IMG Academy's Sports Evolution

A story about how IMG Academy evolved from a tennis academy into a successful multi-sport boarding school.

"IMG Academy started off as the Bollettieri tennis academy, and then morphed into this full boarding school in Florida. They do all sports now - tennis, track, football, basketball. They recruit really elite athletes, and those elite ones might get scholarships or sponsorships from Nike to defray tuition costs.

The business model is brilliant. The top athletes might get a free ride, but everyone else - who might be quite good but have parents with visions of their kid going pro - will spend $40,000 to $70,000 on tuition. They also run camps which are a great feeder for the school and another revenue stream. You get parents who maybe played baseball, always wanted to go pro but couldn't make it, and now they think their son has a shot so they send them to IMG because it's the best place.

They just got acquired by a European company that's acquiring private schools around the world. IMG has become a great brand and has produced really legit athletes. They recently sold for about $1.5 billion."