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The FIFA Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport is widely known for having a large number of its alumni in important positions in the sports industry - whether it is in international sports federations, the IOC, sports marketing agencies, clubs, leagues or other types of business. However, its alumni association also counts a number of entrepreneurs. One of the most successful of them is the Chinese Shoto Zhu, who attended the 2nd edition of the masters, in 2001/02.

 Shoto is the founder and president of Oceans Sports & Entertainment Inc, the first Chinese sports marketing agency traded in the stock exchange market. The company, with headquarters in Beijing and offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdou, also runs operations in Japan, Singapore and Switzerland and is rapidly growing. The agency specialises in sponsorship consultancy, media rights distribution, as well as events organisation. Recently the company distributed the media rights of the ATP Australian Open, AFC Asian Cup and AFC Champions League in China, among other things. It also organised the WTA Guangzhou Open, as well as pre-season tours for football clubs such as Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. 

 When asked what is it that differentiates his company from other reputable sports marketing agencies, Shoto explains: “The biggest difference is our positioning in China. There might be many international big agencies having business in China but we are perceived by the market to be the only Chinese agency who truly understands the global and local sports industry. We deliver international standard services to the Chinese rights holders, as well as build development platforms for global rights holders with our insights of Chinese market. That is believed to be one of the important reasons why the Chinese FA chose Oceans as its strategic and marketing consultant for next three years, after inviting all the big international agencies to participate in a tender process”.

 Before attending the FIFA Master, Shoto worked at the J.League (Japan Pro-football League) for about three and half years at the Strategic Planning Division, which mainly focused on the future success of the league and was involved in various areas of projects, from improving internal league regulations to establishing regional and international influence of the league. “I believe that experience gave me very important insights about how rights holders could face their challenges and then seek possible growth”, he says.

 Right after the masters, Shoto started working on projects in China, for FIFA Marketing, and then joined the Chinese FA. In 2006, about two years before the Beijing Olympic Games, opportunities for sport business in the country started to boom and that’s when he decided to invest in an entrepreneurial career. “I was able to offer the right skills - knowledge, international experience and rich network - at the right time”, he recollects.

 Today, as Shoto expands his business internationally, he continues to leverage on the FIFA Master alumni network. “On one hand, that helps me open doors and generate business opportunities. On the other hand, I count on it as a source of qualified workforce, as I also have hired alumni to work for Oceans”, he explains.

FMA Quarterly: What are your best memories from the FIFA Master?

Shoto Zhu: Hanging out with classmates, who had very different backgrounds, their own understandings of sports and very different career plans. I learnt a lot from the professors, but also as much from my classmates.

FMAQ: What is the main focus of Oceans Marketing?

SZ: Helping international and domestic rights holders to reach their commercial potential in Chinese market, through 360-degree marketing approaches and building up fanbase through new technology.

FMAQ How does the current situation of the financial market in China impacts your business?

SZ: China is evolving from a big manufactory country into a huge consuming market. For instance, Chinese movie box office revenues have been doubled in last two years and might surpass the North American's in another couple of years. Likewise, sport is the sector growing extremely fast recently, and the Chinese government is expecting the whole sports industry to reach the size of 5 trillion RMB yuan (about 800 billion US dollars) in the year of 2025. In other words, Chinese sport market might grow into the biggest in size within 10 years.

SHORT PROFILE:

Full name: Xiaodong Zhu, Chinese

Favourite sport: Swimming

Favourite team: FC Barcelona

Favourite sport personality: Saburo Kawabuchi, former Japanese football player and coach.

Favourite sporting moment: London 2012