The Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast by Marcus Luer Greg Economou, "Sport goes to Hollywood"
Greg has had an incredible journey and with it great stories to tell from his Pro-Basketball playing days at Greek’s Olympiakos to launching his first Agency and selling it to SFX, working with David Stern at the NBA, joining Madison Square Garden, Guggenheim Media, Ticketmaster in senior roles to now bringing his passion for sports to Hollywood with game1. Listen, learn and get inspired.
Key Highlights
- From playing basketball at the University of Connecticut to going back to his roots with Olympiakos in Athens, Greek
- SME Branding story, after re-branding “The Patriots” (no not those Patriots), over 1,500 re-branding assignments across sports from Colleges to athletes
- Acquisition of SME by SFX Sports in late Nineties
- BrandThink, his new baby, taking branding to a strategic level
- Call from David Stern, after re-branding Detroit Pistons successfully, re-positioning of the League globally
- Early days of the Charlotte Hornets franchise – tough job in tough environment, small market team
- Back to the Big Apple, Madison Square Garden, focused on bringing in new Revenue
- Guggenheim Media – Dick Clark Production – exposure to entertainment and branded content
- Missing his Sports Tribe, swing back into Sports retooling Ticketmaster Sports Division
- Game1 - Sports, Culture and Stories - combining his passion for sports with his Hollywood partners Basil Iwanyk (John Wick franchise) and Michael Smith (ESPN Sports Center)
- Becoming a “storyteller” from short form, documentary, feature films to Podcasts in Sports
- Back to being an Entrepreneur
- The meaning of “Elevated Content”
- Forty projects in pipeline from Feature films, scripted, unscripted to podcast
- The Last Dance, amazing storytelling and perfect timing
- Danica Patrick, former Race driver, new show about Equality – Oprah Winfrey watch out
- Content distribution & Funding/Financing strategies
- Covid’s challenges and opportunities
About
Greg Economou is a Co-Founder and Partner of game1, the cutting-edge content incubator that sits at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and culture, producing an array of sports-related content in conjunction with the world’s greatest athletes, teams, leagues, and their counterparts in the entertainment industry. This content includes feature films, scripted and unscripted television and digital programming, as well as audio programming. In his role at game1, he helps oversee the day-to-day operations of the company, while leading all revenue generation and white label studio efforts.
Economou also manages his own advisory and investment practice formed in 2016 that focuses on helping a variety of businesses succeed in and around the sports and entertainment industries through strategic counsel and at times financial support and investment. In this capacity, he and his team oversee a series of advisory assignments that range from strategy development, branding, marketing, and digital to client acquisition, business development and sales as well.
Prior to launching game1 and his advisory practice, Economou served as Chief Commercial Officer & Head of Sports at Ticketmaster. In this role, he directed the company’s extensive sports division, overseeing all Ticketmaster products and services delivered to clients throughout professional sports and college athletics, while also leading all new business development efforts as well. Economou also had responsibility over all of the company’s industry sales and marketing operations, including sales operations, brand marketing, enterprise marketing, sponsorship and partnership marketing, event marketing, as well as all premium product sales and services included in the Ticketmaster Agency offering.
Economou previously served as the Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer at Guggenheim Media/Dick Clark Productions where he built a thriving branded content practice with over $250M worth of deals in four years. Prior to that, he served as Executive Vice President of Revenue Performance for The Madison Square Garden Company (CRO) where he oversaw multiple billion-dollar revenue portfolios. Economou has also held senior positions as the EVP of Business Operations & Chief Marketing Officer of the Charlotte Hornets (COO) and SVP of Marketing & Communications of the NBA (CMO). In addition to the above-mentioned roles, he also co-founded and sold two successful sports industry-centric consulting firms, BRANDTHINK and SME Branding. He began his career in sports as a professional basketball player in Europe, playing for Olympiakos in Athens, Greece – following a successful collegiate basketball career at the University of Connecticut.
Economou also serves on several advisory boards, including Journey One, LAFC, Merchant Advocate, OpenNode, ReachTV, and Sportsdigita, while formerly serving on the advisory boards of The Player’s Tribune and the American Film Institute. He lives in Santa Monica with his fiancé, Juliette de Campos, and his three sons, Rip 20, Luke 17, and AJ 15.
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If you are enjoying the Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast (SEP) series, check out our Sports Entrepreneurs Mastermind (SEM) sessions too.
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The SEM sessions are an extension of the SEP series, where we bring experts from around the world together for 1.5-2 hours of brainstorming, learning, discussion and connecting. It’s a live online round table format, moderated by Marcus Luer which includes a short presentation by him to set up the topic of the session and then the members will discuss, share their thoughts, ask questions and debate the topic. The direction of the discussion is truly influenced by the participants of the given session. It’s a fascinating learning experience for everyone involved. Come join us for future sessions by getting on our mailing list. Please register HERE
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