Top 14 Sport Talent Management Agencies for 2024

1. Viral Nation

Location: United States, Canada

Notable Sports Clients: Harlem Globetrotters, Anthony Hamilton Jr.

Year Founded: 2014

In addition to influencer marketing, Viral Nation also offers athletes and sports marketing as part of their services, which include partnerships, marketing, and media for athletes and brands.

The agency launched its sports division, VN Sports, in 2021, following a resolution by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to help college athletes find opportunities like brand partnerships and endorsement deals. In 2023, the agency signed a number of popular sports figures, including MaxisNicee, IN THE LAB, Aya Bloomfield, and Christ Staples.

Jonathan Chanti, President of Viral Nation Talent, said that their agency is proud to work with athletes who have created a loyal following for themselves on social media through their creativity and passion. He further said that Viral Nation looks forward to partnering with athletes to grow their brand and help them achieve their goals both on and off the field.

The agency is adept at providing 360 representation for sports talent, from content creation to brand partnerships, and has a track record of securing lucrative deals for their clients. Viral Nation has a 360-monetization engine, which blends content creation, talent management, and influencer marketing to foster success for its clients.

The services Viral Nation offers under this umbrella are inbox management, brand deals, content strategy framework, content syndication, platform diversification, OTT & licensing, podcasting, merchandising ventures, and payment support.

Plus, the agency has an in-house PR team that helps amplify the sports creators’ visibility. So they do not have to hire a publicist or a PR agency. Instead, Viral Nation puts its sports talent in front of publications, guest appearances, awards, and hosting.

Brand partnerships are led by Mike Lecce, under the leadership of Viral Nation’s Jonathan Chanti (Chief Growth Officer), who has represented pro athletes, such as Alex Bregman and Jose Bautista, for over 10 years, while talent relations are overseen by Alonzo “Roxx” Thornhill, who has worked with professional athletes and celebrities like Drake and Stephen Curry.

Whether you’re currently only an amateur or already an Olympian, their exclusive roster has sports stars with actively engaged followers on all social media platforms.

Key services include:

• Professional representation
• Full-service production
• Legal and compliance
• Events
• Publicity
• Deals and endorsements
• Content creation and licensing
• Merchandising
• Memorabilia

Viral Nation Client Success

Viral Nation has scored big clients for a lot of its sports creators, including Dalton Chandler and Priyanka Naik. In these collaborations, Viral Nation acts as an intermediary between brands and creators, handling all negotiations, contracts, and content approvals. Creators can then focus on their craft while Viral Nation handles the business side of things.

For example, Chegg, a leading education technology company, partnered with Viral Nation to connect with college and university students through influencer marketing campaigns. Viral Nation found Dalton Chandler, a University of Washington student baseball player and influencer, to be the best fit for the brand.

@dalton.chandlerr Use the link in my bio to subscribe to @Chegg for study help you can rely on no matter where you are in life. #CheggOnTheGo #Chegg #cheggpartner ♬ original sound – Dalton Chandler

Strategic Approach

Here’s how Viral Nation assisted Dalton Chandler in this campaign:

• Identified him as the right fit for Chegg’s target audience
• Provided guidance for the content creation process
• Managed all negotiations and contracts with Chegg on his behalf
• Ensured that all content created by Chandler was aligned with Chegg’s brand guidelines

As a result, the video Chandler produced for Chegg got nearly 350k likes on TikTok and millions of views. It was also saved by over 8,000 viewers and shared by another 1,600.

2. NeoReach

Location: San Francisco, California

Notable Sports Clients: DraftKings, FIFA World Cup 2022

Year Founded: 2014

NeoReach Agency is an influencer marketing software trusted by Fortune 500 companies. It features a rich pool of influencers across social platforms in just about every niche. For sports brands and personalities aspiring to expand their reach and engage more audiences, NeoReach Agency is an excellent choice.

NeoReach’s talent management wing not only takes over the athletes’ inboxes but also handles their contracts and deal negotiations meticulously. In doing so, the agency ensures its clients get the most out of every brand deal or opportunity. Since NeoReach stays on top of all sports events and championships, they excel at positioning their sports talent in the right place at the right time. 

