Unofficial Partner Podcast

Today is part of our Talking To Women About The Sports Business series, with my regular co-host Laura Weston. Our guest is the English golfer Meghan MacLaren.MacLaren is one of the most interesting people in golf at the moment and as you’ll hear we’ve been wanting to get her on the pod for some time, but because she’s currently playing mainly in the US at the moment, her schedule is very full. Beyond her ability as a player, MacLaren has built a reputation for being an insightful analyst of the game and the cultural and business that surrounds it. I really recommend her Twitter account and her personal blog that we reference in the conversation, which took place the evening before the Sport Industry Awards, which explains some of the chat at the start. This podcast is sponsored by Leaders in Sport, which is back in real life at Twickenham Stadium between the 5th to the 7th of October. There’s always a lot going on at Leaders, but I’ve got my eye on a peer to peer session between the BBC’s Director-General Tim Davie and Wimbledon CEO Sally Bolton, which feels like something that doesn’t happen very often. To get 15% off the full ticket price, go via the Leaders Week London website and use the code UnofficialPartner15As ever, 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.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 episode 7 of our series Re Thinking Sport in collaboration with Portas, the global strategy consultancy dedicated to sport and physical activity. The subject is multi club ownership in European football, and our guest is Paul Conway, head of Pacific Media Group, one of the pioneers of the genre. Pacific Media recently completed the takeover of Dutch club FC Den Bosch, which becomes the seventh club in the group, which also includes English club Barnsley, AS Nancy in France, KV Oostende from Belgium, Denmarks’s Esbjerg. So we ask, how does it work in practice, what’s the strategic advantage to each club and what’s the impact of on areas such as player transfers, performance data and the role of managers. Paul Conway gives us an hour of his time for what feels like a genuine inside look at how professional football works today, if you work in sport, it’s one you need to hear. The other voice you’ll hear is that of my co-host in this episode, Patrick Massey, partner at Portas Consulting who really helped to ask the right questions.  As ever, 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 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 another episode in our regular series on the sports media, broadcast and streaming market. My regular co-host Yannick Ramcke are joined by Charlie Boss, Chief Commercial Officer at The Jockey Club and former Disney ESPN executive. This podcast is sponsored by Leaders in Sport, which is back live at Twickenham Stadium between the 5th to the 7th of October. The guest list is looking good, a lot of big name sports organisations are there adidas, Bayern Munich, NBA, Chevrolet, NFL, City Football Group, Spotify, UEFA, WWE, loads more.To get 15% off the full ticket price, go via the Leaders Week London website and use the code UnofficialPartner15We’re doing a live podcast, so make sure come and say hello when you get there. As ever, 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 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 summer football transfer window has been about massive names moving between so-called super clubs. Messi to PSG, Ronaldo to Man Utd. Mbappe apparently not moving to Real Madrid. A theme of the business conversation is the commercial value of the individual player to the club. This complex issue is often dumbed down to a narrower conversation about shirt sales. But, as you’ll hear over the next fifty minutes or so, its much more interesting than that.To help us unpick the story, we have Daniel Kirschner, co-founder of Greenfly, the social media platform, Professor Simon Chadwick of Emylon Business School and Tim Crow, the sports sponsorship expert and former CEO of Synergy Sponsorship.  This podcast is sponsored by Leaders in Sport, which is back live at Twickenham Stadium between the 5th to the 7th of October. There’s a long list of star speakers on the Leaders Week website including Sally Bolton CEO of Wimbledon and the All England Tennis Club, Kelly Simmons MBE, The FA’s Director of the Women’s Game, and there’s a live recording of the ever popular Game Changers podcast with our mate Sue Anstiss and Ugo Monye, the former England rugby star who’s about to enter the new season of Strictly Come Dancing on BBC. Listeners can get a 15% discount by clicking here  and quote the code UnofficialPartner15. Come and say hello when you get there. As ever, 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 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.

