Unofficial Partner Podcast

Who, or what, is a Southampton (Saints) fan? It's a trickier question than it first appears, because when the sports business conversation moves to describing fans, it often refers to them as a homogenous blob of cliches and replica shirt wearing stereotypes. In reality, obviously, they are a collection of individual people, with different reasons for supporting a club. This makes pleasing them difficult. And this is the job of today's guest Sarah Batters, Director of Marketing and Partnerships of Premier League club Southampton.Do the normal marketing tropes of funnels and customer acquisition strategies apply to the tribal nature of sports fandom? And is a Saints fan also a Saints Women's team fan?With Sarah is Asa Sherrill, Senior Vice President of Product and Design at InfrontX, the digital media consultancy whose clients include PGA TOUR, Verizon, NASCAR, FOX, Chelsea FC, AS Roma, the International Ski Federation among many others.This is a build on a previous episode, Elements of Value, which is referenced in the conversation. You can find that here: But Does Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs Work On A Wet Tuesday At Stoke?Don't forget, if you can get to London in the evening of Wednesday September 21st we're holding our first live event, Wise UP, the Unofficial Partner Web3 Brainstorm at The Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club. You can buy tickets to the event HERE. To find out more about it, subscribe to the Unofficial Partner newsletter, that goes direct to thousands of people across sport every Thursday.  Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Actor and playwright Hannah Kumari has been performing her own one woman play 'Eng-ger-land' at football clubs around Britain. The play was written in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and is inspired by Hannah’s own experiences of going to football matches as a mixed-race teenager in the 90s.ENG-ER-LAND blends 90s nostalgia with themes of racism, identity politics, lad culture and the idea of Englishness; what does it mean to be English and who gets to define that? Her story gives a view rarely heard within the sports business conversation and gives much needed context to debates about fandom, athlete activism and the relationship between women and football.If you enjoy the podcasts, make sure you're signed up to the Unofficial Partner newsletter that goes out every Thursday where you'll also find details of our upcoming live event, in the evening of 21st September, in partnership with Arsenal Football Club, at the Emirates Stadium in London. You can buy tickets for that event here.And if that's not enough...Leaders Week London returns this September - mark your diaries. Slightly earlier date than you may be used to, this year it will be from 26 to 29 September 2022, just 6 weeks away. For those who don't know, Leaders Week London is so much more than just your average conference - it's a 4-day festival of industry insight, connection building and relationship nurturing. The Summit, part of Leaders Week, will be held at Twickenham Stadium on 28th and 29th September. Use UP15 for a 15% discount on your Summit passes. Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

This is episode 4 of our series looking at the business of esports, in collaboration with Nielsen Sport, the world’s leading source of sports measurement and analytics.Today’s conversation moves the focus to the subject of influencer marketing: what is it, who is being influenced, how much brand marketing money is being spent, what evidence is there of its impact and what is the effect on the sport sponsorship market more generally of the rise of esport creators?Our guests are Seb Carmichael Brown and Salvatore De Angelis.Seb co-founded Hashtag Utd with his brother, the Youtube personality Spencer FC,  and is a content creator in his own right; his ‘Seb on Golf’ YouTube channel has over 130,000 subscribers.Salvatore is Head of Digital, International at Nielsen Sports & Entertainment, based in Milan.To keep in touch with the rest of the series, make sure you subscribe to Unofficial Partner via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via your favourite podcast app. If you like the podcasts you’ll love the Unofficial Partner newsletter, that goes direct to the inbox of thousands of senior executives across the global sports business every Thursday. To join them, sign up via unofficialpartner.com where you'll also find details of the first Unofficial Partner Live event, at The Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club. You can buy tickets to that here. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

