Unofficial Partner Podcast

This is number 15 of The Bundle our series on the broadcast, streaming and media rights market with regular co-host Yannick Ramcke and special guests Murray Barnett and Charlie Boss.Charlie is Chief Commercial Officer at The Jockey Club and has Disney ESPN, The FA and England Rugby on his cv. Murray is another ESPN alumni, who was CCO at World Rugby and Head of Global Partnerships at F1. His 26West Sport consultancy specialises in TV rights, sponsorship and commercial development.The conversation starts on Apple and moves quickly to the big deal of the last week, Microsoft’s proposed buyout of gaming giant Activision Blizzard for around $70billon. What are the implications for sport and for the media market generally, what does it say about the value of IP, and how are the broadcasters and streamers going to respond?Every episode of Unofficial Partner can be found by using the big podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via your favourite podcast app. The weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter is read by thousands of people across the sports business every Thursday, to join them subscribe 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 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.

Today we’re talking about web3, blockchain, NFTs, fan engagement tokens and the metaverse. Our guests are sports investor and former advisor on tech and innovation to FIFA Michael Broughton and Carsten Thode, founder of Aphetor, the games for creators and influencers who was formerly strategy head for Synergy Sponsorship and Manchester United.Every episode of Unofficial Partner can be found by using the big podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via your favourite podcast app. The weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter is read by thousands of people across the sports business every Thursday, to join them subscribe 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 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.

Steve Perryman MBE is a legend of Tottenham Hotspur FC, whose 17 years at the club began as a teenager in the late 1960s before becoming one of the clubs longest serving and most decorated captains, winning The FA Cup twice in the early 80s. But that’s just a part of this conversation, which takes us inside the business of football at the sharp end. Perryman’s love affair with Spurs ended unhappily in 1994 when he was part of the management team of his friend and fellow Spurs star, the Argentina World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles, who were sacked by then owner Alan Sugar.Perryman recalls his journey from player to management, for Watford, Brentford and to great success in Japan’s J-League, again with Ardiles. For the last two decades, Perryman has been an unpaid director of football of Exeter City in the lower reaches of England’s professional league pyramid. This gives him a perspective on the current debate about the fundamental importance of lower division football, both to the communities they serve and as the training ground for the superstars of tomorrow. The weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter is read by thousands of people across the sports business every Thursday, to join them subscribe 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 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 episode three of our series on the business of esports, created in collaboration with Nielsen Sport, the world’s leading source of sports measurement and analytics.Today’s conversation moves the focus to the market for mobile gaming in the Asia Pacific region and our guests are Ajay Jilka Director of Regional esports partnerships of Moonton Games, and Mike Wragg, Nielsen Sport’s Managing Director for Asia Pacific who is also the company’s International Head of Strategy Consulting and Research. Moonton Games was established in 2014, based in Shanghai, China, and is best known as one of the pioneers of MOBA Gaming and in particular the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship. In March 2021 Moonton was acquired by ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, in a deal valued at around $4billion, marking the mobile social platform’s move in to the gaming business.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 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.

Today’s guests are Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson and Ben Rogers, co-founder of Hong Kong Watch, the lobbying group The topic is sport’s relationship with China, the value of diplomatic and sporting boycotts, the role of sportswashing, the limits and opportunity of athlete activism, the IOC’s handling of the Peng Shuai situation and ultimately we ask, what is the purpose of the IOC and the Olympic Movement in 2022? Every episode of Unofficial Partner can be found by using the big podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via your favourite podcast app. And if you don’t already get the weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter, you can join thousands of busy sports biz execs who receive it direct to their inbox every Thursday, subscribe via the unofficialpartner substack.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 was a bit of a moment for Richard and Sean as its the first in person recording we’ve done since the lockdown forced us online. Newer listeners won’t remember but the first fifty or so podcasts we did were face to face at various locations, and we’ll be looking to do more through 2022, virus permitting.So, we met up at the London headquarters of Omnicom Media Group for the second in our series on sports marketing in partnership with Fuse, the sport, entertainment, cause and culture agency, who helped us pull together a stellar panel that includes Tom Corbett, Group Head of Sponsorships and Media at Barclays, Adam Warner, Senior Director of Global Sports Marketing at PepsiCo, along with Steven Hutchison, Managing Director of Fuse.It’s a broad conversation about football sponsorship, the UEFA Champions League, The Premier League and the FA Women’s Super League, through the eyes of the people making the decisions on the brand side of two of sport’s biggest spending commercial partners.  The weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter is read by thousands of people across the sports business every Thursday, to join them subscribe via unofficialpartner.comEvery episode of Unofficial Partner can be found by using 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.

Today’s guest is Tom Fox, the former chief executive of Premier League club Aston Villa during the ownership tenure of fellow American Randy Lerner. So this is a timely conversation about the economics of the Premier League, the power and limitations of the CEO’s job and the potential impact of government regulation following the Tracey Crouch review in to football governance. Fox’s career has mixed high end football with brand marketing. Before Villa, Fox led Arsenal’s commercial team under CEO Ivan Gazidis following a marketing career at PepsiCo and Nike. Between 2017 and 2020 he was president of MLS franchise the San Jose Earthquakes and recently carried out a similar role at FaZe Clan, the esports franchise.The weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter is read by thousands of people across the sports business every Thursday, to join them subscribe 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 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.

The National Hockey League is made up of 32 teams and 750 players, and the story of the league is increasingly told by the players themselves across their owned social media platforms. Today’s conversation is about the implications of this shift for the league, the team owners, the fans and the players themselves. Our guests are David Klatt, director of social media platforms for the NHL and Daniel Kirschner, founder of Greenfly, the software platform that helps organisations to collect, organise and distribute digital media. If you don’t already get the weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter, you can join thousands of busy sports biz execs who receive it direct to their inbox every Thursday, subscribe via unofficialpartner.comEvery episode of Unofficial Partner can be found by using 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.

The subject of today’s conversation is racism and sport’s relationship to it. And our guests are Sanjay Bhandari and John Amaechi. Sanjay is chair of Kick It Out, the charity campaigning to end racial and ethnic discrimination in English football.   John Amaechi OBE is a psychologist and founder of the APS Intelligence consultancy. The context for the podcast is English cricket and specifically the accusations of institutional racism made against Yorkshire Cricket Club  by Azeem Rafiq, the former player, who detailed his experiences at a highly charged and very emotional meeting of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee on November 16th. The conversation took place before the publication yesterday of the ECB’s action plan to tackle the issues raised by the controversy.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.

Mia Stellberg is an esport psychologist. She’s employed by some of the world’s most successful teams to help them win and keep the best gamers in the world happy and focused on being the best they can be. Stellberg wrote recently that “Esport is chess at warp speed. It’s strategic, you need to be really clever, several steps ahead of your opponent, you need to have good strategy, you need to practice all the time, to the point – and even beyond – of obsession.” So, what does she do to make good players better? What’s the tension between the needs of the individual player and the team owners? What are the areas of competitive advantage that determine the difference between winning and losing? But beyond that, we talk about the life of a pro gamer, the pressures and the incentives. And we ask how the usual tropes of sports psychology apply to the gaming world, things like team culture, 10,000 hours and marginal gains.Welcome to a world I hardly knew existed, and an opportunity to delve in to the lives and the minds of some of the best and highest paid esports gamers working today.If you don’t already get the weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter, you can join thousands of busy sports biz execs who receive it direct to their inbox every Thursday, subscribe via unofficialpartner.comEvery episode of Unofficial Partner can be found by using 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.