This book traces the relationship between sport and commercialization across 2,500 years of history, and offers readers a concise insight into sport as both a practice and profession.

By the early 2000s, the international sports business had an estimated global turnover of $512 billion - but when did the commercialization of sport begin? Wray Vamplew takes readers through early commercial sport in Ancient Greece and Rome, to the development of sports coaching in the Renaissance, and brings the scholarship up to date with the prevalence of international tournaments and spectator sports in the 21st century.

Vamplew examines the interplay between the sports business and various other sociopolitical factors - such as the growing commercialization of women's sports, the impact of costly political sports-washing, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The work also includes definitions and explanations of key sports products, entrepreneurs, and terms related to commercialization and business, to help guide readers. The result is a truly intersectional analysis of the relationship between sport and commercial ventures.

Overall, this volume examines how sport has depended on its economic contexts across time - but also demonstrates that profit-maximization hasn't always been the sole driving force behind sport commercialization.