If you love sports and working directly with people, you may be interested in a career as a professional sports agent. Professional sports agents usually start their careers with agencies and have tremendous opportunities in the sports arena.

What Is a Professional Sports Agent?

A professional sports agent is responsible for building the image of their sports star, representing them appropriately and ensuring that they get everything they need. Like a talent scout, a sports agent will often need to find new recruits and teach them everything they personally need to know about the industry. A professional sports agent will often be on call 24 hours a day for their clients. Some agents will work very closely with one or a few clients while others will have multiple clients under their wing.

A professional sports agent is required to be extremely personable and have very well-developed connections. Building a reputation within the industry often takes many years, and an agent needs to be extraordinarily dedicated to their craft if they want to succeed. Sports agents are required to be very talented and be very connected to their work.

What Does a Professional Sports Agent Do?

Professional sports agents that work for sports agencies will usually be assigned clients but they may be asked to recruit them on their own. A sports agent will meet with their client on a regular basis and will control their promotions. Sports agents need to be available to their clients through phone, email and other access points at all times. A sports agent will usually be highly involved in their client’s lives and will often need to manage their image.

Sports agents negotiate contracts for their clients, and because of this the sports agent needs to be very well connected in the sports industry and needs to be aware of the current standards. Many sports agents will do tremendous amounts of research and will need to follow insider tips regarding the contract deals that other agents have made. The profession is extremely time-consuming but it is also flexible and unique. Most agents will not be required to work a specific work day but instead will be on call as needed. The best sports agents will make significant amounts of money.

How Do You Become a Professional Sports Agent?

A professional sports agent may begin their career as a talent scout or coach. Talent scouts, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, have much faster than average job growth and thus could be a field easily broken into. Professional sports agents usually have a degree in public relations or communications, but occasionally they may also have a degree associated with coaching or sports. Regardless, a professional agent usually does have at least a Bachelor’s Degree before they enter into the field.

Becoming a professional sports agent usually depends on being hired for the position by an agency. A professional sports agent will need to show tremendous social acumen and the ability to sell themselves within their presentations. They should also be extremely knowledgeable about sports contracts and the legal aspect of these contracts. According to O*Net Online, individuals interested in this field usually need to have at least a few years of experience within the industry.

How Do You Advance as a Professional Sports Agent?

Advancement as a professional sports agent is a matter of developing a reputation and acquiring progressively higher profile clients. A professional sports agent can progress if they can show that they can get their clients the best deals within the industry. This requires significant amounts of networking, diligence and the ability to sell a person as a product.