Synia Sports is a sports economy research and advisory practice, working first in Ethiopia. We exist because the global sports business measures every market with the same instruments, and those instruments were built somewhere else. Where they do not fit, the usual conclusion is that the market is low-data — rather than that the measurement has not been built yet. We build that measurement, and turn it into decisions clubs, cities and brands can act on.
One principle runs under all of it: measure with what the market already has, and instrument only the gap. Before designing a new collection instrument we look for the number someone already holds — the camp operator who knows their bed-nights, the club that knows its gate, the federation that knows its participation. Where that number genuinely does not exist, we go and count: in venues, at events, in communities. Every measure we design gets one owner and one collection method that can run this quarter. If it cannot be collected now, it is not a measure. It is a wish.
Three capabilities, all built on the same measurement layer.
A structured way to evaluate a portfolio of sports assets — on defensibility, ceiling, the gap between potential and realised value, and time to activate. The output is a scorecard a city or federation keeps and re-runs, not a report that sits on a shelf.
Attendance, audience, visitor volume, spend and participation, measured properly for the first time. One metric per asset, one named owner, one collection method that exists today.
What the numbers mean for revenue: sponsorship valuation, event economic impact, and activation plans built around a defined 90-day test rather than a five-year intention.
We publish how we measure before we report what we found. A number with no collection method attached is not evidence.
Measurement designed elsewhere and applied here mostly describes what is missing. We start from what a market already knows about itself.
With clubs, federations and public bodies, trust precedes commerce. We invest in the relationship long before the engagement letter.
Sport earns public investment when the same asset serves visitors and residents. We look for that second constituency in every plan, and measure both.
Synia is run by its founder, a former college soccer player who studied mathematics and computer science before completing a master’s in sports administration, with a focus on sports analytics, at Northwestern. Eight years of work in software development and soccer coaching came in between, across several countries.
The practice sits where those three things meet: sport, measurement, and the economics of development.
We take a small number of engagements at a time. If your work touches the commercial or economic side of sport — a property, a city, a sponsorship, or a market you are trying to see clearly — we would like to hear about it.
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