Soccerex USA
Last week our Founder Louis Saha and COO Kate Hamer attended Soccerex USA in Miami. It was great to attend this growing event in the run up to the FIFA World Cup in the USA in 2026. Slightly bizarre to be walking around stands on a baseball pitch with the stadium roof closed but a brilliant use of space at Marlins Park!
The conference is attended by a whole host of individuals and companies from within the football industry. We were there primarily to hear about developments in the sponsorship and commercial sides of the game. With over 3bn people interested in football around the globe, we know that there are huge opportunities for both clubs and individual players. At AxisStars we strive to connect the brands who want to communicate about their products and services with this football audience, to the Stars who already have a significant following of these consumers. The sessions we attended further proved our insight that individual players’ social media accounts are often more powerful than those of the teams they play for. This can be seen by the impact that Ronaldo’s transfer from Real Madrid to Juventus had on their respective followings.
We also were able to catch up with some of our existing partners such as AFDP Global who are making great moves to transform communities through football all around the world and The Football Business Academy who are working to ensure that the next generation of people in the business side of the industry are well equipped to succeed in the commercial aspects of the game.
There was a familiar face on the final panel session of the conference when Louis joined Landon Donovan, Juan Sebastián Véron and Luis Hernandez to talk about the life of a pro player after they have hung up their boots. It was interesting to see the different directions the 4 players have taken and was yet another illustration of just how important it is for players to have the right support and advisors around them to ensure that they can make a smooth transition from the pitch to whatever they choose to do next.
After a few days of inspirational talks, meetings with new and existing Partners and enthusiastic discussions with Stars themselves, we are even more excited for the launch of the new and improved app early in 2019!