Alumni Interview Global Sports Business Master, Erwan Billot

Studies before AMOS
My name is Erwan Billot, I am from Toulouse and after my Baccalaureate, I have completed a DUT in marketing which has opened my mind to different sectors such as marketing, communication, and finance. After being graduated, I completed my undergraduate program, with a specialization in tourism management and engineering. During this year, I had the opportunity to pursue my education in Barcelona as part of an academic program with the UAB. It was an insightful experience to study abroad.
Once I graduated, I decided to take a gap year before doing a master's degree. I had done some research and managed to get an internship in the marketing department of L’Oréal in Paraguay for 8 months. It was a brilliant experience and has helped a lot to improve my spanish.
AMOS Global Sports Business Master (GSBM)
Once back in France, I knew it was the right time to finally complete my studies. One of the things I've enjoyed the most over the years is sports, not only exercising but the actual organisation of events and their promotions.
I remembered that a few years ago, I have got in touch with AMOS as I was interested in their Bachelor programme, so I decided to get back to them. I had a phone call with a Campus director who explained to me the Global Sports Business Master and I loved it. It was a combination of sponsorships, sports management, innovations, events, and marketing. On top of that, it was an international programme which fitted my expectations.
I have done the first year of this master’s degree in the campus of Lille (one of the many campuses they have in France), which was brilliant, Lille is a fantastic place to study as a young person. By the end of the first year, I had the opportunity to move to Australia, to complete the second half of the GSBM in a partner university, which was very tempting, but I ended up deciding to move to London.
London was the perfect opportunity for me to improve my English and to be in one of the best cities in the world when it comes to sporting events. Once in the UK, the AMOS London staff has welcomed us with open arms. Joanne and Guillaume were there every day to make sure that we had everything needed at our disposal so we could fully focus on studying and enjoying what the city had to offer.
My favourite class over the semester was the innovation module with Robert T Blaszczak, a very passionate and kind lecturer, we were studying and discussing innovative start-ups as well as new technologies. I already knew it would be of benefit for me and as the future has shown me, I was RIGHT.
Internship, first job and future inspirations
During the last 6 months of the GSBM, we must do an internship, I originally wanted to stay in the UK for this period, but the Covid situation and the fact that I had found an interesting internship in France had changed my plan.
I started my internship in a B2B agency named La Source, created a couple of years ago. We are an agency focused on sports and digital, and we help start-ups to enter the European market. We are using our expertise to help them design innovative strategies to become successful in the EU market.
It is an intensive job but very rewarding at the same time. Some of the organisations we are working with are Sports Federations and well-known European clubs which adds some prestige to it! The best part of it is that at the end of my internship, they offered me a full-time position, which I accepted!
Many things that I've learned while studying the GSBM are part of my everyday life such as speaking English, the knowledge of the sports industry, innovations, sponsorship, and professionalism.
Regarding my objectives in the coming years, I need to keep on learning and get as much knowledge and experience as I can, and eventually work for a Federation or a Football Club in their marketing–sponsoring department!
Alumni Interview AMOS Madrid - Condor Media, Atlético de Madrid
Can you tell us a bit about your job?
Pedro Arnau (alumni AMOS Madrid, ESBS by AMOS): I am a project manager at Condor Media, we are a digital production and content strategy company based in Madrid and are working with clients from all over the globe. My daily routine consists of producing, developing, post-producing and scheduling social media content for various clients. These clients are working in different industries, sport is obviously one of them (Real Madrid and UEFA are part of our portfolio) but there is also the Entertainment, Fashion and Journalism industry. Ivan Fernandez (alumni AMOS Madrid): I am the assistant team manager for the women’s team at Atlético Madrid. My role is to work with both the coaches and the players, helping them with everything they need to make sure that they can perform at their best. It involves a lot of planning and logistics, making sure that every time the team plays, our players arrive on time, have everything they need, arrange the transport and many other things to allow our staff and players to solely focus on their game.How important is digitalization in the sports industry?
