Finding Sports Business Data
- StatistaCheck Statista for data, including powerpoint reports, charts, tables, and graphs
Statista has a wealth of interesting reports that might prove helpful for your topic. Try searching for your sports league, team, or star to see what types of data you can find and use in class. For example, see the search for Serena Williams below:
You should be able to open any of the links below. (Note that the charts, graphs, and infographics are downloadable and that there is also a cite button.)
- Mintel
Mintel is the world’s leading market intelligence agency. Use this resource to find analysis of consumers, markets, new products, and competitive landscapes in local and global economies. Includes full datasets as well as analysis and reports. An excellent resource for gathering information for a business plan. Accept the terms of service to access.
Once you've found data in Statista, take a moment to see if there is anything unique in the Mintel content that would be helpful. Search for general data on the type of sport that you are researching (or that your sports star comes from) and then limit to the region where they are active (see the screenshot below.)
You can also search for your sports star to see if they are mentioned by name in any of the other reports (as a brand ambassador), though many will not appear.
Finding Larger Sports Marketing Trends
- Business Source CompleteThis is a business database where you can find print articles on different sporting leagues and players.
Use Business Source Complete to find context for any data you've pulled from Statista. You can find academic and popular information on the different sports leagues, and in general, magazine and newspaper articles about sports celebrities. Make sure you select Full Text as an option if you want to see results immediately.
Want to see some sample searches? Take a look at the screenshots below. Here's a general search for athlete Patrick Mahomes limited to full text articles (see the yellow circle):
And here's a search for the WNBA and marketing or branding data (using the search terms branding or brand or marketing or market). Because this is a business database, I would try searching for an organization both with those keywords and without. If you are researching a sports star, you can also try this search to see what you might find.
And here's a search for the WNBA and scholarly articles.
Primary Sources: What Does Your Team/League/Star Say about Themselves?
Remember that you can also check the following sources for more information about your sports area or sport star's personal "brand" including the following:
- Social media accounts such as Instagram, X, Facebook, etc.
- Personal Websites: if your star has a personal website, what story are they telling about themselves through text, images, and video? What news articles have they linked to?
- Google News will tell you what type of stories are currently being published about your sports league/sports star
Cite
Need some help putting together citations? Check out the helpful links below:
Want software to create citations for you? Check out the database below:
- NoodleTools
NoodleTools allows you to find, organize and store your research citations all in one place. Create complete Works Cited and Bibliographies with the click of a mouse, and keep notes and ideas related to your work all in one place. Available in browser and mobile app.
Create an account with your COD email to access this resource.