This is an episode of ReThinking Sport, our series created in collaboration with Portas, the global strategy consultancy dedicated to sport and physical activity.  Our guests are Dawn Airey, who chairs the Barclays FA Women's Super League and Championship board and Elise Kossaifi, head of the women and sport practice at Portas. The conversation was recorded a few days after England's Lionesses beat Germany at Wembley to win the UEFA Women's Euros. So the topic is, what now? How can the WSL capitalise on this moment? What's The FA's commercial plan for the league, where is the money going to come from and what are the opportunities and threats that lie ahead?Dawn Airey has had one of the most high profile careers in British and European media, running or holding very senior positions at some of the biggest broadcasters including Channel 4, Channel 5, ITV, Sky, Yahoo and Getty Images. This episode refers to others in the Portas series in which we've talked to the biggest decision makers in women's football including The FA's Mark Bullingham,  Baroness Sue Campbell and Kelly Simmons. You can also hear Emi Aluko, the sporting director of Angel City and Maggie Murphy, chief executive of Lewes FC. The inaugural Unofficial Partner Live event takes place on Wednesday 21st September at The Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club. Tickets have just gone on sale and you can buy them via THIS LINK.You’ll find more detail about the content and format for the evening and keep up to date with guest announcements via the Unofficial Partner Newsletter that goes direct to the inbox of thousands of people across sport, every Thursday. Sign up via UnofficialPartner.com Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

What's the point of major sports events? Ten years on from London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we talk about legacy, promises, over claims and returns on investment. As the UEFA Women's Euros ends and the Commonwealth Games continuing in Birmingham, it's a subject that's ever more relevant to the business of sport, which makes ever more ambitious claims as to the short and long term returns of big events including economic benefit, participation booms and other categories of societal impact. We talk to Tim Hollingsworth and Alex Balfour. Tim is chief executive of Sport England, who held the same role at the British Paralympic Association at London 2012. Alex was the London Organising Committee's head of new media, a role he's carrying out currently on secondment in Birmingham. He co-founded cricket website Cricinfo, now part of ESPN, and runs the Generate Digital consultancy.One thing to mention before we start the conversation is the inaugural Unofficial Partner Live event taking place on Wednesday 21st September at The Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club.  Tickets have just gone on sale and you can buy them via THIS LINK.You’ll find more detail about the content and format for the evening and keep up to date with guest announcements via the Unofficial Partner Newsletter that goes direct to the inbox of thousands of people across sport, every Thursday. Sign up via UnofficialPartner.comUnofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

The market for soccer simulation games is dominated by EA Sports' FIFA franchise, a licensing agreement that is in its 23rd and final year. It's a very lucrative market. Last year EA made around $1.6billion in net revenues, with 150million players. FIFA makes around $150million from the license. So what happens now? How will EA and FIFA move forward in this new era and is EA's market dominance vulnerable to new entrants, in a world where millions of young people have grown up playing free to play mobile games rather than on expensive consoles.  These are some of the questions tackled in this conversation with Eugene Nashilov, CEO and Founder of Strikerz Inc, creator of the UFL soccer simulation game, due to launch this year. This is a deep dive in to how the gaming market works, the reality of the player and team license agreements that underpin the games and how the rise of games like Fortnite and League of Legends has shaped the behaviour of the elusive and much sought after Generation Z audience. If you're interested in the sports business, you should subscribe to the Unofficial Partner newsletter that goes to thousands of people across sport every Thursday. This is where you'll find details of the first Unofficial Partner Live event, taking place on Wednesday 21st September at The Emirates Stadium in London, home of Arsenal Football Club. Tickets are £50 plus VAT and can be bought via this link. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Match tickets are the point at which the promise of new technology meets real life. And the results are mixed. Some of the biggest football matches in recent times have been blighted by claims and counter claims of ticket fraud and technology failures, most notably at the 2022 UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool in Paris, the start of which was delayed amid frightening and chaotic scenes outside the Stade de France as thousands of ticket holding Liverpool fans were stuck outside where police deployed pepper spray and tear gas on supporters holding legitimate tickets. The French government's initial response was to deflect failures in policing by putting the blame on what it called "industrial-scale" ticket fraud, pointing at similar scenes at UEFA's other showcase event, the Euro 2020 final at Wembley last year between England and Italy. So what's gone wrong with the humble match ticket? Has the shift to digital and mobile technology made it easier for the fraudsters, or is ticketing just an easy scapegoat for other problems. This is a conversation about where we are in the evolution of mobile ticketing in particular, and what it reveals about sport's adoption of new technology more generally. Our guests are Mike Bohdinek and Cris Miller. Mike is Founder & Chief Executive Officer at PTI Digital, an expert in sport stadium and venue delivery with 15 years experience including stadium transformations and deployments into more than 30 global sport and entertainment venues. Cris is global Business Director of Stubhub and Viagogo, the largest ticket marketplace in the world. One thing to mention before we start the conversation is the inaugural Unofficial Partner Live event taking place on Wednesday 21st September at The Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal Football Club.  Tickets have just gone on sale and you can buy them here. You’ll find more detail about the content and format for the evening and keep up to date with guest announcements via the Unofficial Partner Newsletter that goes direct to the inbox of thousands of people across sport, every Thursday. Sign up via UnofficialPartner.comUnofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

