Keystone | Sports

About

Led by the former CEO of the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Andrea Coscelli,  our team brings together experienced competition economists and antitrust practitioners with deep financial expertise from our  Financial Economics, Tax, and Securities practice, spanning sport and adjacent industries such as media and telecoms. We help clients evaluate sports governance rules and structural reforms, assess incentives and counterfactuals, understand market dynamics, and quantify financial outcomes and value.

Our offering in sports brings together expertise across four core areas:

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Expert evidence and competition economics, including acting as testifying experts in regulated and sporting ecosystems, applying competition law principles in sport-specific contexts to assess governance rules, enforcement mechanisms and structural reforms.
Industry and regulatory expertise, including audience trends, media rights, fan behaviour, sponsorship economics, business models, and regulatory trade-offs.
AI and econometrics, including regression modelling, empirical benchmarking, scenario analysis and stress testing using granular club-level and market data.
Financial economics, including financial health assessment, valuation and damages analysis, and structured modelling of funding flows and long-term asset dynamics.

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As part of the broader Keystone platform, our Sports practice can draw on a wider bench of competition economists, antitrust practitioners, financial experts, econometricians and technologists. This allows us to pair rigorous substantive advice with practical execution, whether clients are navigating regulatory change, evaluating strategic decisions or preparing for complex disputes.

Capabilities

Competition economics and antitrust

We advise on competition and regulatory issues arising in sporting and other regulated ecosystems. Our work includes analysing governance rules, enforcement mechanisms, and structural reforms through legitimacy, necessity, and proportionality frameworks, alongside market definition, dominance, and damages analysis.

Industry and regulatory expertise

We help clients understand the commercial and institutional forces shaping sport. This includes analysing audience trends, media rights developments, fan behaviour and sponsorship value to identify what drives viewership, revenue and competitive balance. We also assess business models, capital flows, and regulatory trade-offs to evaluate long-term sustainability and international competitiveness.

AI and econometrics

We apply robust econometric analysis, empirical benchmarking and academic evidence to quantify market dynamics, performance drivers and the effects of structural change. We also build AI-enabled scenarios and stress-testing frameworks that combine machine learning tools, granular club-level data, and structured counterfactual design to support policy, commercial, and investment decisions under uncertainty.

Financial economics

We assess financial health using multi-dimensional frameworks spanning solvency, liquidity, operating efficiency and profitability. We also provide valuation and damages analysis, quantifying counterfactual financial outcomes and value impacts through structured modelling of financial performance, funding flows and long-term asset dynamics.

Sample cases

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Dr. Andrea Coscelli of Keystone acted as the expert economist for the Premier League in the matter of Leicester City Football Club versus the Premier League.

Learn more

Keystone has advised sporting organisations on key issues such as financial sustainability and competitive balance, and media organisations on broadcasting rights and underlying market dynamics.

Keystone has provided expert testimony and arbitration support in sports matters involving competition economics issues.

Sports

Competition economics and antitrust

Industry and regulatory expertise

AI and econometrics

Financial economics

Andrea Coscelli

Mike Cragg

Charlie Vlieland-Boddy

How can we help you?