Today’s guest is Ed Warner OBE, who was Chair of UK Athletics from 2007 to 2017, and has been Chair of World Para Athletics for the International Paralympic Committee since 2011. He led the successful bid to stage the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London’s Olympic Stadium, and was subsequently Chair of the London 2017 organising committee. And as you’ll hear he brings a view from what he calls his day job as a city financier and chair of a private equity group.This podcast is sponsored by Leaders in Sport, and we’ll be at Twickenham Stadium between the 5th to the 7th of October to do a live Unofficial Partner podcast. Listeners can get a 15% discount by clicking here  and quote the code UnofficialPartner15. Come and say hello when you get there. As ever, 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 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 the first in a new series looking at the business of esports, in collaboration with Nielsen Sports, the world’s leading source of sports measurement and analytics.Today’s guests are Matthew Archambault, head of partnerships for North America at Riot Games, publishers of the phenomenally successful League of Legends franchise. Matt manages strategic partnerships, national sponsorships, media rights, and merchandising for the League Championship Series (LCS). Joining Matthew is Matt Boyd, Vice President of Nielsen Esports and Games. Based in North America, Matt leads client relationships with teams, publishers/leagues, and brands, providing the data analysis to help them maximize the value of commercial partnerships. So this is a conversation unpicking how the business of esports works through the lens of the industry's multiple stakeholders, from the game publishers to the media platforms and commercial partners through to the teams, leagues, players and fans. 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 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.

Today’s guest is Mike Keegan, sports news correspondent of the Daily Mail, who inherited that paper’s Sports Agenda column from the legendary Charlie Sale, a two time guest on the podcast. So we talk about some of the regular themes that crop up as part of the sports news agenda, what he describes as the ‘cult-like’ obsession with youth audiences at BBC Sport, what it was like attending the Euro 2020 final and then we talk about Mike’s new book, called This Is How It Feels: An English Football Miracle, which celebrates the glory days of Oldham Athletic in the early 1990s. This podcast is sponsored by our friends at the Professional Triathlete Organisation, who have a big new event coming up at the end of August. The Collins Cup has a $1.5million prize purse and is a reformatting of the sport along the lines of golf’s Ryder Cup. If you’d like to find out more, link here.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 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 a special episode of Re:Thinking Sport, our collaboration with Portas, the global strategy consultancy dedicated to sport and physical activity.  Our guest is Mark Bullingham, who is the Chief Executive of The FA, the governing body for football in England, one of the biggest jobs in sport. His remit covers the entire game, from England teams to grassroots, the Women’s Super League to Wembley Stadium. Bullingham was promoted to the top job in March 2019 following the departure of Martin Glenn, the man who recruited him to The FA as the commercial director. Before that he ran Fuse, Omnicom’s sport and entertainment agency and was marketing director of the America’s Cup sailing race. It’s a conversation that covers a lot of ground, including The FA’s relationship with the commercial sector and innovation, the future funding model for the Women’s Super League, what he thought of The Hundred and what he’s learning about politics and politicians from Euro 2020 and The FA’s joint bid for the 2030 FIFA World Cup. 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 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.

It’s become fashionable to use the term Gold Rush to describe the North American betting market. In 2018 the US Supreme Court overturned a federal bill banning gambling, which effectively signalled a shift that turned sports betting from an unregulated market to a regulated one. Estimates as to the size of the sports betting marketplace vary wildly. But all agree that it’s growing quickly, and that media technology is going to play a major role. Today’s podcast looks at the role broadcast technology is playing to make betting easier and more accessible to sports fans. Our guests are Miheer Walavalkar, Co-founder and CEO of broadcast technology company LiveLike and Brian Josephs, Vice President of Digital Sport at Sportradar US, a leading global provider of sports data, betting and entertainment products. Together, LiveLike and Sportradar have launched emBET, that integrates live betting content and data into sports broadcast OTT streams in real time. We talk about what this means for all concerned, from the sports leagues and event rights holders through to TV companies and of course, sports fans. 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 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.

On Wednesday 8th September, more than a thousand lucky invitees will make their way to Battersea in south London for the 20th edition of the Sports Industry Awards, which has grown from the inaugural event back in 2001 to a staple of the UK industry calendar, boasting a cast of world famous faces from sport, politics, showbiz and the media.So, enjoy the next fifty minutes or so in the company of the event’s founder Nick Keller and a group of people we asked to recall their memories of the event, including Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson, Steve Martin of M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment, Alex Willis head of marketing at Wimbledon and the All England Club and Alex Coulson, Sport Industry Group managing director.  This week’s podcast is sponsored by our friends at the Professional Triathlete Organisation, who have a big new event coming up at the end of August. The Collins Cup has a $1.5million prize purse and is a reformatting of the sport along the lines of golf’s Ryder Cup. If you’d like to find out more, then click here.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 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.