Brilliant People Podcast Gareth Balch: How Fan Data, Audience Growth, and Sports IP Monetization Are Reshaping the Global Sports Industry | E30
What does it take to build one of the most influential data and marketing engines in global sport in a market defined by exploding fan demand, new consumption behaviors, and an unprecedented wave of private capital?
In this episode, host Linnea Jungnelius sits down with Gareth Balch, Co-Founder and CEO of Two Circles, the sports data and intelligence company working with more than 900 rights holders worldwide — including the NFL, NBA, Premier League, ICC, and World Rugby — and processing nearly two thirds of all global sports fan transactions.
Over the last 14 years, Gareth has helped usher sport into its third age of monetization: a world where audience attention, audience affection, and sophisticated data engineering shape the winners.
From why sport is the “world’s largest religion,” to how fragmented fan behavior is redefining the attention economy, to what it really takes to build a tribe that compounds, Gareth breaks down the forces powering today’s global sports boom.
For rights holders, private equity investors, and anyone focused on commercial growth in sport, this conversation reveals the playbook behind audience-led value creation, the economics driving white-hot investment, and why knowing your fans best is now the ultimate competitive advantage.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why the future belongs to rights holders that grow audience attention + affection fastest.
- How the biggest leagues and the "innovating middle" are scaling by building tribes, not just selling rights.
- Why we're entering the third age of sports monetization and who's positioned to win in it.
- How to engineer real revenue from trillions of fan data points.
- Where leakage is happening, and how rights holders can recapture value from tech platforms, piracy, and real estate.
- Why institutional capital is pouring into the sector and where the smartest money is deploying next.
Timecodes
00:12 Guest Intro: Gareth Balch
03:18 The 6B–4B–1.5B Fan Economy
04:46 The Third Age of Sports Monetization
05:16 The Attention–Affection Model for Valuing Sports IP
06:04 Revenue Concentration: Top 20 Leagues Controlling 44%
08:06 Sports IP Forecast: Path to $260B by 2033
09:28 Breakout Performers: SailGP, CFP, The Hundred
10:04 Tribe Building: How Smaller Sports Create Outsized Value
11:18 Shooting Stars: IPL, UFC, NWSL Growth Flywheel
13:00 Women’s Sports: Unlocking the Commercialization Gap
16:32 Know Your Fans Best: The Ultimate Competitive Advantage
22:12 Leakage: Piracy & Value Lost to Platforms
24:00 Private Capital in Sports: Why the Category Is “White Hot”
27:52 Where Capital Flows Next: IP vs. Tech vs. Adjacencies
30:14 Predictive Analytics: Causation Over Correlation
33:32 Building a High-Performance Culture
36:36 Evolving the Ideal Hire: Attitude vs. Aptitude
42:06 Managing the Doom Loop: “Don’t Suffer Twice”
49:22 Lightning Round: Personal Reflections
Resources:
Gareth Balch:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethbalch/
Linnea Jungnelius:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linneajungnelius
X: https://x.com/itslinnea
Explore the Podcast:
Spotify: https://rebrand.ly/gareth-balch-spotify-podcastApple Podcasts: https://rebrand.ly/gareth-balch-apple-podcastBlog: https://rebrand.ly/gareth-balch-blog
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