Making sport count

Jankelowitz is joint managing director and founder of MSCSPORTS, a sports marketing company that provides comprehensive events management, sponsorship design and co-ordination, player management and memorabilia services to a number of high-profile clients.

Jankelowitz and his joint managing director, Barney Girnun, started MSCSPORTS after successfully auctioning a signed Sprinkbok rugby jersey to raise funds for their soccer club. Realising that a promising gap existed in the market for a supplier of memorabilia to auction, the pair made the most of their own extensive sporting networks and knowledge to launch what is now the largest player in the South African sports memorabilia field.

The primary demand comes from charities auctioning items to raise funds, and, for a reserve price on each item, MSCSPORTS offers a complete service, running the auction itself, facilitating payment to the charity, and taking back any items that do not sell. After raising R50 million for charitable institutions through MSCSPORTS auctions, Jankelowitz and Girnun stopped counting.

After 14 years, however, sports memorabilia is relatively small in comparison to sponsorship, which is the company’s primary focus. MSCSPORT also manages a number of high-profile sportsmen, from Siyabonga Nkosi to Heyneke Meyer, often providing personal as well as professional support. Jankelowitz believes that passion for sports and the capacity to work across the industry, is what drives the company’s successes, which include numerous sports industry award nominations.

“We’ve added integrity to the industry… We’ve stayed true to who we are as we’ve grown,” he added.

As for young professionals seeking to enter this competitive and exciting field, Jankelowitz says the key is to get yourself noticed – and then to build a career through focus and loyalty.

“You need to be different, and your difference has to be true to who you are,” he said.