The agency’s experts also act as reliable advocates for sports influencers, guiding them through the content creation process and advising them on maximizing their earning potential. NeoReach believes in holistic growth for its clients, which means that their focus is not just on social media.

They also secure opportunities in other areas like speaking engagements, traditional media appearances, product launches, and merchandise. The agency also provides resources to athletes for entrepreneurship and personal branding, as their ultimate goal is to create a multi-faceted career for their clients.

For beginners, the agency offers internships. High school or college athletes can enroll in their internships to get hands-on experience in influencer marketing. 

NeoReach’s proprietary influencer identification platform allows brands to collaborate with over 5 million influencers, many of which are in the sports industry. Some of the sports in which the agency manages talent are fishing, running, martial arts, rugby, sailing, hockey, shooting, football, figure skating, bowling, and bicycling.

Key services include:

• Paid media advertising
• Influencer marketing logistics
• Marketing campaign optimization
• Experiential influencer campaign activations

NeoReach Client Success

DraftKings, a sports betting platform that covers multiple leagues in the US, wanted to expand its presence to TikTok, as that’s where most young sports fans spend their time. The brand wanted to increase its follower count and attract new audiences. Not only that, DraftKings also wanted to create an influencer base with whom they could keep collaborating in the future.

NeoReach dove into its roster of sports talent and found 50 influencers across TikTok to create content for the brand at the beginning of the NFL season.

DraftKings case study

Strategic Approach

Here’s how NeoReach created a connection between the sports talent in its network and the brand:

• Identified sports influencers who had more than 80% of their audience in the brand’s target market
• Created a hashtag campaign, #MakeItReign, in which influencers created their own touchdown dances and encouraged followers to do the same
• Used an original song as the background sound for this dance campaign
• Gathered organic fan content to increase DraftKings’ brand awareness.

The campaign increased the brand’s TikTok following by more than 30,000 followers. They also garnered 10.9 million views for the hashtag campaign and earned $459k in influencer media value. 

3. Moburst

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices in New York, San Francisco, and London

Notable Sports Clients: Titanbet

Year Founded: 2013

With a number of offices across the globe, Moburst is one of the leading names in marketing, specifically influencer marketing. They’ve worked with a number of leading brands, including Samsung, Discovery, Reddit, and Uber. In addition to having gained the trust of leading brands, they’ve also built strong relationships with talent from all over the world.

Moburst assists sports talent by connecting them with brands that need their influence to target specific audiences. Since Moburst specializes in most aspects of digital marketing, including social media content creation and optimization, they can further be at their sports clients’ side throughout the brand collaboration process.

They also have a history of working with online game developers and platforms, such as PlugSports. So, you can expect them to bring the same kind of edge and experience when it comes to marketing your sports career.

The talent management agency has a four-step approach, which begins with defining the brand’s goals for the campaign. Then, Moburst conducts research to determine which of its sports talents will be the best fit for the brand. The next step is recruitment, during which Moburst handles the negotiations and contract discussions on behalf of both the sports talent and the brands.

The last step is content creation. Here, Moburst works hand in hand with both the brand and the sports talent to create content that checks all the boxes for the client’s campaign objectives.

Key services include:

• Marketing strategy
• Creative and content
• Media buying
• Digital transformation

Moburst Client Success

Moburst advertises itself as a mobile-first marketing agency, which means it focuses on mobile platforms and apps. So, the agency has a track record of partnering sports talent with such developers. One of these examples comes from PlugSports, a recruitment app for student-athletes.

When PlugSports came to Moburst, their objective was to increase installs and sign-ups for their app. They wanted to do this without spending too much money; the budget was around $60k.

Moburst realized that meeting the client’s goal would be possible through influencer marketing, but they’d have to be strategic. The agency identified 14 post-high school athletes cum influencers who could highlight the inequality in the recruitment process.

