Business Development Intern

Job Description:

Situated in the heart of Singapore's Central Business District, Rakuten Asia Pte. Ltd. is Rakuten's Asia Regional headquarters. Established in August 2012 as part of Rakuten's global expansion strategy, Rakuten Asia comprises various businesses that provide essential value-added services to Rakuten's global ecosystem. Through advertisement product development, product strategy, and data management, among others, Rakuten Asia is strengthening Rakuten Group's core competencies to take the lead in an increasingly digitalized world. For more information, visit https://global.rakuten.com/corp/about/.

Rakuten Sports

As an organisation, we are deeply entrenched in sports by owning J-League club Vissel Kobe and baseball teams Rakuten Golden Eagles and Rakuten Monkeys. Rakuten is also proud to be the main partner of 7 times, NBA Champion Golden States Warriors and Davis Cup. More recently, the team has created the inaugural World University Basketball Series (WUBS) and hosted two editions of the NBA Japan Games in 2019 featuring NBA 2019 Champion Toronto Raptors and Houston Rockets as well as in 2022 with NBA 2022 Champion, Golden State Warriors and Washington For more details on Rakuten’s involvement in Sports: https://biz.sports.rakuten.net/ Wizards.

Rakuten Sports is a multi-faceted organisation that specialised in sports marketing and sports business. Our division works with global top rightsholders and athletes to provide commercial partnership supports, we also work with various sports businesses to co-create new experiences to serve the fans globally.

The Rakuten Sports division is seeking for a new Business Development Intern who wants to take on the challenge of innovating in the sports industry by leveraging the Rakuten Group ecosystem. The candidate should have a strong passion for sports business with keen interest to learn more about sports sponsorship and media rights sales.

The key roles and responsibilities will include:

• Understanding Rakuten and Rakuten Sports business model and market approach
• Learning all aspects of a sponsorship sales cycle (leads generation/initial meeting/negotiation/client servicing).
• Identifying trends and market opportunities across APAC which we can grow Rakuten Sports portfolio.
• Prospecting potential partners who might be interested in sports marketing from various online channels through brand identification, research on prospective brand and its category, and preparing necessary reports prior to meetings.
• Supporting sales manager to work on sales presentations and proposals.
• Input in CRM of proposals and database management.
• Be flexible and proactive to complete other projects and tasks assigned
• Assisting the team with any on-going or ad-hoc projects (Eg. Management of prospective clients and their needs, Rakuten-led events etc.)

Mandatory Qualifications:

• Undergraduate / Bachelor’s degree or above.
• Inquisitive, proactive, and passionate about picking up knowledge in sports business development, sales and marketing.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to work effectively as an independent individual and with the wider team across APAC.
• Meticulous with a keen eye for detail and distinctive analytical skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite with excellent command of Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint.

Internship period: Aug 2026 (3 to 6 months)

Rakuten is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications regardless of sex, marital status, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious belief or age.