One of Europe's leading events in the sports marketing and sponsorship industry - SPORTO annual conference is upon us! The 17th edition of this event will be held entirely online on 21 & 22 January, retaining its two-day conference format, and it will once again attract renowned, world-class speakers from around the world.
Today is the last day when you can register for the conference, so be sure to do so immediately - right here!
If you haven't heard about the SPORTO conference before, the essential thing you have to know is that SPORTO offers an "international platform for professional networking and knowledge sharing within the sports business community." It is predominantly based in the wider Adriatic and Central and Eastern European region, but every year it attracts influential speakers from every continent. Find out more on SPORTO's website.
But what has it to do with futsal?
This year's speaker's list is enticing as ever, with the likes of Lewis Wiltshire (Seven League's CEO), Ricardo Fort (Coca-Cola Company Vice President), Michael Payne (Payne Sports Media Strategies CEO), and Arsène Wenger who will speak in the role of FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development.
However, one of the key speakers at the conference piques our special interest - Dallas Mavericks owner and businessman, Mark Cuban. Having turned his NBA franchise into a championship-winning team in 2011, Mark Cuban has caught the attention of futsal fans worldwide with his involvement in the development of futsal and establishment of a Professional Futsal League (PFL) in the United States.
Marc Cuban is the owner of the Professional Futsal League. The PFL was founded in 2016 and was intended to begin in 2018.
“I couldn’t be more excited about partnering with and investing in the PFL,” said Cuban. “Futsal is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world and it’s time to make it even bigger in the US market. We are ready to introduce the best global brands and the world’s best players to our growing fanbase and I’m thrilled to be part of the PFL.”, said Cuban back in 2016.
Professional Futsal League
However, we are still waiting for it to kick-off as planned. The potential is most definitely there, we've even researched it.
„The idea of the Professional Futsal League started to develop in 2014. The initial idea was to start by developing a league with regional divisions for the smaller market cities. Two years later, in 2016, Mark Cuban bought a controlling interest in the league and the development focus moved from the small markets to the largest ones in North America. This meant engaging some of the most powerful and influential people in all of the sports world and from what I understand, we are still awaiting the finalization of these 16 North American ownership groups to initiate the league. For the sake of professional futsal in America and around the world, I hope this initial task will be completed sooner than later,” futsal coach Otto Orf told us in the interview for FutsalFeed.
>> Otto Orf: The Futsal Revolution in the US has already started
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If you find topics like these interesting and would love to find out more, we invite you once again to register for Europe's leading event in the sports marketing and sponsorship industry - right here!