WHILE Jamaica’s elite sportsmen and women are encouraged to maximise earning potential through brand growth, which gets even more relevant after retirement, they should rely on a management team that has their best interest at the forefront, according to experts.

The comments come in the wake of Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka’s recent move to leave renowned talent agency IMG to form her own athlete management company, EVOLVE.

The 24-year-old’s contract with IMG expired at the end of last year, and renegotiating a deal was said to have been unfruitful.

The four-time Grand Slam singles champion is partnered in the venture by her long-time agent Stuart Duguid, who also left IMG.

Easily one of the world’s highest-earning athletes, Osaka took a break from tennis in 2021, withdrawing from the French Open and Wimbledon which she said was to allow her to focus on her mental health.

Having her own agency provides a major platform for the Osaka brand and gives her more hands-on control in promoting her numerous business endeavours, even when she hangs up the racquet.

“I believe this move will be a positive one for her as her agency will be focused primarily on building her marketability — and based on her elite level I’m sure her team will be able to open the right doors,” said Rashid Hall, a Jamaican-bred international sport administrator based in Europe.

But Hall, who has worked for the International Olympic Committee and European football’s governing body, UEFA, cautioned that most of Jamaica’s athletes still have some ways to go before making such a grand step.

“It’s important to acknowledge that she [Osaka] has formed her company with an expert in the field [Duguid] who worked at IMG for a number of years. She has not gone off on her own. So, while this could be considered by elite athletes locally, I would say we are not quite there yet,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“My suggestion to local athletes would be to focus that energy on building their brand both on and off the field of play. I’m of the view that, generally speaking, our athletes have not maximised the influence they can command and that, along with their management teams, they need to work strategically — get external help where needed — to build themselves as business brands with a reach far beyond the playing field,” he advised.

“One athlete who has excelled in this area is young Jamaican sprinter Briana Williams. Clearly she has a strong team behind her that focuses specifically on this area of her career,” Hall added.

Tanya Lee Perkins, athlete manager and head of Leep Marketing, also saw positives in Osaka’s decision, noting that other elite sport professionals can benefit in similar fashion.

“It’s a move that should yield higher percentages for her. It’s a smart play, considering she’s taking the expertise with her to EVOLVE,” said Lee Perkins.

“I think all athletes with millions on the line will benefit from utilising the services of industry professionals,” she told the Observer.

For decades, athletes have left big agencies to strike out on their own. More recent ones include NBA superstars Kevin Durant and LeBron James; tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal; and former world number one golfer Rory McIlroy.

Veteran sport administrator Rudolph Speid argued that such a move usually occurs when a superstar athlete begins to weigh his or her own burgeoning brand recognition against the oftentimes large earning percentages doled out to agencies.

“Usually when you see superstar athletes go to form their own agency it’s all about the commission. It’s all about the amount of money coming out of their earnings for those services.

“I’ve heard of instances, even locally, where the management agency charges up to 30 to 33 per cent of the athlete’s earnings. Most athletes, after a while, their success generates demand and they believe that [paying out so much of their earnings] is unfair,” the former Jamaica Volleyball Association president told the Observer.

“When you’re up-and-coming you’re not going to grumble because the money [is] rolling in, everybody is earning, and you’re happy. But once you start to get older and wiser and more famous, then you start to think ‘Why am I paying so much when I’m doing all the hard work, taking all the licks, and getting all the injuries?’ Those things come into consideration and you try to move on,” Speid, who is a past head of the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association, explained.

Craig Butler, founder of Phoenix Football Academy and long-time agent for Jamaica’s Reggae Boy Leon Bailey, who plays professionally for Aston Villa in the English Premier League, stressed that one cap does not fit all.

“She [Osaka] has left and gone off to form an agency, but a key factor is that she has also brought a particularly experienced agent with her. So she’s leaving IMG [but] she’s not going off to fly on her own.

“And that is something I would never ever suggest to anyone to do, especially when you’re not prepared to the level that some of these athletes are prepared. Many of our players in Jamaica have challenges with public speaking, image projection and good ambassadorship,” he said.

Butler added: “People will come on because they’re seeing you achieve and they come and [say] ‘Yes, we can do this, we can do that,’ and all these ideas, but at the end of the day if you get a broken leg or ankle you don’t see them again.”