The Brand Novak Djokovic: Businesses (Part 2)

Novak Djokovic is not only busy playing tennis. Over the years the Serb has invested in several entrepreneurial projects. Similar to both Nadal and Federer, most of Djokovic’s businesses are managed together with his family. An entrepreneurial family, that is, because they already ran a restaurant when Novak was growing up.

In the first part of The Brand Novak Djokovic we wrote about Djokovic’s sponsors. In this article we take a look at Djokovic’s businesses, including:

  • Family Sport
  • Restaurants: Novak, Eqvita and a new one
  • Djokolife – nutritional food products
  • Novak Djokovic Foundation

Family Sport

In 2005 the Djokovic family started Family Sport, a company focussing on catering and organising sports events. Most of Djokovic’s businesses discussed below are part of this company.

From 2009 till 2012 Family Sport organised the Serbia Open in Belgrade. Djokovic’s uncle led the ATP World Tour 250 clay event as tournament director and Novak was able to win it twice.

Belgrade, the birthplace of Novak, is also the home of the Novak Tennis Centre. The tennis academy has 14 tennis courts, 11 clay and 3 hard courts.

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Restaurant Novak

Another Family Sport project is ‘Novak’, a restaurant inspired by the tennis player.
Located in Belgrade, Novak Café & Restaurant is decorated with all kinds of tennis memorabilia, trophies and photos of the former world number one. The restaurant offers a good variety of food, including vegan dishes.

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Restaurant Eqvita

In 2016 Djokovic opened vegan restaurant Eqvita in Monaco, his current residence. That they have an organic, plant-based menu only fits the tennis star. Novak famously went gluten-free years ago to feel better on and off the court and not long before his extremely successful period. He is also said to be, more or less, a vegan himself.

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A new charitable restaurant

At the end of 2017 it was reported that Novak is in the process of opening a third restaurant. Not surprising you would say given that he is already involved with two other restaurants. However, the restaurant will make food freely available to those in need in Serbia.

More details about where it will be located and how it will work exactly are yet to be released.

Food product range Djokolife

In 2015 Djokovic launched the gluten-free food line Djokolife. With a big launch event in Milan, the products were a representation of Novak’s lifestyle and were sold by Decathlon. It is unclear whether the products are still being produced, because they do not seem available any longer.

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Novak Djokovic Foundation and Unicef Goodwill Ambassador

The Novak Djokovic Foundation, founded by Novak Djokovic and his wife Jelena who is also the National Director, focuses on the well being of children. In particular ‘by giving every child the opportunity to receive a quality preschool education’ they give them ‘a chance to flourish.’ By investing in projects that are sustainable, the foundation hopes to have a long-term impact.

So far the foundation has built 37 schools, supported 683 families, trained 1322 teachers and helped over 20,000 children (as reported on the foundation website in July 2018). To have an even bigger impact the foundation partners with several well-known organisations. One of those organisations is Unicef, for which Djokovic has been a Goodwill Ambassador since 2015.

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As Djokovic is already involved in various business projects, it seems likely that the Serb will invest in new, exciting projects whenever a good chance is presented to him. With a mix of entrepreneurship, giving back to society and conscious living it will be fun to see what other business projects Djokovic will take on in the future.

Read the first part of The Brand Novak Djokovic about Djokovic’s sponsors.

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