2023-25 Sports Business MBA tips off with first session in Barcelona

The seventh edition of the Euroleague Basketball Institute's Sports Business MBA, delivered in collaboration with Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, began last week with 21 students from Europe, North America and Central Asia.

Students visited the Euroleague Basketball headquarters in Barcelona, Spain, for the first in-person session, where they engaged and interacted with Vytautas Magnus University professors and Euroleague Basketball executives.

Beside the academic introduction of the six online modules and term paper, students had the opportunity to listen and share their opinions with the 17 Euroleague Basketball executives who presented a comprehensive list of topics ranging from governance to partnership sales and activations, from events strategy and ticketing to digital and communications, from sustainability to basketball operations and from financial fair play to business intelligence and analytics.

"I came here to Barcelona with very high expectations and the program not only delivered but exceeded my expectations," Sarah Martina Aho, who is from Hungary, said. "We heard very interesting lectures about the EuroLeague, everything that happens on the back end. And we did see some introductions of the modules that we're going to be studying throughout the year."

"During the first week, we already have great knowledge about the EuroLeague ecosystem and I really think that the lectures were really important to understand what EuroLeague really is," Marco Bergonzi, of Italy, said.

"The relationship within our group is awesome," said Anne-Sofie Briest, of Germany. "We all come from very different fields, which is very interesting to get different inputs. Actually, a highlight for me is to see so many females in this office. I think it's very important and gives me the feeling that females can succeed in the basketball business."

"First of all, I want to have as much knowledge as possible and I want to know how to set the puzzle together in terms of managing a sports organization," said Filip Kenig, from Poland. "I think this study will help me to understand some processes and help me in my future career."

Students will now interact with the professors of Vytautas Magnus University, guest academicians and industry experts in the next fifteen weeks to complete three online modules and prepare a scientific-research-applied project. They will then travel to the city of Kaunas, Lithuania, for the second in-person session, where they will defend their project in the Term Paper Defense Committee and spend two full days visiting Zalgiris Kaunas and the Zalgirio Arena, learning from the club and arena management.