Our professional services

With the Sports Professional in mind, our team offers a number of services which help athletes identify their unique characteristics and value, so that they can build an authentic brand which can be leveraged commercially. These services include:

• Business Plans helping athletes plan and organize their brand building and commercial activities to maximize revenues from the use of their image rights. Our reports usually include an analysis of the commercial potential of athletes in terms of their image and personal characteristics, as well as a recommendations in connection with suitable industries/brands which are in sync with and can benefit from the athlete’s individual characteristics. This is quite useful for the athlete because the recommended industries or brands can be approached for potential sponsorships, endorsements, merchandizing deals, ambassadorships, etc.
• Promotion Plans which direct athletes to the tools and platforms they can use to promote their sports brand as well as grow their outreach and fanbase. Our promotion plans usually build on the outcomes of the business plan to recommend an appropriate brand building/strengthening strategy along with suggestions in connection with the strategy implementation.
• Social Media Strategy as well as preparation of social media posting calendars to help athletes engage with their fanbase thus increasing their brand equity.
• Analysis of athlete-specific reputation risks and preparation of Reputation Management Plans for athletes.

The economic worth of a sports professional’s image is the basis of any commercialization activities connected with such image. The higher the value of the sports professional’s image, the higher the revenue associated with the particular image.
Attaching a monetary value to the Sports Professional’s image is not an easy task; it requires expert skill in evaluating intangibles along with knowledge of the Sports Industry and the factors attributable to the development of a sports person into a sports celebrity.

With our many years of experience in business valuations and our knowledge and expertise in the Sports industry, we have created the APC Brand Evaluator ®, a bespoke methodology which evaluates and measures the commercial value of the Sports Professional’s image. As a result, our sports professionals’ image valuation methodology, fulfils the specific needs of this exclusive niche, and it includes the following services:

• Ascertaining whether a particular sports professional has an image with commercial value using a bespoke valuation tool.
• Advise on the components of the value of the Sports Professional’s brand, as a tool for further enhancement/development of the brand and maximization of relevant profits.
• Valuation of the Sports Professional’s Image via use of the APC Brand Evaluator ®.
• Review of Sports Professionals’ image rights valuations performed by third parties to assess their validity and reasonableness.
• Expert witness services for disputed legal cases concerning the value attached to image rights, loss of value and loss of opportunity cost.

Our team of experts undertakes the evaluation of different types of investments in Image Rights of athletes. Our investment evaluation services include:

• Evaluation of alternative ways of investment in the sports image rights of athletes (i.e. direct or indirect shareholding, revenue participation rights, etc.) and preparation of a report with suggestions, tailored to the investors’ objectives and risk appetite.
• Identification and evaluation of risks connected with the investment in existing or prospective image rights arrangements. Presentation of various mitigating actions to the identified risks. Risks evaluated include Ownership and Exclusivity of Rights, Financial and Tax Risks, Legal Risks and Athlete-specific Risks.

It is becoming increasingly more important, from a tax point of view, to justify image rights arrangements before the relevant tax authorities of a number of countries.

In view of the prevailing tax climate, it is highly recommended that sports clubs establish internal policies which will dictate the framework within which the use of their players’ image rights will be conducted. These internal policies need to be standardized to provide a common set of principles applied to all players, as well as provide guidance on the minimum documentation required to be kept for each player with whom the club has an image-rights-use agreement in place.

Our team of experts, advises and assists sports clubs and sports organizations on establishing image rights policies and procedures, which will help them maintain control of the situation, as well as have a basis on which to discuss any issues raised by tax authorities. Our relevant services include:

• Advising sports clubs, sports organizations and sport governing bodies on the formulation and implementation of a strategic framework and policies, concerning the handling and utilization of the sports image rights of their players, members, etc.
• Assisting sports clubs in creating internal procedures and systems for the documentation and justification of image rights contracts with their players.
• Guiding sports clubs in adopting methodologies for preliminary assessments as to whether a particular player’s image has a commercial value or not.
• Annual review of the internal image rights documentation system of sports clubs to ensure adherence to the club’s internal policies and compliance with tax and other applicable legislation.

Our seminar topics address a variety of relevant issues and their aim is to educate and provide concrete information on the subject matter to sports professionals, sports agents, sports lawyers, tax advisors, and other interested sports executives, marketeers and sports stakeholders.

We also undertake, on an ad hoc basis, the design, preparation and delivery of bespoke image rights seminars which cater to the specific needs of particular audiences, such as sports agents, or sports club officials and employees and so forth.

Our standard seminars cover the following topics:

• The Sports Image Rights comprehensive seminar addresses the building of the sports brand, tax considerations, legal protection, commercialization and valuation of the sports celebrity image as well as the do’s and don’ts of image rights arrangements on the basis of past cases.
• Sports Professionals’ Image Rights Valuation: The main factors influencing the value of a sports professional’s brand and the most appropriate methodology for deriving such value.
• Sports Clubs’ Image Rights Policy formulation.
• Basic Image Rights/seminars for athletes on a number of  topics such as Reputation management issues, Commercial management of an athlete’s brand, Social Media Strategies, and a lot more.