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Teaching Excellence Framework 2023 - Gold Award

BSc (Hons) Sport Business Management

Learn to succeed in the ever-expanding sport business. This course is for those who are passionate about sport and want to develop the management, business and leadership skills required for career success in sports-related businesses.

Crowd milling outside the Olympic Stadium in London

Develop your own network across a range of sports and business sectors

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Full-time Part-time


Entry requirements

Three A-levels at grades CCC or above

Or BTEC triple grades MMM or above

Or Access 23-45 D/M with min 6D

T level P (C+)

And GCSE English Language at grade 4 or grade C or above

Applicants with other qualifications and/or experience will be considered on an individual basis. A DBS check is required.


UCAS points 96

UCAS code SBM1

UCAS institution code P63

Duration Three years full-time or up to six years part-time

Any questions?

Contact Tara Godber, our Applicant Support Coordinator, if you have any questions. Email applicantsupport@marjon.ac.uk and Tara will get back to you.

Course Summary

The BSc (Hons) Sport Business Management at Plymouth Marjon University equips you with the knowledge, experience, and professional edge to thrive in the global sport industry. Endorsed by both CIMSPA and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), the programme blends business theory with real-world sport practice to develop the next generation of sport business leaders.

From day one, you’ll explore how sport operates as a business across public, private, and third-sector contexts. You’ll learn about sport leadership, marketing, operations, and finance, and apply these concepts in practical, industry-facing modules. Throughout, you’ll develop a strong foundation in business management while examining the socio-political, ethical, and cultural factors shaping sport today.

In your second year, you’ll deepen your expertise by delivering live sport events, managing budgets, and working directly with organisations through a dedicated work-based learning placement. You’ll study modules in People Management, Player Care, Sports Law, and Equity and Inclusion, helping you gain experience in both commercial and socially responsible aspects of sport. This year builds your professional confidence and gives you the opportunity to apply your learning in authentic environments.

Why this course at Marjon?

Industry-Endorsed by CIMSPA and CMI: Gain dual professional recognition at no extra cost, with qualifications endorsed by leading bodies in sport and management, giving you a competitive edge from day one

Real-World Experience from Year One: Apply your knowledge through live projects, sport event delivery, and hands-on placement opportunities with partners such as Plymouth Argyle Community Trust, Devon FA, and Challenger Sports in the USA.

Professional Practice Year Option: Take an extended year in industry to gain valuable work experience, grow your network, and graduate with real-world insight that employers value.

Innovative and Relevant Curriculum: Study modules that reflect the real demands of the sport industry, from player care and sport marketing to change management and global media, preparing you for modern leadership roles.

Small Class Sizes and Personalised Support: You’ll never be just a number. Learn in a supportive environment where your lecturers know your name, understand your goals, and help you develop personally and professionally.

Strong Career Prospects and Industry Links: Whether you want to run your own sport venture, manage a professional club, or lead a national programme, our curriculum and employer connections help turn your ambition into reality.

Modules for this course

Course Snapshot

"This course prepares students to lead and innovate in sport business. With real-world experience, industry connections, and a future-focused curriculum, we develop confident, adaptable graduates ready to manage people, projects, and performance in the sport industry, locally, nationally, and globally."
Lee Ballard - Programme Leader

1st Year

Starting Out in Sport Management
Explore the world of sport management while developing essential study skills, industry knowledge and career awareness through interactive tasks, guided reflection and real-world examples designed to support your personal and professional growth.
Digital Sport Marketing and Communication in Action
Explore how sport organisations connect with audiences through marketing and communication. Develop creative ideas, analyse market trends, and learn to present strategies that drive engagement in competitive sport environments.
Leading in Sport: Foundations of Influence and Change
Explore what makes great leaders in sport. This module introduces key leadership styles, change management strategies and real-world case studies to develop your confidence, adaptability and decision-making in sport business settings.
Sport, Society and Social Change
Explore how sport creates social impact in communities across the world. Examine real-world initiatives, develop leadership and teamwork skills, and learn how sport promotes inclusion, sustainability, and positive change.
Inside the Sport Industry: Systems, Power and Policy
Explore how sport is organised and delivered across sectors. Understand key policies, stakeholders and influences shaping the industry. Develop essential skills in communication, analysis and teamwork through applied learning activities.
Smart Finance: Building Business Skills in Sport
Explore how finance and accounting shape sport business success. Learn to interpret financial data, manage budgets, and apply practical tools to real-world scenarios in the dynamic sport industry.

