Rick Horrow, known as “The Sports Professor,” is the world’s leading voice on the business of sports. He translates decades of experience advising leagues, franchises, and Fortune 500 companies into entertaining, actionable insights that help organizations build loyalty, embrace disruption, and compete to win in fast-changing markets.
Rick Horrow is widely recognized as the world’s leading “sports business professor”: the man who has spent decades at the intersection of sports, media, and commerce, distilling the biggest deals and most disruptive innovations into powerful lessons for business leaders everywhere. Known as “The Sports Professor” for his pioneering work advising leagues, franchises, Fortune 500 companies, and governments on billion-dollar deals, Horrow brings a rare vantage point into how competition, strategy, and brand-building in sports translate directly into success in the corporate world.
A master storyteller, Horrow makes the boardroom come alive with insights from the stadium. He has worked on projects that shaped the global sports industry: structuring the financing behind arenas and events, negotiating game-changing media rights deals, and advising on strategies that have redefined how organizations grow and thrive. Now he turns those experiences into actionable takeaways for any organization seeking growth and innovation.
For today’s leaders, sports are more than entertainment; it is a blueprint for how to drive culture, embrace disruption, and compete in fast-changing markets. Rick Horrow helps executives see around corners, revealing how the strategies used to captivate fans, build loyalty, and generate billions in revenue can be applied across industries.
Audiences leave his sessions entertained, inspired, and armed with concrete strategies they can immediately apply to their own challenges. Groups across industries value his ability to connect with diverse audiences and appreciate the sharp insights that speak directly to the pressures of leading and excelling in high-stakes environments. With Rick Horrow, audiences are not just engaged; they are better prepared to win.
Business Principle 1: Building Your Business Empire: The Crucial First Step
Elevate Your Group’s Success with The Sports Professor Rick Horrow!
Rick Horrow at the Bob Graham Center
Business Principle 10: The Power of Listening
Business Principle 9: EMBRACE SELLING
Business Principle 8: How to create a path to success?
Business Principle 7: How do businesses build passion in their team?
Business Principle 6: Always Be in Forward Motion
Business Principle 5: The game-changing trait for leaders
Business Principle 4: Finesse The Powerful ego
Business Principle 3: Embracing Mistakes for Success
Business Principle 2: The Must-Have Quality You Can’t Ignore
Business Principle 1: Building Your Business Empire: The Crucial First Step
Rick Horrow’s Speech Topics
Technology at the Center: How Sports is Leading the Way in Serving Customers
From real-time data to personalized experiences, sports organizations are on the cutting edge of using technology to understand and serve their customers. Horrow reveals how innovations such as wearable tech, digital ticketing, AI-driven fan engagement, and immersive media can be applied to business leaders in every industry seeking stronger connections with their customers.
The Business of Winning: What Companies Can Learn from Sports’ Biggest Deals
Drawing from decades of shaping billion-dollar negotiations in sports, Rick Horrow reveals how the strategies behind the most successful leagues, franchises, and media deals can be applied to the corporate world. Attendees gain fresh insights into decision-making, risk management, and value creation in high-stakes environments.
Fan Engagement = Customer Loyalty: Lessons from the World’s Greatest Brands
Sports are built on passion and loyalty. In this talk, Horrow shows how the techniques used to attract, engage, and retain fans translate directly into building stronger customer relationships. From digital innovation to brand storytelling, executives learn how to turn audiences into communities that drive long-term growth.
The Future of Business Through the Lens of Sports and Media
Sports have always been a laboratory for innovation: from streaming and sports betting to immersive fan experiences. Horrow takes audiences behind the scenes of the latest trends and connects them to the disruptions every industry will face. The result is a playbook for staying competitive in a rapidly changing world.