Can a New Social Sports Network Discover The Next Lebron James?
Looking for a 6’9” 22-year-old leftie post player with a 14.5 shoe size that weighs less than 250 pounds? Roe Stimler and Lior Broshi can help.
A little over a year ago, the wannabee Jerry Maguires co-founded an online recruitment tool for basketball players, called SportJobz. Stimler, using his experience as a sports manager, and Brosh, a computer developer, hope to make sports agents a relic of the past.
CEO Stimler describes the website as, “LinkedIn with a sports orientation.” The site allows players to create free profiles that include photos, videos, playing statistics, and other information they’d like to share with recruiters. The target is U.S. college graduates who want to continue playing -- but who haven’t made the NBA cut. Their next step is being picked up by a professional team outside of the United States. So far, more than 3,000 players, mostly Americans, have created profiles on the site.
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Recruiters are free to surf the website, sorting players into various categories such as height, age, position, weight, handedness, and shoe size. About 200 teams, mainly in European leagues, have used the site to find talent.
The eventual goal is to expand the site into all other sports, including football, soccer, cricket, handball, and volleyball, creating an even larger audience for the site. Although SportJobz isn’t making any money yet, Stimler says the amount of traffic and users are increasing and the goal is to fund the company in the coming year by charging recruiters a monthly subscription fee.
The transfer market, meaning the total salaries of new players of all sports signed by teams and the amount of money teams spend to get other teams to release players, is estimated to be worth around $10 billion each year worldwide, according to Stimler. Agents receive about 10 percent commission of the transfer market, valuing the total sports agent commission at around $500 million.
The purpose of the website is to replace the middleman and cut the astronomical agency costs, creating a direct connection between the player and the team. Another advantage of the site is reducing travel costs for players and scouts. After viewing the stats, records and videos of potential players, scouts can narrow down their choices and zero in on serious candidates.
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Stimler attended the National Basketball Association’s summer league in Las Vegas last week to drum up excitement for the site among recruiters and players. The summer league is one of the rare chances for college players who have been ignored by NBA teams and sports agents to play with U.S. teams.
Although Stimler didn’t have an exact number, he said “We can see a big increase of registrations by teams and players during the 10 days of our campaign in Las Vegas.”
Recruiters know they have a small chance of finding the most talented players on SportJobz, which might make them hesitant about paying for the service. But Stimler says that with fewer than 500 NBA players, plenty of talented American players could become the next Lebron in another country.
It’s too early to tell if this site will be a swish or an airball, but it’s created a platform for others to follow and develop other specialized sites—including LinkedIn.
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