Power Play.The sportinnovation playbook.
Sustainable success in sports management
Nils Sterenborg and Thomas Lutz, with chapters from ten practitioners. The book where the Spectator Sports Innovation Flywheel, the three KPIs and the Gravitational Method were first published. In German since 2025, in English since 2026.
- Authors
- Nils Sterenborg, Thomas Lutz
- Publisher
- Meyer & Meyer Sport
- English edition
- Paperback, 2026
ISBN 978-1-78255-300-7 - German edition
- PowerPlay, 2025
ISBN 978-3-8403-7980-2
It started withone question.
A few years ago, in a meeting, a man called Andy asked a simple question: does an innovation management framework exist that was built for spectator sport? Something a club or a league could pick up on a Monday morning.
The honest answer was no. There were consulting decks and case studies, and frameworks borrowed from software and manufacturing. Nothing was built for an industry where the product is a competition and the customer is a supporter.
So it was written down. Power Play is that answer: a practical framework for creating value in spectator sport, written with the people who do the work every week. It comes from the innovation side, and it lands where boards and investors decide: value.
The mid-market does the elite's job with a fraction of the people. The gap is structure.
Nils Sterenborg · Co-author, Power Play
Elite patterns. Mid-market reality.
The patterns come from the top of the industry. The reality sits with clubs, leagues and events between five and one hundred and fifty million euros in revenue: the same ambition, a fraction of the staff. Power Play shows how to apply the patterns there.
A framework.A way to decide.
Most organisations have more ideas than budget. The missing piece is a way to choose between them. That is what the book provides.
The Spectator Sports Innovation Flywheel
How attention, revenue and sporting performance feed each other, and why each turn of the wheel makes the next one easier.
See the flywheel →Three KPIs
Attention, Commercials and Sporting Performance. Three interdependent levers, not three separate goals. You cannot fix a loop you have not measured.
How we score them →The Gravitational Method
Your organisation is the core. Innovation projects derived from your values become gravity amplifiers that pull fans, sponsors and media closer.
See the method →The Sports Innovation Alignment Framework
SIAF. Alignment before action, in three connected phases: Inspire & Assess, Plan & Design, Execute & Evolve. The method for deciding what to fix first.
From SIAF to the 10 Rules →The Hedgehog Concept for sport
Adapted from Jim Collins: the intersection of what inspires your community, what you can be excellent at in your context, and what drives your economic engine.
Read the lens →Chapters from practitioners
Sponsor analytics, social media and Gen Z, AI-supported personalisation and fan analysis, highlight generation, sustainability and diversity in sport.
Meet the contributors →Ten experts.One framework.
The framework chapters are written by Nils Sterenborg and Thomas Lutz. Around them, practitioners show what the work looks like when it is done every week, in sponsorship, media, technology and the organisation itself.
Saskia Wichert, who wrote the chapter on diversity in sport, is today part of the Powerplay One founding team.
For the peoplewho carrythe result.
Club executives and managers, league and event operators, IT managers and developers, fan representatives, media and marketing experts, and the advisers and investors who work with them.
It shows that value creation is a process you can manage without fearing the complexity of modern technology. Technology is a tool in that process, never the starting point. Done well, it grows revenue, helps manage risk and, above all, appeals to the next generation of fans.
| Edition | Title | Details |
|---|---|---|
| English, 2026 | Power Play: The Sport Innovation Playbook. Sustainable Success in Sports Management | Paperback 978-1-78255-300-7 |
| German, 2025 | PowerPlay: Das Sports Innovation Playbook für nachhaltigen Erfolg im Sportmanagement | Paperback 978-3-8403-7980-2 |
Ready to put itto work?
The 10 Rules turn the playbook into practice: ten rules of value creation, more than eighty templates, and a checklist for every rule at five revenue tiers.
Selected copies go to clubs, leagues, events, investors and universities. Applications are open until 30 November, and every applicant receives the anonymised findings on what organisations below the elite are working on.
One method,three ways in.
See where you stand, against your own tier.
The book is the argument. The diagnostic is the instrument. Run the Fast Lane in about twenty minutes and see your score against the ceiling for your tier, sport and market.