A former-athlete's instinct for the game fused with a banker's discipline for the deal — the founding principle of Powerplay Sports Group.
A native of Kentwood, Louisiana, Richie Bickham began his career not on a sideline but on a balance sheet. After earning his accounting degree from Southern University, he took his first role as a staff accountant inside the automotive group owned by Pro Football Hall of Famer Aeneas Williams — a vantage point that placed him in the orbit of elite athletes years before he would represent them.
His curiosity about the business of sport proved decisive. When Bickham voiced an ambition to one day operate as a general manager or agent, Williams connected him with his own representative — the legendary agent Eugene Parker. The hour-long conversation that followed reset Bickham's trajectory and lit a competitive fire that still drives his practice today.
For the next two decades he built an uncommon résumé in parallel: a financial-services career spanning enterprise and operational risk at Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, Experian, Wells Fargo, USAA, Citi, and most recently Grant Thornton — while sharpening the negotiation craft that defines representation. He holds a master's in Sports Administration from Grambling State University, an MBA in Finance from Dallas Baptist University, and a Negotiation Mastery certificate from Harvard University.
In 2017 he founded Powerplay Sports Group, channeling that dual fluency into a single mission: representing professional athletes with the structure of a family office. As an NFLPA Certified Contract Advisor and a certified internal auditor and risk manager, Bickham manages the whole athlete — contract, capital, brand, and the consequential leap from college to the league — with the same rigor he brought to the board-level risk reports of Fortune 500 institutions.
Signing days. The road. The locker room. The alma mater. Relationships built on showing up — every step of the way.
I manage the athlete as a whole — on the field and off — with the discipline of a family office.
To guide professional athletes through every chapter of their careers with sound counsel and unwavering support — on the field and off.
Holistic and family-office in structure: contract, capital, brand, and life managed as one accountable relationship.
To set a new standard for representation where financial rigor and genuine advocacy are inseparable.
Authorized to negotiate NFL player contracts — the credential at the center of professional football representation.
Completed Harvard University's Negotiation Mastery program, formalizing a career-long negotiating discipline.
Led second-line operational-risk oversight and compliance programs at Wells Fargo, USAA, and Citi.
Produced board- and audit-committee-level risk reporting for Fortune 500 financial and healthcare institutions.
Every credential earned in the boardroom now serves the athlete — representation backed by two decades of measurable, audited performance.
For athletes, families, brands, and institutions who value financial rigor and genuine advocacy in equal measure.