2nd Year

Sport Event Design and Delivery
Gain hands-on experience planning, managing and delivering live sport events. Develop key skills in leadership, communication and teamwork while exploring the wider impact of events on communities and organisations.
Sport, Justice and Leadership: Law, Equity and Inclusion in Action
Explore how law, ethics and leadership shape inclusive sport environments. Examine legal frameworks, social justice, and governance while developing skills to lead change and promote equity across the sport industry.
Sport Finance in Action: Budget, Tools and Strategy
Explore how financial decisions shape sport organisations. Learn to analyse budgets, interpret financial reports and apply tools that support effective financial planning, strategic thinking and decision-making in sport business.
Professional Practice and Industry Experience
Gain real-world experience through a professional placement, applying your knowledge in a live setting while developing key industry skills, reflecting on practice, and building your confidence for future employment.
Managing People and Teams in Sport
Explore how effective people and team management drives success in sport business. Develop leadership skills, understand HR strategies, and apply real-world insights to manage performance, culture, and workplace dynamics.
Building Your Professional Brand
Develop your professional identity by exploring branding, marketing, and digital presence. This module equips you with the skills to create a personal brand that stands out in the competitive sport industry.

3rd Year

Managing Events: From Concepts to Delivery
Develop the skills to lead, plan and evaluate real sport and event projects. Gain hands-on experience managing volunteers, coordinating logistics and presenting outcomes to stakeholders in professional and applied settings.
Sport Marketing and Fan Engagement
Develop the skills to design impactful marketing strategies for sport organisations. Explore branding, digital campaigns, and audience engagement while applying data insights to real-world challenges in sport business.
Innovating in Sport: Social Enterprise in Action
Explore how sport can drive social change by developing your own enterprise project. This module blends innovation, business strategy and real-world application to create impactful solutions in sport communities.
Insight to Impact: Applied Research in Sport
Design and deliver an applied research project that tackles real-world challenges in sport. Develop critical thinking, research skills and professional insight while creating meaningful impact in your chosen area.
Transforming Sport Organisations
Explore how to lead and manage change in sport organisations through real-world case studies, strategic planning, and leadership models that prepare you to navigate complexity and drive innovation.
Building Sport Ventures: Enterprise and Strategy
Develop your entrepreneurial mindset by exploring innovation and enterprise in the sport industry. Design and pitch your own business venture using strategic, financial and creative tools for commercial success.

Current students say...


Rhys Roffey

"My course has encouraged me to start my own business and take a lunge into the reality of sports business. I have gained useful academic knowledge, alongside useful tools and experience that have allowed me to develop myself professionally. I have enjoyed being able to a learn and develop as a person, whilst in a professional environment, with students and lecturers who I have been able to build working relationships with."


Jasmine Read

"I really enjoy the broad range of topics and modules we cover. There’s an insight into the sports industry and organisations within it, we look at specific business content such as finance and people management, and link them together to investigate the business side of sport. Personally, the course and the staff members have been accommodating with my commitments to Plymouth Argyle as I am the goalkeeper for the women’s team."


Ryan Jordan

"I enjoy the wide variety of modules taught that encompasses the business management side of the degree and the sports side. This mixture makes the course enjoyable and interesting learning new things and improving my knowledge. While completing my studies I have also completed a personal training qualification. The mixture of knowledge from this course allowed me to accompany my personal training qualification and get me a job in the sector I wanted to go into."

This course is perfect if you’re curious about

How sport organisations make strategic decisions and drive commercial success

What it takes to lead people, manage events, and grow sport businesses

Whether sport should prioritise profit, participation, or social good

How to market sport in a digital, fan-driven world

The role of leadership, ethics, and inclusion in the future of sport

How to build a career managing clubs, leagues, and sport enterprises

What might you become?

