Sports. One word that means different things to every individual on the planet.
Some look at sports as the perfect job description and they aspire to become elite sportsman and sportswomen sometime in the future. Others, however, look at sports as a way to pass their time, either by playing a friendly game or by watching the pros compete on the field.
Even though those two groups of people look at sports differently, they still love the same thing. In fact, the global sports market generates up to 90 billion US dollars per year.
As it turns out, experts believe that out of those 90 billion dollars at least 14.2 billion were gained from selling sports-related merchandise, which can mean anything – from sports equipment to computer games and even casino games with a sports theme.
Some of those games, like casino free slots, don’t require that you put your own money on the line. But more often than not, people who got a taste of the excitement and the thrill of playing the game couldn’t help but pay a certain amount of money to enhance the experience even further.
You can see the steady increase in the populations’ interest in sports with each passing year by checking out the revenue of the market, but that is not the most important change that occurred in the industry.
Little by little, the number of women who made their way into the industry increased exponentially – even before the #MeToo movement. Nowadays, there are dozens of influential women in the industry compared to the past, which is something we should celebrate.
It is time to look at the most powerful and influential women in the industry and pay them the respect they deserve.
Forbes’ List
When you think about the most influential women in the sports industry, you must ask yourself – who decided which women were more successful than others?
Well, if you are somewhat familiar with the Forbes magazine, you know that they post such lists every year. The magazine is highly esteemed, which is why people take those lists seriously.
This year, Forbes posted a list of the most powerful women in sports, and it is time to take a look at who they picked for the international list!
- Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura – At the top of the list, you have the first female Secretary General of FIFA from Senegal. Since 2016, this woman took charge of one of the most popular sports in the world, and that says a lot. Although she is not the only woman who works in FIFA’s management, she has one of the highest-ranking positions, which is a sign of how the times are changing.
- Lydia Nsekera – The next woman in line is from Burundi, another African country. Nsekera also worked hard to get a good position at FIFA’s administration, and it paid off big time. She is the first woman that co-opted onto the FIFA council for one year, not to mention that later on, she was the first woman that was elected for a four-year term.
- Florence Hardouin – Residing in France, Hardouin holds the title of Deputy General Manager of the French Football Federation since 2013. Moreover, she was the first woman to that got to be a part of the UEFA Executive Committee – a very impressive accomplishment indeed.
- Angela Dong – The fourth woman on the list is from China, and she holds the position of vice president and general manager at Nike. In a country where traditions are a bit old-fashioned, there are still many women that managed to work their way up the ladders, and Dong is one of them.
- Marina Granovskaia – Last but not least on our list, Granovskaia – a Russian-Canadian businesswoman, is the Director at Chelsea F.C – one of the most respectable positions in the industry. You might have heard about her when she closed the teams’ deal with Nike, which consisted of a £60m funding per year for years to come.
In Conclusion:
The fact that there are so many successful women in the sports industry proves that you can achieve greatness if you work hard enough.
But remember that to achieve your goals, you need to be in the right state of mind, which means that you need to relax from time to time to keep your sanity intact.
Do anything that makes you feel good, whether it is watching a movie or playing sports-related casino games, as long as you clear your mind and unwind at the end of a long day of hard work.