Strategic Approach

Moburst’s strategy was to present PlugSports as an excellent option for high school students who were interested in pursuing sports at college. To ensure a balanced perspective and show the app’s versatile use, the agency worked with both male and female influencers. Here’s how the strategy worked:

• Collaborated with 14 influencers to create videos highlighting sports recruitment inequality and presenting PlugSports as a solution
• Ran TikTok Spark ads on content that did well
• Created humorous content to engage the audience and create awareness
• Posted content at optimal times so that it reaches the target audience at peak usage

The result? PlugSports got 5,400 sign-ups at an 85% lower cost per install (CPI).

4. Creative Artists Agency (CAA)

Location: Los Angeles, California, with offices across the US and in London, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Stockholm, Munich, and Geneva

Notable Sports Clients: JJ Watt and Reebok, PokerStars: Breakfast with Dwyane Wade and Cristiano Ronaldo, Derrick Henry and Nissan Heisman House

Year Founded: 1975

Founded in 1975, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is one of the oldest sport talent management agencies. In fact, according to their website, they were the first talent agency to create a sports business.

They help to create infinite first-class opportunities for athletes, coaches, teams, leagues, and thousands of other leading trendsetters who help to shape pop culture. One thing that deserves special mention is their collaborative approach. All their clients are represented by the entire agency. This makes it easier for sport talent to build their brand and career across various platforms and disciplines.

Some of the sports the agency represents are baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. Besides partnering their talent with the right brand opportunities, the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) also provides expert coaching. They help talent book live events and find opportunities for sports endorsements to diversify their earning avenues.

Inclusion is also at the heart of how they operate. Not only do they improve the diversity of their own talent roster and team members, but they also advocate with marketplace buyers for sports talent from historically underrepresented groups.

It is due to this commitment to diversity and expertise in sports talent management that CAA has been named as Forbes Most Valuable Sports Agency 9 times.

In 2022, Forbes reported that the agency brought in athlete contracts worth approximately $14.01 billion in playing contracts and $3.76 billion in non-playing deals like sponsorships. This brings CAA’s total athlete contracts to approximately $17.8 billion.

Furthermore, CAA’s Sports Endorsements include working with big names like Dwyane Wade and Cristiano Ronaldo for PokerStars: Breakfast and football star Derrick Henry for a Nissan Heisman House commercial.

In 2024, CAA Sports dominated the first round of NFL drafts and set a record for the highest number of athlete picks (12) from a single agency. The agency is just as much a success in basketball, where they have negotiated over $1.8 billion in 2024, which is almost double that of any other agency.

Key services include:

• Draft preparation
• Contract negotiation
• Endorsements
• Broadcasting
• Philanthropy

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) Client Success

Part of the reason Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is among the top sports marketing agencies is that they work with some of the best and most well-known names in every game. For example, the agency ran a campaign for PokerStars, an online poker platform, with Christiano Ronaldo and Dwayne Wade.

PokerStars reached out to CAA because the brand wanted to expand its reach. CAA did just that for them.

Did I make it @Cristiano? I wasn’t looking. #raiseit, my friend. https://t.co/xsfV0tYiBs #spon #ad pic.twitter.com/rWHhVCzCcy

— DWade (@DwyaneWade) November 23, 2016

Strategic Approach

Here’s how CAA ran this campaign for PokerStars:

• Got the top sports talent engaged to ensure the campaign message reaches a substantial audience
• Created a hashtag (#RaiseIt) campaign on Twitter (now X)
• Built anticipation around the campaign by getting Dwayne Wade to challenge Christiano Ronaldo to a competition
• Distributed content across multiple platforms

Since the campaign involved some of the top names in their respective sports, PokerStars’ brand recognition skyrocketed.

5. WME Agency

Location: Beverly Hills, California, with offices in Nashville, New York, London, and Sydney

Notable Sports Clients: Anthony Edwards, Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Scottie Barnes

Year Founded: 1898

WME is the longest running talent agency and was founded in, wait for it, 1898. It all started as William Morris Agency (WMA) in New York City. Not only do they have many years of experience to show, but their client list also includes some of the biggest names in showbiz including Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley.

