.
• Stakeholder management & advocacy
  
• Engage coaches, technical directors, and player representatives to cocreate content, curricula, and tournament formats.
• Liaise with federations and regulatory bodies to ensure compliance and to explore official endorsements or integration.
• Build ambassador programs with players/coaches to accelerate trust and adoption.
• Crossfunctional leadership
  
• Feed market feedback into product roadmap prioritization and content strategy.
• Train and mentor junior BDMs, channel partners, and reseller networks.
• Own commercial forecasting, CRM hygiene, and regular reporting to leadership.

Musthave skills & experience

• 5+ years in B2B sales or partnerships, preferably in sports tech, edtech, SaaS, or sports business roles working with academies, schools, federations, or brands.
• Proven track record of closing enterprise or multisite deals and managing complex stakeholder ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of sports business models (academy economics, federation funding, sponsorships, grassroots-to-pro pathways).
• Comfortable with data and analytics able to interpret performance metrics and translate them into commercial value.
• Excellent communicator and presenter; experience delivering demos and executive briefings.
• Negotiation skills and commercial acumen; experience drafting commercial terms and partnership agreements.
• Willingness to travel internationally and work across time zones.