Graduates of this programme go on to exciting careers in sport business and beyond. You could become a:

  • Sport Development Manager
  • Events and Operations Manager
  • Marketing and Communications Officer
  • Business Development Executive
  • Partnership or Commercial Manager
  • Club or League Administrator
  • Entrepreneur in sport or fitness ventures

 

Our graduates are equipped to lead projects, manage people, and drive innovation in sport organisations at all levels, from grassroots to global. Many also progress into postgraduate study or specialised training in areas like sport policy, business analytics, or leadership.

In association with:

CIMSPA Education Partner logo 2024

Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport & Physical Activity (CIMSPA)

CIMSPA have certified that this course meets the professional standards set by employers in the physical activity and fitness sector.

CMI

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

CMI is the leading body in the UK for leadership and management. You'll earn their Level 5 qualification in Management and Leadership alongside your degree, at no extra cost to you and requiring no additional assessments.


How you’ll be taught and assessed?

How will you be taught?

You’ll learn through a mix of interactive lectures, seminars, practical workshops, and real-world projects. Teaching is hands-on and collaborative, with opportunities to work on live briefs, deliver events, and engage directly with sport industry partners. You’ll also benefit from small class sizes and 1:1 academic support throughout your degree.

How will you be assessed?

There are no traditional exams. Instead, you’ll be assessed through coursework designed to reflect real sport business tasks, such as reports, marketing plans, pitches, portfolios, and project work. You’ll also complete reflective essays and group presentations, helping you build the professional skills that employers look for.

Generic Staff Image

Lee Ballard

Course leader

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Lee is as a Senior Lecturer and experienced Coach Developer. He has a wealth of experience in coach education, delivering on the FA Introduction to Coaching Football, UEFA C, UEFA B and National GK Coaching Courses, and supporting high-performance coaches with UK Coaching. Lee has coached in a variety of grassroots and performance settings, including at Bristol City FC Academy, with the FA Women's Talent Programme, and in Disability Talent Hubs. Lee has also been a Non-Executive Director in Regional Governing Bodies and therefore has an excellent understanding of the UK sport sector.


Fees and funding

Fees UK students: £9,535 per annum


Fees for International students: £14,600 per annum


This fee covers your tuition and access to course-specific equipment and facilities, as well associated services including access to the library, study skills support, IT support, student support and wellbeing services and membership of the Student Union. There may be additional costs by course.

Additional costs:

  • A DBS check
  • Marjon sports kit

Funding available for this course

Our Student Funding Advisors offer confidential and impartial advice about your funding options.

Student funding advice

Lecturers

Lee Ballard

Senior Lecturer of Sport Coaching and Development

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Lee is an experienced Sports Coaching lecturer who has worked in Higher and Further Education. Lee also works for the FA as a coach developer across their coach education programmes and a coach at the Women's High Performance Centre. Lee is a Director at the Somerset FA and the Chairperson of their Inclusion Advisory Group. Lee is a Talent Reporter for the FA's England Girls programme and an Associate Coach Developer for UK Coaching. Lee is also undertaking a Doctorate programme through Loughborough University aiming to reposition the role of Coach Developer towards Learning Designer. Lee is also a Co-Convenor of our CAPE Research and Knowledge Exchange Group. 

Dr Phil Brown

Associate Dean (Student Success)

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Benjamin Moreland

Lecturer

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Ryan Thomas

Senior Lecturer

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Dr Laura Wallis

Marjon Business Lead

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Laura’s academic background is in business and management. She is researcher and her PhD focuses on the phenomena of lifestyle entrepreneurship and lifestyle sports.

Dr Andreas Walmsley

Associate Professor

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Andreas teaches and researches with a particular emphasis on enterprise, entrepreneurship and workforce issues in the service industries. He has worked on consultancy projects for both public and private sectors including the International Labour Office, Enterprise Educators UK, International Finance Corporation and the Higher Education Academy. Andreas is co-editor research for the journal Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy and is founding member of the Tourism Workforce research group at the Icelandic Tourism Research Centre and Research Fellow at Neapolis University Pafos.

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