There is, from the outside, very little crossover between the worlds of soccer and boxing. In the UK, while both sports capture the public imagination, outside of niche influencer-led boxing events in which former players pick up the gloves for the occasional exhibition, there is little in the way of meeting between the two.
That does not, however, mean that lessons cannot be learned. On the commercial side, there exist plenty of strategic concepts that can be applied to both sports. From the art of promoting major events to securing sponsors and representing high-profile clients in contractual negotiations, there are many transferable skills between the two. This is something that Ben Shalom is seeking to illustrate.
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Shalom became the UK’s youngest-ever licensed boxing promoter in 2018, aged just 23, and since then has grown his Boxxer business into a prominent UK-focused promotion with a stable that includes names like Chris Eubank Jr., Adam Azim, Lauren Price, Jeamie TKV, and Richard Riakhpore.
He is now seeking to leverage his experience in this regard, partnering with experienced agent Danny Knowles, in co-founding Nxxt Play, a new soccer-focused talent representation business. Nxxt Play has already secured its first five clients, a list that includes budding youth talents Cameron Byrne-Hughes and Matteo Dashi of English Premier League sides Manchester United and Crystal Palace, respectively. Much like Boxxer, the focus is on young emerging talent from the UK who have high growth potential and commercial viability.
Knowles, formerly of agency OmniSports, brings years of experience in the field as a FIFA-licensed agent, that agency having represented former and current international stars such as Antonio Valencia, Joe Hart, Chris Smalling, and Adam Wharton. He will effectively run the talent management side of the business, including making decisions on client acquisition, while Shalom will draw on his company management experience from Boxxer to operate the business side of the agency.
Their aim is to provide a service that ensures clients won’t have to sacrifice scale for a personal touch, a factor that they claim services a gap in the representation business. Now, speaking to Sportcal (GlobalData Sport), both Shalom and Knowles discuss their aims for Nxxt Play, and how they can leverage each other’s experience in the field to maximize client value.
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By GlobalDataFrom your start in boxing, why was soccer the right sport to move into?
Shalom: “It's something we were looking at for a long time. I think it's a natural progression. Boxing is obviously a tough sport, but a sport that involves so much more than just providing the opportunities inside the ring. It's a unique sport in the sense that profile and commercial success sometimes matter even more than how good you are as a boxer. And so, building a boxing business has meant focusing on the broadcasting world, the sponsorship world, the promotional side, the digital side, taking athletes into extremely high-pressure, high-stakes environments from a very, very young age, and bringing them through to becoming household names.
"When I look at football and the profile, demographic, and background of a lot of these players now coming through, it's the same challenges in perhaps an even more cutthroat industry.
“That experience in boxing is quite an easy transition for us into football, and at a time when the industry is changing a lot. Stellar exited to CAA, and Wasserman is going through a transition. There's a huge opportunity, similar to how I came into boxing, to focus on the grassroots, to focus on the supremely talented players of the next generation that are coming through, and offering them a different service that focuses on their brand, on the commercial opportunities outside of sport, on, whilst also looking after them from a mental health point of view.
"Sport is a small ecosystem. It's all connected. And there's a huge opportunity in sport in general at the moment, and football is definitely a natural next step.”
What are the big differences you will have to reckon with between the sports?
Shalom: “I have been a promoter in boxing for a long time – really, we are almost more akin to a football club. We're the ones providing the opportunities. We're not agents, we're not managers, we have to pay the salaries of the boxers, we organize the events and organize their place of work. Meanwhile, in football representation, you sit on the other side of the fence, so there's definitely a difference in that aspect, but I think being a promoter of boxers is so all-encompassing that, from a football perspective, we will be focused much more narrowly.
“Boxing is an extremely brutal sport. It’s a sport that is extremely unforgiving, not just mentally, but physically as well. And so I think dealing with one of the most brutal sports in the world gives us a unique insight to bring to football in in a space that perhaps isn't as a isn't as life and death.”
What sort of approach do you plan to bring to your clients going forward?
Knowles: “I think every player is different, and every player has positive elements and negative ones. Some are naturally confident and can express themselves in certain ways, others can't. It has to be tailored to the individual. In football, it's not the footballer, it's the whole package. The footballer is just one part of the picture. Where is he at in his career? What's he gone through previously? Where does he want to get to? The support system around him is huge.
“It is really not one size fits all, which [is an approach that] a lot of agencies do have sometimes. For us to be able to put that emphasis and personal touch, you need to understand the person. We absolutely have to tailor it to the individual.”
One point that you have focused on is aiding off-the-pitch entrepreneurial growth for players. What does that mean to you?
Knowles: “I do believe that boxing promoters are ahead of the curve with regards to brand development, and maybe we can bring that into football. The names people know, the personalities, and the value that a brand, image, and reputation can really add value to the individual. Seeing how Ben has managed to grow boxers into not only the world-class athletes that they are, but the stories that people really do buy into, was attractive, because I think that is a gap where there's still so much opportunity for footballers. Their global reach already is so high that this needs to be taken care of. This needs to be maximized.
“The infrastructure, the network, the reputation, and the resources that Ben can bring is something that really can help, hopefully separate us and give us that extra, extra tool to really enhance these players off the pitch.”
What themes do you see coming from the sponsorship inventory?
Shalom: “In my time in boxing, I’ve seen how athletes are becoming brands in themselves, becoming businesses in themselves, and brands are recognizing that. The forthcoming end of front-of-shirt gambling partners [in English soccer] is actually having a great impact on the boxing promotional business, because it's become one of the final front and center spots that gambling partners can take.
“I've seen from an athlete's point of view, across all sports, the athletes that go on to have major careers are the ones that recognize the power of their brand and the power of their platform. There are plenty of athletes that I know whose earnings outside of the ring or off the pitch far exceed what they earn for doing their sport, and that's something that I think has been underutilized in football. I think a lot of the traditional agents have focused on very important football contracts that they're doing with the clubs, but are not as focused and well-rounded on the commercial opportunities that lie outside of that. Sponsorship and brands are a huge part of that, and will lead to further business opportunities after [players’] careers as well.”
What are your goals then in these early stages?
Shalom: “Our first target in the first couple of years will be to find 10 to 15 players, ideally under the age of 23 or 24, that we really believe and that we really believe are going to go to the top of the sport. Very ambitious individuals who want to create legacies. Rather than looking at the revenue in the short term, I think for us it's the quality of players and the individuals that we can start to work with and allow them to achieve their potential.”
Knowles: “With regards to our target market, it’s quite evident. And we're not going to shy away or hide from that. We’re young ourselves, so we're excited. We want to keep pushing. We want to work with a player for the next 10 to 15 years and beyond. We've got big plans.
"We've touched on a few elements already, but football is constantly evolving and [so are] the opportunities that come with it. If you look at the best agents, their job is essentially to build a real self-regulating team around that individual, including their support mechanisms, the families, friends, and loved ones. You need everyone singing off the same hymn sheet.
"Everyone [should] want the same, which is for the player to succeed. It's something that, teaming up with Ben, I think gives us a really unique opportunity. Firstly, we've got five fantastic players that we're really delighted to be working with and have incredibly high hopes for already. If we can add 10 to 15 and really focus on that select bunch, it's going to be a really exciting time."
