Working in sports is often seen as pretty glamorous. The access to sporting superstars, travel, huge venues and a global audience make a carer in professional sports hugely attractive.
It isn’t all glamour though, particularly if you are looking to become part of the sports media community.
Getting that foot in the door, becoming accredited and getting the big gigs are all highly competitive, and where do you start?
Oli Harris wants you to start with The Sporting Blog.
In 2017, Oli was daydreaming about working in professional sports, having played tennis, cricket and other racket sports at a decent level his whole life, could he make a career out of the games he loved?
The answer is, still, maybe.
Sports Media
The sports media world is a complicated place, no longer the domain of solely newspapers and television.
In recent years the growth of streaming platforms, social media, OTT channels, influencers and UGC has seen the media landscape change dramatically.
It is easier than ever to get into creating content, but perhaps harder than ever to stand out from the crowd.
One format that is extremely hard to stand out in is the written word.
You may be the best sporting wordsmith out there, but how is anyone going to find you? Who will read your article in a world full of 10-second videos?
This is why Oli launched The Sporting Blog and its ethos of publishing things that people are looking to read. It now has over 300k readers per month and a growing YouTube channel with over 400k views in the last 3 months.
Search Driven Sports Content
Oli’s approach was not how it started in 2017. Following 3 years of experimenting, he realized that his writing and that of others were not being seen by enough people.
The vagaries of social media mean that you may or may not see what was posted that day, and it’s more likely to be ‘not’.
So Oli decided to focus on making content that was what people were looking for via search engines and forums. But what were people looking for?
Who were the greatest NBA players of all time?
What are the most popular sports in the world?
These sorts of searches happen every day, and people are looking for informed opinions as well as statistical facts.
Why Search?
When watching a big game, an audience is often served with the usual cliches.
“He’s one of the greatest left footers of all time”
“You will not see a better serve than that”
“A final we will never forget”
All of these are the commentator’s or pundits’ opinions, but they provoke debate. Watchers often use their devices to search for who was indeed ‘the greatest left footer’ of all time.
They then like to see how accurate writers’ opinions are and get involved in debate, share articles, comment online, etc. This is how great debates continue and never get settled!
A Space for Young Writers
The Sporting Blog is a place set up for people of all levels of skill and writing ability to create content, but with the caveat that it has search intent or will fulfill a viral role on social media.
Oli committed to paying every writer, from his own pocket, and has so far invested £30,000 in his own money paying writers.
The idea however is that over time that money is made back via the site getting revenue from readers’ eyeballs.
“Overheads are not low. It is expensive to pay people for written content, and much of it doesn’t win the SERP battle due to competition from big guns like ESPN and BBC. But we must try. There has to be a platform for young and aspiring writers to get coverage and also receive constructive criticism”
Is this the smartest way to start a media company?
Maybe not, says Harris, but he is determined to challenge the norm.
“We’ve launched a YouTube channel, we have a sports podcast, and we will likely move into short-form video as well, but you can’t do it all at once. We need to build the platform with aspiring writers, sprinkle in some magic from seasoned pro’s and build year on year”
With over 2 million new readers already in 2023, who’s to say he won’t build the next ESPN?
