Sports-related businesses in South-east Asia (SEA) can now tap the expertise of professional services firm Deloitte, which officially launched its sports business practice in the region yesterday.

Deloitte SEA will offer services in audit, tax, financial and risk advice, and consulting that will be provided through a customised sports lens. It will also provide sports-specific advice such as strategy review and redevelopment, governance and organisation design, and economic impact studies.

James Walton, Sports Business Group Leader of Deloitte South-east Asia, said they decided to launch this practice after noticing that the sports scene in the region had grown substantially in recent years.

“We see this in their increased focus on developing their athletes to compete at elite level in world games,” he said. “Many major sporting associations are also beginning to venture into South-east Asia as part of their tour, seeing the potential gain from the emerging pool of affluent spectators, and the countries’ openness to cater state-of-the-art facilities and venues to host these events.

“With the increase in activity, sports businesses are starting to recognise the potential the region has to offer, and need help to come up with a game plan to make their play in this lucrative sporting arena.”

Deloitte is already supporting several sports associations in the region, including Sport Singapore and the Singapore Sports Institute. It was also the official professional services partner of the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, the 2015 SEA Games and Asean Para Games — which were all held in Singapore — and currently works with Netball Singapore.

“Bringing our sports business services into our South-east Asia firm is a natural progression of our support for sports,” said Deloitte SEA chief executive officer Philip Yuen.

“We want to offer what we do best to help build up sports in the region, and foster, among the different communities, good qualities and values synonymous with sports such as excellence, resilience and determination.”