Introduction & Purpose: Nowadays, sports in economy, especially production and employment for youth excellence, are conducive to a favorable business environment. In this regard, understanding the barriers to entrepreneurship in sport helps to make the right policy for the development of the business environment. Given the importance of the subject, the purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize barriers to entrepreneurship in sport.
Methodology: In this study, the opinions of 15 sports experts who were considered as sample using snowball method were used. For this purpose, in this study, first, using library studies and interviewing experts (Delphi method), we identified barriers to entrepreneurship in sport. After identifying the barriers to entrepreneurship in sport using the DEMATEL method, the internal relationships between the identified barriers and the corresponding network model were plotted. Then based on the presented network model, the expert questionnaire was designed to determine the degree of importance of each barrier using ANP.
Results: The results of the combined ANP and DEMATEL approach to weighting the criteria and prioritizing the effective factors indicate that among the factors, environmental barriers (weight 0.499) have the highest importance and behavioral barriers (weight 0. 119) have the least importance.
Conclusion: Entrepreneurship in sport should be considered as a value and a necessity in society.