In 2009, William Morris Agency merged with Endeavor and expanded their focus to entertainment and media companies to include artists and content creators too. Then, 2014 was another big year for them. On top of being named as one of the 50 most innovative companies by Fast Company, they also acquired IMG, a top international name in sports and entertainment.

With regards to sport specifically, they work with some of the leading athletes, institutions, broadcasters, and personalities. Most recently, they signed Sergio Perez, who will be joining Lewis Hamilton on their F1 roster. They also recently signed NBA All-Star Anthony Edwards. Meanwhile, the agency’s basketball lineup includes Luka Dončić, Chet Holmgren, and Kelsey Plum.

WME also represents several sports personalities exclusively off-court, including Jimmy Butler and Candace Parker. The agency’s influence is such that some of its sports clients took home medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Due to their long history and experience in the industry, WME has established itself as a top sports talent agency, which is why publications like Variety frequently publish news related to them. The agency’s association with some of the top media houses and industry publications means that its sports talent also gets PR in addition to brand deals and endorsements.

WME Signs Record-Breaking Pro Skateboarder Nyjah Huston (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/fPtjZ9px9N

— Variety (@Variety) July 13, 2023

Key services include:

• Strategic partnership
• Marketing

WME Agency Client Success

For many sports influencer marketing platforms, client success is usually a big brand deal or a merch campaign. However, WME takes the crown for creating opportunities for sports clients that go beyond the traditional scope of sports marketing. 

In one such example, the agency helped Peyton Manning, a Hall of Fame quarterback, build a $400-million empire with Netflix documentaries, big-brand commercials, and ESPN programming.

Co-head of @WME_Sports Josh Pyatt spoke to Bloomberg @Business about working with Peyton Manning to build the media powerhouse that is Omaha Productions.https://t.co/XJCmfGYL4y

— WME (@WME) May 18, 2023

Strategic Approach

Here’s what WME did for Manning:

• Persuade Manning to start a company called Omaha Productions
• Appointed Josh Pyatt, a superagent at WME, to help with the company’s search for deals
• Helped Manning form a deal with ESPN that will last till 2034
• Assisted Manning in getting a spot on OTT and national TV

Thanks to WME’s efforts, Omaha Productions became a media powerhouse in a short span of 3 years and is all set to become a billion-dollar company. 

6. Octagon

Location: Los Angeles, CA, with offices across the US and 17 countries

Notable Sports Clients: Liverpool F.C., Josh Giddey, Stephen Curry, Bianca Andreescu, Kolton Miller, Tristan Wirfs

Year Founded: 1983

Octagon has been helping some of the globe’s top brands and talents for the past 30 years. Their team of 1,000 employees works from all over the world and they have helped professional athletes in a number of talent divisions including baseball, basketball, hockey, and tennis. Aside from professional athletes, Octagon also represent coaches and sports executives, as well as Olympians.

Not only do they help stars to get their name out there, but they also help them to manage their wealth. Whether it’s simply budgeting, planning for tax or investment and retirement advice, they partner with some of the top financial resources. They also help with career transitioning. So, they can help you to plan the next move that will make the most sense for your career.

Key services include:

• Wealth management
• Career development and advancement
• Talent and influencer marketing

7. Wasserman

Location: Los Angeles, California

Notable Sports Clients: Giancarlo Stanton, Nolan Arenado, Matt Olson

Year Founded: 2002

Wasserman (formerly called Wasserman Media Group) is one of the leading sports marketing and talent management companies. They represent some of the top athletes, broadcasters, coaches, influencers, and sports execs. Since they were founded in 1998, they’ve acquired a number of sports agencies including Arn Tellem and SFX. Most recently, they acquired The Montag Group, one of the leading media agencies in the industry.

Wasserman’s sports divisions cover a variety of sports, ranging from action and adventure sports to rugby. For instance, its baseball division represents 94 all-star players and four Hall of Famers. Its historic baseball contracts include the largest in American history (at the time of signing), Giancarlo Stanton’s 13-year contract worth $325 million in 2014.