Pedro Arnau: One thing to remember when it comes to digitalization in the sports industry is that content is king! Nowadays, the only way for companies to sustain themselves is to create engaging content daily and share it with their followers. Clubs like Real Madrid are present on all types of media as they need to reach a global audience, so we usually create content for YouTube, social media (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat) as well as TV commercials and Radio. Therefore, whichever industry you are in, you need to be able to create content that can be published in different media that resonate with different audiences.A word about Journalism in the sports industry?
Pedro Arnau: Sport is, according to my understanding, one of the only industries that is keeping print media, radio, and television alive. Understanding the importance of sports is crucial to deliver good content. Regarding journalism, creating stories is what matters the most: what sells, good research and having great writing skills. If you can do all of that, then your content will reach customers' expectations.What type of skills and mentality clubs like Real Madrid are looking for when it comes to hiring?
Pedro Arnau: The first skill that comes to mind is creativity. Even though Football is more than 100 years old, the ways to cover it have changed continuously, and this is what they are looking for, someone who can think out of the box and allow the club to differentiate itself. Secondly, they are looking for people who can do multiple things, you can be a good designer or a good editor but what else can you do? The more you widen your knowledge, the more responsibilities you will be able to handle and the more people you will be able to manage. Finally, experiences. Whether it is through volunteering, internships, or previous jobs in any type of industry, recruiters are always interested to know, because most of the time, knowledge is transferable from one industry to another. Therefore, work and learn as much as you can, in technology, design, video production, sale, podcast, journalism, management, etc. the more knowledge you have the better chances you will have to find a position you will enjoy. Ivan Fernandez: In my case, Atlético Madrid was looking for someone who could speak different languages (Spanish, English and French in my case), who could work with people coming from different cultures (as our players and coaches are coming from all over the globe), and finally someone who was polyvalent. When working for an international company, there are always new challenges to overcome, and you need to have different skills to deal with them, so being able to work and understand different areas of the business is a big plus on your CV.Alumni Interview AMOS Madrid - Condor Media, Atlético de Madrid
Can you tell us a bit about your job?
Pedro Arnau (alumni AMOS Madrid, ESBS by AMOS): I am a project manager at Condor Media, we are a digital production and content strategy company based in Madrid and are working with clients from all over the globe. My daily routine consists of producing, developing, post-producing and scheduling social media content for various clients. These clients are working in different industries, sport is obviously one of them (Real Madrid and UEFA are part of our portfolio) but there is also the Entertainment, Fashion and Journalism industry. Ivan Fernandez (alumni AMOS Madrid): I am the assistant team manager for the women’s team at Atlético Madrid. My role is to work with both the coaches and the players, helping them with everything they need to make sure that they can perform at their best. It involves a lot of planning and logistics, making sure that every time the team plays, our players arrive on time, have everything they need, arrange the transport and many other things to allow our staff and players to solely focus on their game.How important is digitalization in the sports industry?
Pedro Arnau: One thing to remember when it comes to digitalization in the sports industry is that content is king! Nowadays, the only way for companies to sustain themselves is to create engaging content daily and share it with their followers. Clubs like Real Madrid are present on all types of media as they need to reach a global audience, so we usually create content for YouTube, social media (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat) as well as TV commercials and Radio. Therefore, whichever industry you are in, you need to be able to create content that can be published in different media that resonate with different audiences.A word about Journalism in the sports industry?
Pedro Arnau: Sport is, according to my understanding, one of the only industries that is keeping print media, radio, and television alive. Understanding the importance of sports is crucial to deliver good content. Regarding journalism, creating stories is what matters the most: what sells, good research and having great writing skills. If you can do all of that, then your content will reach customers' expectations.What type of skills and mentality clubs like Real Madrid are looking for when it comes to hiring?
