SportBusiness pays tribute to Kevin Roberts, founding editor of SportBusiness International

It is with immense sadness that we announce that Kevin Roberts, founding editor and group editorial director for the SportBusiness Group, has died suddenly, aged 61.

Everyone at the SportBusiness family and Silva International joins together to offer our deepest sympathy and condolences to Kevin’s family and they will continue to have our full support.

Highly-charismatic, engaging and a popular figure in the sports industry, Kevin will be sadly missed and leaves a great legacy.

Kevin was a key member of the team that launched the company’s first sports industry subscription title, SportBusiness International, in 1996 and has played a vital role in the evolution of the publication over the course of its 24-year history.

He had two highly successful full-time stints with SportBusiness Group.

In the first, he edited the SportBusiness International print publication and oversaw a popular series of industry conferences. He eventually stepped down from this position to become a freelance communications consultant, but still wrote features and a regular column for the publication, in addition to providing generous guidance to his successors.

He returned to the company full-time in 2019 as group editorial director, where he led the launch of the SportBusiness Decision Makers conference series and played an important role in the transition to a new website, SportBusiness.com. In his second stint, he also championed the launch of SportBusiness’ Finance & Law and Technology portals.

Kevin was also regularly called upon as a host presenter for other major sports conferences. Aside from his duties with the SportBusiness Group, he was also responsible for planning and presenting the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, and also presented at the International Herald Tribune (now International New York Times) Sports Summit and the Sportel Monaco conference.

Prior to working for the SportBusiness Group, he was head of communications at the London-based agency CPMA, he where he worked on events including the Rugby World Cup, World Student Games (Universiade) and Bells Scottish Open Golf Championship.

A talented rugby player in his youth, and an obsessive Crystal Palace fan, Kevin’s passion for sport and appetite for life came across in his writing. The Premier League club was seldom very far from his thoughts and he regularly described himself as a ‘football tragic’ in his columns for SportBusiness.

Riccardo Silva and Marco Auletta of SportBusiness owner Silva International said: “We speak for everyone at SportBusiness Group when we say we are devastated by the sudden loss of Kevin. He was fundamental to the success of the editorial team and his legacy is the dynamism of our subscription products. But more than anything we will miss his wonderful sense of humour, energy and passion for sport.”

To read a collection of tributes to Kevin by the people who knew him, click here.