For many today, sport is no longer just about the field, results and sponsorships. It is increasingly becoming a platform for media influence, personal branding, business models and global partnerships that operate far beyond the boundaries of the sports industry itself. This transformation will be the focus of the new edition of SOZ Akademija, which will gather participants in Ljubljana on June 19 around the topic of how to turn a sports career into long-term business and communication value.
The event titled “Beyond the Game: How to Transform a Sports Career into Business, a Brand and a Story” will take place live at Kristalna palača, while the central part of the programme will feature a conversation between Damjan Rudež, former NBA player and founder of DR9 International Sports & Media, and Jernej Smisl, director of Pristop.
The discussion will focus on the transition from professional sport into entrepreneurship, but also on how experience, reputation and authentic storytelling can become the foundation for developing business projects, partnerships and modern sports brands.
A special part of the discussion will focus on the projects Rudež developed after the end of his professional career, including Sunset Sports Festival and international partnerships within Sofascore. Organisers are announcing a conversation about why sport today represents one of the strongest platforms of modern marketing, but also why audiences are responding less and less to “polished” campaigns and increasingly to authenticity and real stories behind sports and business projects.
During his 18-year professional career, Damjan Rudež played for 14 clubs across seven countries, including NBA teams Indiana Pacers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic. As a member of the Croatian national team, he competed at the Olympic Games in Beijing, the FIBA World Championship, European Championships and the Mediterranean Games.
After ending his playing career, he founded DR9 International Sports & Media, a company specialised in sports consulting, while today he also serves as director of Sunset Sports Festival in Zadar and senior advisor for global partnerships at Sofascore.
Jernej Smisl leads Pristop and has more than 15 years of experience managing transformation and development projects across the banking, media and telecommunications sectors. His professional focus includes strategic development, change management and the development of new business models, while in parallel he has also been active within the sports sector, including serving as president of RK Celje Pivovarna Laško and as a member of management and supervisory bodies within sports organisations.
The new edition of SOZ Akademija therefore opens a topic that has become increasingly relevant for the marketing industry in recent years: how athletes build their own business platforms after the end of their professional careers, how new-generation sports brands are created, and why sport, media and business are today becoming increasingly inseparable systems.