This is an episode of ReThinking Sport, our series created in collaboration with Portas, the global strategy consultancy dedicated to sport and physical activity.  Today’s guest is Baroness Sue Campbell of Loughborough, the former chair of UK Sport who is now The FA’s Director of Women’s Football. We talk about the UEFA Women’s Euros, currently taking place across England. We use this as a jumping off point to ask, what are The FA’s hopes and plans for the women’s game, how will the Women’s Super League evolve, why has The FA decided against developing a relationship with private equity and what are the implications of these decisions. Sue Campbell is as ever, a straight talker and the result is a fascinating insight in to the game’s present and future.One of the big ambitions of this series has been to look at the football market through the eyes of the people who own and control the clubs and the people in charge of the leagues and the sports’ governing bodies. So previous episodes have featured Rick Parry, the chair of the EFL, Mark Bullingham, CEO of The FA and Kelly Simmons, head of the women’s professional game at The FA and the WSL.On the club ownership side, we’ve had guests including Andy Holt, owner of Accrington Stanley, and Paul Conway, head of Pacific Media Group, one of the leading proponents of a multi-club ownership model, which is a feature of today’s conversation with our guests Brett Johnson and Fabrice Bocquet. Every episode of ReThinking Sport can be found by searching Unofficial Partner via the big podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via your favourite podcast app. Alternatively, you can go direct to unofficialpartner.com and search ‘Portas’ and you’ll find series one and two in their entirety. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Michael Beloff QC is often described as ‘the godfather of sports law’ and the person who Chambers legal directory said ‘more or less invented sports law’ as a discipline. As a result Beloff is one of the most influential people in world sport over the past three decades. He’s written a memoir about his life and career in and out of sport. It’s called MJBQC and we recommend it highly. Beloff was called to the Bar in 1967 and became a Queen's Counsel in 1981. He’s been a Member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport ("CAS") from 1996 and in that capacity has been an arbitrator at the Olympic Games including Ethics Commissioner at London 2012. He has been on the CAS Panel for UEFA and the FIFA World Cup, chairman of the International Cricket Council’s Code of Conduct Commission and was elected as one of the judges of the FIA’s International Court of Appeal. Every sport has been influenced by Beloff in some way, and so the topic of conversation is broad, ranging from corruption, doping and sports washing to how money changed the role of governing bodies and the people who run them. We talk about the image of lawyers, human rights and whether sport leads or follows society; Nike's Vapor Fly super shoes and his long time friendship with the author and former politician Jeffrey Archer. If you’re interested in the business of sport, you should subscribe to the Unofficial Partner newsletter that goes direct to the inbox of thousands of people across sport, every Thursday. Sign up via UnofficialPartner.comUnofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Today’s guest is Lucas Von Cranach, the founder and CEO of OneFootball, the global media platform based in Berlin with regional offices around the world. The company recently announced it had raised a $300 million Series D funding round led by blockchain investor Liberty City Ventures, creating a web3 joint venture, One Football Labs, with blockchain games firm Animoca Brands and Dapper Labs known for its sports NFT deals with the NBA and NFL.This follows last year’s acquisition by OneFootball of Dugout, which brought with it relationships with several leading soccer clubs as shareholders, including Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Olympique de Marseille. So this is a conversation about football, digital platforms, web3 and money.  If these topics are of interest, you’ll want to join us in London in September for the first Unofficial Partner event. You can register your interest for the event via the Unofficial Partner newsletter. Sign up at UnofficialPartner.comUnofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.