Meet Christopher Gil | Founder and CEO of Optimal Sports Management

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christopher Gil and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christopher, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?

The thought process behind starting Optimal Sports Management was simple, I wanted to pursue my dream of becoming an NFL agent. By being able to recruit and work with elite high school/college and professional football players through handling their marketing efforts, I want to establish my reputation as one of the best up-and-coming sports agents in the industry. In addition to this, I want to become the best and most recognized Mexican-American agent in the NFL.

My background in sports is pretty impressive for being relatively young. I definitely attribute this to the amazing education I received while at the University of Southern California. A proud Magna Cum Laude (3.8 GPA) graduate of the prestigious Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, I studied the interdisciplinary subject of Sports Media. This really allowed me to learn how sports, business, and public relations all intertwine. This, combined with the first-hand experience I gained by working for several different Los Angeles based professional sports teams and NFL lawyers really augmented my knowledge pertaining to athlete representation.

For these reasons, I launched my agency in July of 2021. I launched it at the beginning of the collegiate NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) era that now allowed college athletes to make money from their marketing efforts. As of today, I work with clients that play at blue blood football programs across the nation. Earlier in the year, I also signed my first professional player who plays in the newly established United States Football League for the New Jersey Generals.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

Optimal Sports Management is a full-service sports marketing agency. We primarily focus on football players at the high school, college, and professional levels. However, we will be expanding into different sports leagues in the near future as we see fit.

A unique aspect about our agency is that we are all very young with respect to the older agents within the sports industry. I think our blend of experience, creativity, and innovativeness is what draws a lot of eyes to us. Both my Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer graduated from the prestigious USC Marshall School of Business and have a lot of first-hand business experience. On top of this, our youth allows us to relate to our players on several different topics not only about football, but also about music, culture, and sports. This has allowed us to work with some of the best players throughout the nation and will eventually lead us to work with some of the best players in the NFL.

I believe Optimal got to be where it is by providing a good service to our clients and just by being ourselves. By providing a good service and by being ourselves, we create a strong sense of trust with our clients. This strong sense of trust leads to players speaking highly of us and allows us to work with other elite players within the football community. In this industry, respect and your name go a long way. This is extremely valuable as recruiting elite players can be pretty difficult, as there are hundreds of other sports agents who have decades worth of more experience.

Running a business, especially at a young age is not easy at all. In addition to running my company, I am also currently a full-time student attaining my Master’s of Science in Management at Loyola Marymount University. I am doing this as a requirement to become a licensed agent with the NFL and to also help me become a more effective leader not only within my company, but also within the sports industry as a whole. One of the main challenges I faced last semester was learning how to balance work and school. Let me tell you, it was no easy task, as I was taking 6 graduate level courses that I needed to get good grades in, while I was also dealing with my college athletes in the middle of their football season. It was without a doubt the toughest academic semester I have ever had, but I ended up attaining a 3.8 GPA and continued to manage the day-to-day of my company by staying up late at night to get work done. Those late nights were grueling, but it taught me a lot about myself and showed me just how passionate I was to make it as an agent.

With next semester coming around the corner, I am going to work just as hard, if not harder, as I will also be graduating in May of 2023. The lesson I learned from myself is to just never give up because nothing is easy and if it were, then everybody could have it. However, I do realize I need to have a good work/life balance, which is why I also de-stress by reading, going to the gym, and playing sports.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The beautiful thing about Los Angeles is that it has so many amazing parts. I may be a little biased as I grew up in East Los Angeles, so that is where I will start. If you are looking for the best Mexican food in all of Los Angeles, a trip to La Imperial Tortilleria is a must. Their yummy menudo and pozole quickly sells out on the weekend, so get there early if you can! Another great spot to go grab a drink and go sightseeing is in Downtown Los Angeles. One of my favorite spots is Spire 73, which offers unparalleled views of the entire city. It is the highest rooftop bar west of the Mississippi River and offers a great selection of drinks and gourmet food, all while being 73 floors above the city. As an avid football fan, no trip to Los Angeles is complete without attending the beautiful SoFi Stadium to watch a football game. The state-of-the-art stadium offers one of the best football environments in the nation. SoFi Stadium also offers a unique fan experience that allows you to schedule a tour to see some of the most exclusive areas like the player’s locker rooms and player tunnel.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

I have been incredibly blessed to have had so many people help me out along my amazing journey. From my friends and family, to the amazing professors at USC and LMU that were always willing to help me network with industry professionals.

The first person I would like to give a shoutout to is Professor Jeff Fellenzer at USC. When I first got to USC as a sophomore, his Journalism 350 course (Introduction to Sports Media) was one of the first I took. Jeff welcomed me to USC with open arms and taught me so many important lessons not only about sports, but about life that I still utilize to this day.

Another person I would live to give a shoutout to is my mentor Frank Yip, who is also a USC graduate. Frank was the first Asian-American NFL agent in the history of the league and has vast experience related to football. He has been extremely valuable in mentoring me so I can continue to run the day-to-day of my company in an effective manner.

The last group I want to give a special shoutout to is every single person at Optimal Sports Management. From my C-level executives to my interns, I appreciate all the hard work they do in doing brand research, running our marketing campaigns for our clients, making graphics for social media, and everything in between. They are what makes our company so great. Optimal to the top!

Website: optimalsports.net

Instagram: christopheregil_

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-gil-096725180/

Other: Check out our company Instagram @optimal_sports!