Rising Ballers co-founder offers sports industry career advice to UCFB students

One of the founders of Ballers Group, consisting of both Rising Ballers and She’s A Baller, came to UCFB to offer advice to students about securing a sports industry career.

Jamie Pollitt spoke to the students about the business model of Ballers Group, while giving insight and guidance for their future career in sport.

Rising Ballers, one of the fastest growing names in sport, works with elite-level players, leagues, clubs and brands across the global football industry.

Speaking about his visit to UCFB Wembley, he said: “Days like today are super important for students at the university.

“I’ve sat in their position. When I was at university, I would have killed for opportunities to go to talks and events like this, to learn from industry experts. I think it’s crucial.

“At the end of the day, these are the industry’s next generation. So, we have to give back and we have to nurture them, develop them for the future. They’re lucky to have the opportunity to attend.”

Rising Ballers also has a partnership with UCFB, which offers our students a multitude of opportunities to gain experience alongside their studies in order to stand out once they’ve graduated.

Jamie spoke about how great it is to have this partnership between the two organisations.

“We’re super happy with the partnership we’ve got with UCFB,” he said.

“What that entails now is that obviously different people from our company are going to come down and give guest talks to students, try and educate them, give them insights. But we’re going further than just that as well.

“We’re giving UCFB students opportunities within the industry at our business, where they can come in, they can learn things, they can work with the team.

“We hired a UCFB graduate recently, irrespective with this partnership. It’s such a natural blend. This is a university focused on the football industry and developing people for that. If I’d known about it, perhaps I wouldn’t have dropped out at the university, it would have been perfect for me.”

He finished by offering advice for students wanting to secure that dream career in football and sport.

“Ultimately,” he said, “there’s a finite amount of jobs for a lot of people trying to break into the industry, so it is a competition. You need to set yourself apart, and I spoke about this at length in my talk about actionable things.

“I think number one that you can do; you don’t require money, you don’t require funding, but to set yourself first of the foremost you can start creating content.

“You can put yourself out there on LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram you don’t even need to show your face if you don’t want to.

“We hired someone recently just because what they were publishing on LinkedIn. We loved their stuff and we needed a strategist, and this guy clearly had the insight that we were requiring, so we found him through that.

“So, use things that are at your disposal. You don’t need money to do that so start leveraging what’s available to you, publish content.

“Secondly, reach out to people and don’t give up easily. Reach out to as many people as you possibly can. Send 100 DMs on LinkedIn. You might get one response that changes your life. Be resilient, don’t give up easily, keep going.”

UCFB students gain an array of opportunities and experiences to further not only their UCFB journey, but also their chances for future careers within the industry. Find out more about our dedicated Employability and Career Planning Team who provide many of these opportunities.