Unofficial Partner Podcast

Sir Martin Broughton sold Liverpool and nearly bought Chelsea. As chair of the former he was tasked with moving the club out of the hands of previous owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett and in to its current ownership group, Fenway Sports Group. More recently, Broughton put together a consortium to bid for Chelsea, when the club came to market following the forced sale by Roman Abramovich.So there are very few people who have a more informed view on the value of a Premier League football club than Sir Martin Broughton, and although he doesn't say this himself, he'd be a good pick as an independent regulator for football.  Sport features heavily in a corporate career that includes chairmanship of British Airways and British American Tobacco, putting Broughton a close up view of how London 2012 Olympics, Formula One, horse racing and plenty of other sports really work. He's written a book - the link is here - and it's both a fascinating insight in to the sports business, and also a good cause, with all proceeds going to the Retraining of Racehorses charity.  There's a deeper analysis of the issues raised in this podcast to be found in this week's Unofficial Partner Newsletter.Link 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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

It's sometimes said that this is a golden era of sports documentary. F1's Drive to Survive has changed the landscape. Every sports rights holder wants its own version, to use as a tool to reach new audiences, whether that's the infamous Gen Z demographic or in different parts of the world, delivered by the global streamers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.But what are trade offs required in this form of commercialised documentary. Adam Darke is a veteran documentary maker, whose work includes Winning Ugly on rugby union; Forbidden Games, the life of Justin Fashanu, Keeping Up With The Brownlees and All Or Nothing Juventus. Darke's latest series is Deadline Day: Football's Transfer Window, currently available on Sky and produced by Pitch International.  It goes behind the scenes of football's transfer marketplace, revealing the work of agents and clubs in sourcing and acquiring soccer talent at every price point. This conversation is linked to another recent podcast we recorded with Sascha Empacher, one of the stars of the documentary. You can listen to that here:UP291 Mo Salah's Agent and the meaning of transfer deadline day 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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

This is a new series on creativity in sports marketing. With award winning Creative Director Simon Moore as our regular sidekick, we go in search of brilliance. Each episode dissects campaigns we love and campaigns we hate. Some rules: Does the idea deserve to be celebrated in the UP Big Idea Hall of Fame? Does the campaign come with a level of craft and sophistication that merits an award, does it challenge the conventions of the what’s normally done in its category?Can only sport deliver this idea? Creativity in the sport category is an oddity because it's not a specific medium - PR, ad creative, media, outdoor etc - sport itself is the medium for the storytelling. It has to be not just the canvas for the idea, but the paint as well. Does it add value to the fans experience of sport? And does the brand play a relevant role? Fans are not just customers, they are different, how does the work reflect this fact? Does the insight behind the creative show a nuanced understanding of the fan? Does it re-imagine the traditional and expected role of sport in the world? We'd love to get you involved. Feel free to nominate a favourite campaign.If you work on brand side, or for an agency, the same question applies: what's the best work to ever come out of your office? Some links that are referenced in this episode:How To Win A Cannes Lion, UP NewsletterHow to Win A Cannes Lion, UP175 with chair of judges Ben HartmannKasabian England shirt launch by UmbroThank You Mom by P&G/Wieden + KennedyFederer v Agassi in DubaiWe Love LA, Nike, LA1984No More Red, Arsenal and AdidasThis week’s episode is brought to you by our friends at Turnstile.Do you know what your sponsorship is really worth? Now you can stop guessing and start knowing… with Turnstile fair market sponsorship valuations.Turnstile uses real market rates to quantify the value of every single sponsorship right within a deal. Turnstile looUnofficial 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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Piracy and illegal streaming is a $28.3 billion a year global business, impacting sports rights holders and broadcasters across the world. Pirate streams of sporting events are not difficult to find on the internet and shutting these down has proved to be a difficult task for sports leagues. While legal action has been successfully brought against several illegal streamers, many are still fully operational. When one stream gets taken down, more pop up in its place.But there are signs of hope. In just one season, LaLiga Tech removed more than 1,065,000 videos on YouTube, more than 368,000 videos on social networks and more than 820 mobile applications.How did they do this, and what does it mean for the ongoing battle against piracy?Our guests are Lorin Parys and Guillermo Rodriguez. Lorin Parys is CEO of Belgium football's Juliper Pro League and a former political leader in the Belgian parliament.Guillermo Rodríguez is Chief Operating Officer at LaLiga Content Protection, the antipiracy division within LaLiga Tech.Links: La Liga Tech's Content Protection serviceThe Belgian Pro LeaguePiracy in Sport research paperSynamedia and Ampere Analysis researchLaLiga Tech is the specialist company created by LaLiga and the technology leaders Globant to reinvent sports and entertainment. Through its digital ecosystem, LaLiga Tech delivers new platforms and consultancy to help sports properties achieve growth through technology, covering areas like direct-to-consumer and streaming, fan experience, monetization, gamification, business intelligence, or anti-piracy.For more information, get in touch with the team via Laligatech.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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Warren Gatland is one of the most successful coaches of the professional rugby era. His career has spanned the club and international game, with stints in charge of Ireland, Wales and three times the head coach of the British and Irish Lions touring teams to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In December 2022, Gatland returned to Wales ahead of the current Guinness Six Nations Championship, a contract that sees him in charge through to the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France, with potential to extend another four years, to the 2027 tournament. This is a very timely conversation on the topic of leadership in sport:  the stories we tell about coaches and managers and how those correlate with the reality of the job. We ask whether teams have a discernible DNA, what type of players have benefited from rugby's Moneyball era and whether team spirit is something viewed through the rear view mirror.It's full of Gatland's trademark honesty and insight at a time when he's in the full glare of the international sports media spotlight, when everything he says is being ransacked for meaning. 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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Martin Glenn was CEO of The FA for four years until 2018, following a career as a senior executive at United Biscuits and PepsiCo, where he famously made Gary Lineker the face of Walkers Crisps. Glenn was offered The FA job by then chairman, and former UP guest, Greg Dyke and his tenure is regarded favourably across football and the journalists who cover it. Revenue increased 40% and the organisation became noticeably more diverse. England teams began performing better; he sacked Sam Allardyce as England manager and replaced him with Gareth Southgate; nearly sold Wembley Stadium to Shahid Khan and was a big supporter of the women's game at all levels.Today Glenn is chair of The Football Foundation, the charity that distributes money from the Premier League, The FA and the UK Government to help fund grassroots football facilities.  ReThinking Sport is our series created in collaboration with Portas, the global strategy consultancy dedicated to sport and physical activity.  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. 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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

