Sports economy in Vietnam, a neglected 'gold mine': When will it become a money-making industry?

Many large enterprises and corporations in Vietnam have poured a lot of money into the sports sector. However, the sports economy in our country still cannot be considered an industry that can strongly promote the development of sports in particular and the Vietnamese economy in general.

N VARIOUS PURPOSES

In 2017, a very large corporation in Vietnam spent nearly 30 million USD on the Vietnam Football Talent Development and Investment Fund to build and operate a very impressive football training center in the North. Mr. Wittaya Laohakul, former head coach of the Thai national team, shared that this is a youth training center with top quality in Asia, on par with centers in Europe. With the desire to contribute to creating generations of talented players for Vietnamese football, this corporation almost did not earn any profit from this project. This is considered a direct non-profit investment, focusing on implementing social responsibility (CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility), contributing to building the image of a corporation that always accompanies the country's development in many fields. By 2020, this corporation transferred the center to another unit.

Mr. Hoang Viet Anh ( front row, left ) at the signing ceremony of comprehensive cooperation betweenFPT and GAM eSports, the team that won the gold medal at SEA Games 31

PHOTO: FPT

Another large corporation in the real estate sector also has notable investments in sports . This corporation was the main sponsor of a club in the V-League and became one of the sponsors of the national team as well as many other sports tournaments. The corporation's sponsorships mainly serve the purpose of marketing and brand promotion. By associating its name with tournaments and teams, the corporation can reach its target customers. This is also an effective marketing method used by many businesses.

While the above corporations implement different investment strategies in sports to achieve business efficiency and build brands, some businessmen are willing to invest a lot of money to satisfy their love for sports. Mr. Duc built a football academy, Mr. Hien has been with the success of Hanoi Club for many years; or Mr. Tu, who has contributed greatly to the development of Vietnamese futsal as well as basketball and women's football in Ho Chi Minh City. These are typical examples of pioneers for the sports economy in Vietnam. However, if we look at the general picture, the Vietnamese sports economic ecosystem is still quite young.

Not only investing in Hanoi Club, Mr. Hien also invests in Thai Nguyen Women's Club, CAND T&T Table Tennis Club

PHOTO: HANOI CLUB

There must be a clear legal framework

One of the key factors that makes corporations and businesses not consider sports as a place to exploit the economy is that they have not found a way to build a sports economic ecosystem while still promoting the strengths and core values ​​of their own units. For this reason, the sports economy has not been able to develop into an industry in our country.

FPT Telecom Joint Stock Company (FPT Telecom) is one of the few enterprises that both exploits the sports economy and creates economic value for society. Mr. Hoang Viet Anh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of FPT Telecom, shared with Thanh Nien Newspaper: "FPT sees sports, especially eSports and digital sports content, as a strategic link in the group's technology and entertainment ecosystem: it is a bridge between infrastructure (telecommunications, data center), content platform (FPT Play, OTT) and services for young people (for example, F-Game internet package, HyperFast software to reduce ping, increase gaming experience). FPT's products and services have served tens of millions of Vietnamese customers over the years. We identify eSports as the next step to connect more young customers to FPT's ecosystem."

According to Mr. Hoang Viet Anh, to decide to invest in sports, FPT Telecom considered three most important factors. First is the ability to commercialize, that is, the field has a clear revenue model from copyright, advertising, subscriptions and items. Second is the compatibility with core competencies, for example, eSports and OTT are directly compatible with the telecommunications infrastructure, data and content production that FPT owns. Third is the growth potential.

These are the reasons why FPT in particular and many other large corporations have not invested heavily in traditional sports. Because eSports is suitable for their core competencies, while traditional sports have stable brand value and copyright but require huge investment in infrastructure and expected operations.

Another expert added that the sports economy in Vietnam still needs to improve many other factors to attract investment from large corporations. First, there must be a legal framework and a transparent copyright mechanism so that investors can feel secure in investing long-term capital. Next is the construction of a complete commercial value chain: from television copyright, advertising to ticket and merchandise sales. At the same time, the standardization of training for athletes, coaches and organizing events according to international quality is also very important. This is a factor that helps raise the reputation of the industry, contributing to improving athletes' income so that they can feel secure in pursuing their careers. Of course, these problems cannot be solved overnight but require a long-term, systematic plan and strategy.

Sports economics experts emphasize that sports economics has gradually become a part of the national economy, sports services, providing goods for social needs. In a market economy, sports economics must be considered as an industry in which coaches, athletes or people working in the sports field are expecting that industry to earn a lot of money, serving the reinvestment in sports itself.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/kinh-te-the-thao-o-viet-nam-mo-vang-bi-bo-quen-khi-nao-thanh-nganh-cong-nghiep-hai-ra-tien-185250908200125505.htm