Pedro Arnau: The first skill that comes to mind is creativity. Even though Football is more than 100 years old, the ways to cover it have changed continuously, and this is what they are looking for, someone who can think out of the box and allow the club to differentiate itself. Secondly, they are looking for people who can do multiple things, you can be a good designer or a good editor but what else can you do? The more you widen your knowledge, the more responsibilities you will be able to handle and the more people you will be able to manage. Finally, experiences. Whether it is through volunteering, internships, or previous jobs in any type of industry, recruiters are always interested to know, because most of the time, knowledge is transferable from one industry to another. Therefore, work and learn as much as you can, in technology, design, video production, sale, podcast, journalism, management, etc. the more knowledge you have the better chances you will have to find a position you will enjoy. Ivan Fernandez: In my case, Atlético Madrid was looking for someone who could speak different languages (Spanish, English and French in my case), who could work with people coming from different cultures (as our players and coaches are coming from all over the globe), and finally someone who was polyvalent. When working for an international company, there are always new challenges to overcome, and you need to have different skills to deal with them, so being able to work and understand different areas of the business is a big plus on your CV.SportsPro Media partnership, AMOS London
SportsPro is the world’s leading international media company for the sports industry in print, digital and events. This magazine has more than 20 million of impressions across digital, social and newsletter channels and is producing annually more than 3500 content pieces.
How has this partnership come up?
Paul Guest who is the commercial director of SportsPro, was a Lecturer of sports tourism at AMOS London 3 years ago, and he is the one who brought this partnership to our attention. As an educator of the industry, the magazine is always seeking to meet with teachers, lecturers, universities representatives and students to “understand the gaps and knowledge of the market”, specifically the ones of the younger generation as they “want to be able to write content that would be of interest to them”. For Paul the students “think differently than the professionals working in the industry for years, they inspire the change, they challenge ideas, and more people are willing to invest time and money in the younger generations”. Through their monthly newsletters and their different classes, SportsPro aims to "provide the students with insights that they could not have anywhere else".What are the objectives for the students?
Learning from the best in the industry at what makes effective thought leadership content. Secondly, our AMOScians went through 2 sessions with the lead publicist of SportsPro regarding the production of a thought leadership article which was published in the following newsletter. Finally, they are offered a chance to compete against the best universities in the world in the SportsPro’s sustainability Hackathon whilst having access to some of the leading executives to support them. Once more, the winning group gets a chance to be published in the newsletter, providing visibility to the best AMOScians (the articles get 4 million views on a yearly basis).
What are the objectives for AMOS?
Our first objective is to showcase the innovation of AMOS in comparison to other academic institutions. Secondly, it is about positioning our students at the centre of the sports business ecosystem and finally providing our students with unrivalled access to key sports business industry stakeholders.What are the next steps in this partnership?
1. The Hackathon will be conducted between the 8th and the 10th of April 2. Full-page advertising in the July edition of the magazine 3. Access to a virtual conference on the 26th and 27th of April about the tools needed in the business to take smarter decisions as well as an in-depth look into the digitalization of the industry.SportsPro Media partnership, AMOS London
SportsPro is the world’s leading international media company for the sports industry in print, digital and events. This magazine has more than 20 million of impressions across digital, social and newsletter channels and is producing annually more than 3500 content pieces.
How has this partnership come up?
Paul Guest who is the commercial director of SportsPro, was a Lecturer of sports tourism at AMOS London 3 years ago, and he is the one who brought this partnership to our attention. As an educator of the industry, the magazine is always seeking to meet with teachers, lecturers, universities representatives and students to “understand the gaps and knowledge of the market”, specifically the ones of the younger generation as they “want to be able to write content that would be of interest to them”. For Paul the students “think differently than the professionals working in the industry for years, they inspire the change, they challenge ideas, and more people are willing to invest time and money in the younger generations”. Through their monthly newsletters and their different classes, SportsPro aims to "provide the students with insights that they could not have anywhere else".What are the objectives for the students?
Learning from the best in the industry at what makes effective thought leadership content. Secondly, our AMOScians went through 2 sessions with the lead publicist of SportsPro regarding the production of a thought leadership article which was published in the following newsletter. Finally, they are offered a chance to compete against the best universities in the world in the SportsPro’s sustainability Hackathon whilst having access to some of the leading executives to support them. Once more, the winning group gets a chance to be published in the newsletter, providing visibility to the best AMOScians (the articles get 4 million views on a yearly basis).
What are the objectives for AMOS?
Our first objective is to showcase the innovation of AMOS in comparison to other academic institutions. Secondly, it is about positioning our students at the centre of the sports business ecosystem and finally providing our students with unrivalled access to key sports business industry stakeholders.What are the next steps in this partnership?