How many people play Table Tennis in England? Who are they and why do they play? Is that number growing or contracting? How easy is it to watch the sport in today's omnichannel media environment and how is it going to evolve? And, is the National Governing Body model, the basis of the economy for sport in the UK, still fit for purpose?These are questions we put to today's guests, Adrian Christy and Mike Emery.Adrian Christy became Chief Executive of Table Tennis England in March 2022. Prior to that, he had been Chief Executive of Badminton England, a role he held from 2006 until stepping down in September 2021. He is also a consultant to the Board of Pentathlon GB and a Non Executive Director of the Sport and Recreation Alliance.Mike Emery is the CEO of Joymo, the Norway based company that provides sports rights holders with an innovative and affordable video streaming solutions, enabling partners to create their own monetisable IP by broadcasting their valuable content direct-to-fans and connecting their events and competitions with a global audience.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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Mo Salah was a teenager playing for Cairo-based club Arab Contractors in the Egyptian Premier League, when he was spotted by Sascha Empacher, the founder of the SPOCS football agency.  Today, Salah is one of the world's greatest players, after a series of transfers took from Basel, Chelsea, Roma and to his current home, Liverpool. Empacher's business has also grown considerably, making him ideally placed to star in the recent documentary, called Deadline Day: Football’s Transfer Window, produced by Pitch International and available to watch on Sky Documentaries and NOW. This is a conversation about the role of football agents, the myths and the reality of what they do, set against a backdrop of proposed legislation of the agency market by FIFA. We discuss the impact of American ownership in the Premier League and compare that to the relatively sluggish financial performance of Bundesliga clubs and how that impacts on their ability to develop talent; what professionalisation of the agency market would mean and the complex job of nurturing, and marketing, footballers from Africa. 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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

How did you watch Qatar 2022? Did you sit in front of a big TV showing live games in real time? Or did you consume thousands of clips across social media and via AI curated digital platforms such as Google OneBox, which saw the biggest ever surge in search queries for football related content during the tournament. The FIFA World Cup was made up of 30,000 highlights clips. That epic final between Argentina and France generated 800 of those, with Messi the king of the clip economy, with 1800 individual moments shared tens of millions of times.   This is a conversation about how it all works. Who are the commercial players in the supply chain between rights holder and fan? How should sports bodies tackle the big questions of discoverability and personalisation of their content? What are the implications for the media and commercial rights markets of sport, and how will AI alter what watching sport means for millions of people around the world?Our guests for this episode are at the centre of these questions. Vadim Drozdovski is a former McKinsey consultant who is VP Growth of WSC Sports, the tech platform that allows automated end-to-end creation and distribution of short form sports content, whose automated highlight videos clocked up 61 million views on Google Search alone.He’s joined by Marvin Brischke, Strategic Partner Development Manager at Google. 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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Will Page was Chief Economist of Spotify and PRS for Music and is the author of the critically acclaimed book Tarzan Economics. Some Will Page references to read alongside the pod. This chart from The Economist on the age of festival headlinersNew Year New Ideas, key chart showing the growth of stadiums and festivals below - think Big Eventer) Billboard: Examining Covid's Impact on UK's live and recorded industriesMusic Business Worldwide: Live Music Goes From Suffering to RecoveringIQ Magazine: Economist Will Page on Live Music's Resurgence Financial Times: Roar of the live music crowd drowns out stadium income from 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 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.