Key services include:

• Public relations
• Career management
• Event creation
• Contract negotiations
• Creative content design
• Off-season training
• Brand marketing
• Social media influencer strategy
• Digital strategy
• Performance analytics research

8. Newport Sports Management Inc.

Location: Mississauga, Ontario, with offices across Canada and the US

Notable Sports Clients: Anthony Cirelli, Rasmus Dahlin, Phillip Danault, Kevin Fiala, Tomas Hertl

Year Founded: 1981

If you’re specifically searching for a sport talent management agency for professional hockey athletes, you can check out Newport Sports Management Inc. Founded in 1981 by Donald E. Meehan, they manage the single biggest agency in hockey and have over 125 National Hockey League clients. Not only do they offer a full scope of services relating to the more technical aspects, but they also include a few marketing services.

Key services include:

• Contract negotiation
• Financial management
• Tax and estate planning
• Insurance
• Training and development
• Draft preparation
• Social media brand building
• Corporate and public appearances
• Endorsements

9. Independent Sports and Entertainment (ISE)

Location: Los Angeles, California, with offices in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Atlanta

Notable Sports Clients: Miguel Cabrera, Reggie Bullock, Jarvis Landry, Allen Robinson

Year Founded: 2012

Independent Sports and Entertainment (previously called Relativity Sports) is one of the top representation, management, and marketing agencies for baseball, basketball and football players as well as motorsport talent.

In the last five years alone, they’ve negotiated more than $1 billion in contracts. Its basketball arm, ISE Basketball, has a European presence that helps its clients find new international opportunities.

Meanwhile, ISE Football, its football division, also includes former professional athletes as agents. According to Forbes, ISE was the agency behind Miguel Cabrera’s record deal with the Detroit Tigers. The eight-year contract is worth $248 million.

They offer a full suite of services that include contract negotiation, marketing, and brand management. As they’re part of a network of companies that also include live events and venues, they can help sport talent to develop their name via a number of platforms.

With regards to their marketing services specifically, they can help you to develop your brand identity, create content and then market it via social media. If you prefer to stick to in-person events, they can also help with speaking engagements.

Key services include:

• Endorsement opportunities
• Public relations
• Community outreach
• Memorabilia and trading card deals
• Draft preparation
• Post-career management
• Sponsorship maximization
• Content creation

10. Excel Sports Management

Location: New York City, with offices in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Chicago, and London

Notable Sports Clients: Tiger Woods, Nashville Soccer Club, Cade Cunningham, George Springer

Year Founded: 2002

Founded in 2002, Excel Sports Management’s mission is quite simple – they want to help their clients reach their full potential via sport. They do this by using a forward-thinking approach and by being entrepreneurial by design. With regards to their Talent Representation division specifically, they focus on building personal brands and generating revenue via marketing partnerships.

Though, like many of the other agencies on our list, it’s not just about generating more wealth for their own talent. They also believe that it’s important to give back to the community and help their talent to do just that.

For example, they helped Didi Gregorius, a professional Dutch baseball player, to create a social campaign, #DIDIsDEEDs, to help him get more fan votes for the MLB All-star Final Vote contest. From posing for selfies with tourists to buying midtown office workers lunch, the campaign managed to highlight his low-key profile.

Another community that they work hard to elevate is female athletes. Their Women’s Sport division helps to level and expand the playing field by helping them to create individualized brand strategies.

Some of their notable projects include Gatorade’s The Secret to Victory campaign, “Chicago Cubs Break the Curse”—referring to the Cubs’ 2016 World Series win and breaking “The Curse of the Billy Goat,” and Kevin Love’s Banana Republic collection.

Key services include:

• Talent marketing
• Consulting
• Corporate partnerships

11. Athletes First

Location: Laguna Hills, California, with satellite offices in New York, Gainesville, Austin, and Atlanta

Notable Sports Clients: Dak Prescott, John Lynch, Darwin James

Year Founded: 2001

For talent management help for football specifically, be sure to check out Athletes First. Their team of football agents, which includes big industry names like Todd France, David Mulugheta, and Brian Murphy, have negotiated the biggest deal in NFL history not once, but seven times.