1. The Hackathon will be conducted between the 8th and the 10th of April 2. Full-page advertising in the July edition of the magazine 3. Access to a virtual conference on the 26th and 27th of April about the tools needed in the business to take smarter decisions as well as an in-depth look into the digitalization of the industry.Student Interview Global Sports Business Master, Truls Orneberg
Today we are meeting Truls, who is one of our GSBM 1 students, currently on the Paris campus. Truls comes from Norway, and this is his journey so far.
A Cycling enthusiast
When I was younger, I practiced a lot of sports, mainly cycling. But I had some problems with my lungs, I was constantly feeling tired, which did not allow me to become professional. Instead of competing, I decided to get myself involved in volunteering. This is when my passion for working in the sporting events started. After joining the army for a year and a half (mandatory for young men and women in Norway) I decided to pursue my study in the sports industry and after some research, I found a community college teaching a Bachelor in Sport Management. By the end of the third year, I found a six-month internship within the national cycling federation, and they offered me a full-time position in the events department, which I accepted. I ran events for them for the following six months, and since then, I have moved to the digital department, which allows me to keep gaining experience whilst being a student.
Transition to AMOS
I was willing to do a Masters’ degree in the sports industry, I had found one in Oslo but unfortunately, the applications were closed at the time, which ended up being positive as it allowed me to find AMOS. Going international was something very tempting at the time, so I got in touch with the team in Paris and within 48 hours my decision was taken! Going to a new country, when you do not know anyone there and when you do not speak the language can be stressful at first. But as soon as I arrived, I started to take weekly French classes, watching French movies and series (currently binging Lupin on Netflix), I am as well using Duolingo, which really helps. Everyone in my class speaks English and the lecturers do all their classes in English too, which obviously really helps to settle in.
Global Sports Business Masters
I like it a lot, very interesting because we talk a lot about business which we would not in Norway. In my country, sports and business are different fields, and while they are teaching us how to manage sports infrastructures, it is not orientated towards business. Secondly, the lecturers in Norway are full-time teachers, not professionals, they have all the knowledge, but the courses remain very theoretical. The experience from the people I met here (in Paris) is relevant and inspiring, you can learn a lot just by listening to them. In the end, having done both is perfect, the academic side in Norway and, learning the professional/business at AMOS.Olympic Stadium
The Olympic Stadium module is my favourite topic, and this has a lot to do with the lecturer who is delivering it, M. Deepak Trivedi. He has such a good way to communicate with us, he always makes sure that everyone is following, which makes it super easy to learn.My Future plans
My dream is to work for the biggest sports events in the world. I am looking for opportunities regarding the cycling world championship in Glasgow in 2023 and the Olympics in Paris in 2024. Starting my career by working in such events could be a real boost.Student Interview Global Sports Business Master, Truls Orneberg
Today we are meeting Truls, who is one of our GSBM 1 students, currently on the Paris campus. Truls comes from Norway, and this is his journey so far.
A Cycling enthusiast
When I was younger, I practiced a lot of sports, mainly cycling. But I had some problems with my lungs, I was constantly feeling tired, which did not allow me to become professional. Instead of competing, I decided to get myself involved in volunteering. This is when my passion for working in the sporting events started. After joining the army for a year and a half (mandatory for young men and women in Norway) I decided to pursue my study in the sports industry and after some research, I found a community college teaching a Bachelor in Sport Management. By the end of the third year, I found a six-month internship within the national cycling federation, and they offered me a full-time position in the events department, which I accepted. I ran events for them for the following six months, and since then, I have moved to the digital department, which allows me to keep gaining experience whilst being a student.
Transition to AMOS
I was willing to do a Masters’ degree in the sports industry, I had found one in Oslo but unfortunately, the applications were closed at the time, which ended up being positive as it allowed me to find AMOS. Going international was something very tempting at the time, so I got in touch with the team in Paris and within 48 hours my decision was taken! Going to a new country, when you do not know anyone there and when you do not speak the language can be stressful at first. But as soon as I arrived, I started to take weekly French classes, watching French movies and series (currently binging Lupin on Netflix), I am as well using Duolingo, which really helps. Everyone in my class speaks English and the lecturers do all their classes in English too, which obviously really helps to settle in.