Unofficial Partner Podcast

At any sports business conference, there will be a moment when a strategy geek or rights owner will say they are pivoting to ‘more of a Champions League model’. So we asked one of the architects of the UEFA Champions League to explain why it’s not as straightforward as it sounds. Craig Thompson was a founding member of TEAM Marketing in the early 1990s, creating one of global sport’s most resilient and valuable brands. We talk about scarcity and choice, the failings of Michel Platini, how ’the Champions League model’ really works and why most rights owners can’t do it.A big thank you to our mates at Twelfth Man for helping set this interview up and for hosting us at their offices in Brick Lane, east London. And for letting us in their local afterwards. And then in their office bar after that.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 week we’re peering in to that weird world of international PR, with a particular reference to the big major event bidding campaigns over the years and how the cottage industry around the Olympics is faring now and in the future.There are very few people better qualified to talk about this stuff than Jon Tibbs, so we went to the London offices of Jon Tibbs Associates to talk to the man himself about a career in international sports PR, which has seen Jon and his team working for a disparate group of clients from Beijing 2008 Olympics and Qatar through to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Manchester United.Tibbs’ career is often seen through the lens of his battles with the late Mike Lee, most famously on opposite sides of the race for the 2012 Olympics, whcih ultimately of course went to London rather than Paris, who was Jon’s client.We talk about lots of things in this podcast, and for regular listeners its worth going back and checking out a previous Unoffiical Partner pod with Charlie Sale who took great delight in referencing Tibbs regularly in his columns.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.

Richard and Sean are in a very cold and sunny Paris for the first Global Sports Week, hosting our first Unofficial Partner Live podcast recording. Our panel included Tracey Russell, COO of McCourt, the family investment company that owns Olympique Marseille and was an early investor in Dugout; Andreas Zakglis the Secretary General of FIBA, the international basketball federation and Richard Brisius, the Race Director of The Ocean Race and formerly head of the Sweden Winter Olympic bid for 2026.This podcast has some snippets from the on-stage conversation followed by a more in-depth piece with Tracey on what sport looks like from an investor’s point of view.With social impact a big theme of GSW we got together two people who have put brand purpose at the heart of their businesses. Neill Duffy founder of 17 Sport and Nick Keller or Beyond Sport.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.

Seb Carmichael Brown was early to the whole ‘KSI YouTube influencers in to real sport‘ thing, first as the commercial guy for his brother Spencer FC’s empire, and then via Hashtag Utd, which they created together. Now Seb is a golf influencer in his own right, with 106k followers and a gig as a pundit in mainstream media. How did he do that? Is it as easy as he makes it look? And what’s it like when a team of YouTubers run out against a hungover and angry Essex pub team on a Sunday morning?We interview him in Sean’s kitchen on a cold day in January just before we head off to Paris for Global Sports Week for the first ever Unofficial Partner Live.See you on the other side.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.

Simon Dent was a lawyer then a sports memorabilia shop owner, then a sports agent to his flat mate Martin ‘Chariots’ Offiah and then a football agent. In 2016, he co-founded Dark Horses, a creative sports marketing agency that sits within Lucky Generals, one of the most successful independent advertising agencies in London.We went to the Exmouth Market office to talk to Simon and join the dots.Next week, Richard and Sean head to Paris for the first ever Unofficial Partner Live at the inaugural Global Sports Week event. Come and say hello if you’re there.https://globalsportsweek.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 week we're talking about why the sports business looks like it does, which is predominantly white, male and middle class.Our guest is Pranav Soneji, co-founder of Livewire Sport, who have launched a mentoring project aimed at tackling some of the barriers people from under represented groups face when they start a career in sport and Digital industries. We talk about what diversity means, why the sports business should care about it, and why change takes so long. The programme takes place throughout 2020, will include sessions with some of LiveWire’s clients, including - Channel 4, Team GB, Wimbledon among others. You can find details of the scheme at http://livewiresport.com/mentoring/Finally, a big thank you also to our great friends at SDA one of London’s best boutique brand consultancies for opening their doors on Charlotte Street to us and allowing us to record this podcast at their offices, it is as ever much appreciated.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 week we talk to Alex Fynn the former Saatchi and Saatchi adman turned author who played influential roles at two pivotal moments in football’s recent history. In the 1980s Alex was commissined by the FA to write a blueprint of the Future of Football, a document that ultimately led to the formatin of the Premier League. It was a piece of work that caught the eye of Silvio Berlusconi, then owner of AC Milan among many other things, who asked Alex to write a similar plan to reorganise European club football. We talk about both of those experiences, and what Alex learnt about himself and the nature of power in sport. We can recommend Alex’s most recent book, One Step From Glory, written with the journalist Martin Cloake, which is all about Tottenham’s journey through to the 2019 Champions League Final in Madrid.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 week we talk to Arron Shepherd, the co-founder of The Goat Agency, the influencer marketing agency at the company’s headquarters on Finsbury Square in London.In 2015 Arron launched Sportlobster, a niche football social platform that used Cristiano Ronaldo as an ambassador. This experience shaped his approach to what he’s doing now, and how he looks at the whole idea of influencer marketing. We talk about the resistance to influencers from the traditional media and advertising agencies, and why they’ve missed the boat on a sector that some observers suggest will be worth $15billion by 2022.If you like the podcast, please tell other people or even write a nice review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you use to listen.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 week Richard and Sean head to the Wimbledon home of sports business legend Andrew Croker to talk about his life and career. It’s a story that boasts an extraordinary cast of extraordinary characters such as Rupert Murdoch, Mark McCormack, Horst Dassler and Len Blavatnik among many, many others, stopping off at the great landmark moments of the past 40 years, from the 1966 World Cup through to the birth of Sky Sports, the launch of the Premier League, the first dotcom and Frank Lampard’s role in the advent of VAR. This is the final podcast of 2019, so it’s time to wish all our regular listeners a very Happy Christmas, we really appreciate your support over the course of the year. We’ll be back in the first week of January for the first podcast of 2020.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 week we went to the BOA’s Headquarters in New Cavendish St to meet Vicky Gosling OBE, chief executive of GB Snowsport. Vicky had a highly successful 21 year career in the Royal Air Force, rising to the rank of Group Captain, serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, for which she was awarded the MBE in 2004. She left the forces to become CEO of the Invictus Games, the international multi sport event created by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex for injured servicemen and women.If you want to find out more about Vicky, she recently did a great presentation at the Marketing Society’s Bravest event in London, about what her career in the armed services taught her and how that can be applied to business. You find the video of that presentation at the Marketing Society’s website.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.