On top of that, they’ve negotiated many other record-breaking positional contracts too. It has also partnered with Proactive Sports Performance to help bring exclusive pre-draft experiences to its athletes. Elite NFL players train at Proactive during the off-season, which boasts a 4:1 player-to-trainer ratio.

Founded more than two decades ago in 2001, they’re a full-service management firm that has represented elite coaches, broadcasters, and players.

There are two main components that are foundational to their culture. These are to display strong power, yet stay intimately personal. Not only is it key that their talent remains personal, but also their own agency. So, their player-to-agent ratio is capped at 12 to 1.

Key services include:

• Marketing
• Pre-draft training

12. Gestifute

Location: Porto, Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal, and Dublin, Ireland

Notable Sports Clients: Darwin Núñez, Manuel Ugarte, Bernardo Silva

Year Founded: 1996

Gestifute is another talent agency that focuses on football. Founded in 1996, they have offices in Portugal and aim to discover and promote young football talent.

Gestifute is led by Jorge Mendes. Not only has his successes been recognized by Globe Soccer and Football Finance, but also by the Portuguese government. Between 2010 and 2020, he has won a number of awards. In fact, during this 10-year period, 2016 was the only year that he wasn’t voted the Best Agent in the World by Globe Soccer.

He has also played a role in a number of the biggest transfers in the world. Most recently, it was revealed that Darwin Nunez, who’s valued at about £60 million has left agent Edgardo Lasalvia and it’s expected that he’ll join Jorge Mendes at Gestifute. The agency represents some of the world’s top football players, managing multi-year contracts of up to €80 million.

Key services include:

• Career planning

13. Roc Nation Sports

Location: New York, Los Angeles, and London

Notable Sports Clients: Romelu Lukaku, Antonio Anderson, Andrew Brody, Robinson Cano, Skylar Diggins-Smith

Year Founded: 2008

Founded in 2008 by JAY-Z, Roc Nation is one of the leading entertainment companies in the world. Most recently, they’ve joined TIME Studios to produce a documentary that looks at the life of Megan Thee Stallion, the artist behind one of the top TikTok songs responsible for one of the ultimate dance challenges.

With regards to sport specifically, they represent a wide range of sports that include baseball, basketball, cricket, football (including international football), rugby, and netball. In addition to sport stars, they also represent a number of personalities that include coaches, commentators, and motivational speakers.

Recently, Roc Nation Sports acquired TFM, a Brazilian soccer agency whose lineup includes Vinicius Junior and Gabriel Martinelli. Furthermore, Roc Nation Sports International is number 7 on Forbes’ list of the most valuable sports agencies in the US, with an estimated $2.01 billion in playing contracts under management and $570 million in non-playing contracts. The agency also landed Yoenis Cespedes in 2014, who previously signed a four-year contract worth $36 million while he was with Wasserman.

Key services include:

• Endorsement deals
• Marketing
• Community Outreach
• Brand strategy
• Media Relations 

14. Boras Corporation

Location: Newport Beach, California

Notable Sports Clients: Bryce Harper, Corey Seager, Gerrit Cole

Year Founded: 1980

Boras Corporation is one of the biggest names in baseball. Founded by Scott Boras, the most powerful agent in baseball, Forbes recently revealed that the Boras Corporation represents seven of the sport’s 10 highest-paid players. What’s more, during the shortened off-season they also negotiated more than $1 billion in new contracts, setting a new record for a single agency. Most recently, he negotiated a three-year contract for Carlos Correa. That deal alone is reported to exceed $105 million.

According to Forbes, the agency has over $3.8 billion in active MLB contracts as of 2022. Boras has also negotiated several sizeable contracts, including a $330 million deal for Bryce Harper (Philadelphia Phillies) and Corey Seager’s (Texas Rangers) $325 million deal.

Key services include:

• Contract negotiations
• Representation
• Memorabilia
• Marketing
• Endorsements