Unofficial Partner Podcast

We’re talking about the various sports markets across Asia today with one of the region’s highest profile entrepreneurs, Marcus Luer, who founded Total Sports Asia as a 28 year old in 1997 based Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Since then the business has generated $500million in commercial revenue for its portfolio of clients including Premier League Football Clubs, Formula One teams, WWE, US Open Tennis and a host of Olympic Sports Federations. Beyond that however, it’s a story about the ups and downs in the life of a serial entrepreneur in a region that has seen financial crises and pandemics come and go over the course of the last three decades.If you enjoy our podcasts, make sure you sign up to the unofficial partner newsletter where we develop the threads of the conversations. 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.

Robbie Lyle created Arsenal Fan TV (now AFTV) in 2012 as a platform for fans to have their say. And they did, in enormous numbers, making it one of the biggest fan networks in world football, and its mix of controversy and raw post-match reaction is much copied across both unofficial and official club channels.We talked about the reaction of mainstream media to this new upstart genre, the commercial future of fan based media channels and what the pandemic has revealed about the distance between the people in football boardrooms and the people who pay for tickets.  Despite being an Arsenal fan, Robbie’s a nice bloke, and one of the smartest media operators out there.If you like our podcasts you should sign up to the Unofficial Partner newsletter which develops the threads of the conversations. You can do this via unofficialpartner.com where you can also explore the back catalogue of over 100 podcasts covering every area of the global sports business.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 we’re talking about leadership with the founding members of a new initiative, The Professional Body of Sports Leadership (PBSL) which has just launched as a network for current, and aspiring, senior executives, high performance specialists and non-executive directors in the sports industry. It aims to drive the development of a new standard in sports industry leadership and governance, safeguard mental health and wellbeing and actively promote inclusion and diversity in all its forms. Alongside this, it will harness the collective knowledge of the sports business, creating an industry dialogue and representative voice.To talk about this, we have three guests. Tom Sears, the founder of the PBSL who many listeners will know from his senior roles in sports bodies internationally and who in 2017 founded the sports executive search specialists Kinsey Sears based in London.Joining Tom are Chris Brindley, Chair of Rugby League World Cup 2021, and Zarah Al-Kudcy, Head of Commercial, Partnership Development, Formula 1. To become a member for PBSL, please click here.If you enjoy the podcasts, sign up to the unofficial partner newsletter where we go deeper in to the themes arising from the conversations, 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 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 the business of European football with one of the most experienced and respected people working in the industry today. Phil Carling started his career as Arsenal’s first ever head of marketing before moving to head up the commercial department of the FA. Since 2004, Carling has been head of football for the sports marketing agency Octagon, managing their clients relationship with clubs, leagues and governing bodies around Europe and beyond. So Phil was my first call when the story broke revealing a plot among some of Europe’s big clubs to launch a European Premier League initially at least endorsed by Fifa and underwritten by $6billion of JPMorgan’s money. This is the latest of many threatened rebel competitions to have appeared over the course of the last three decades. I want to why the story has become such a regular feature of sports business conversation, why this one appeared now, what happened to the previous incarnations and where was Phil Carling the first time he heard rumours of a European breakaway. 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 we pick over the remains of Project Big Picture, the controversial report in to the future of English professional football, that was instigated by the owners of two of the Premier League’s biggest clubs, Liverpool and Manchester United. Our guests are Dan Johnson, former Director of Communications for the Premier League and Joel Seymour Hyde, the UK managing director of the sports marketing agency Octagon.If you enjoy the Unofficial Partner podcasts, you should sign up for the weekly newsletter via the website, where we develop the threads of the conversation in more depth. 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 we’re talking about the NFL and specifically its relationship to the international market.To do this we have Neil Reynolds, who has created a niche as the face and voice of the NFL in the UK, fronting Sky Sports tv coverage and the Inside the Huddle podcast, all alongside his own show The Neil Reynolds Podcast. So we talk about that hardy perennial topic of the sports business, the long discussed London franchise, and the nature of fandom outside the core US market. If you enjoy Unofficial Partner, please rate and review us on Apple or via your favourite app, and sign up to the weekly newsletter 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 the second in our series called The Buy Side, conversations about the reality of sport and sponsorship with CMOs and other senior brand side marketing decision makers. Today’s guest is Peter Markey, CMO of TSB Bank.Peter is responsible for all of TSB’s marketing and digital sales activity including brand, analytics, research, effectiveness, strategy, social media and marketing communications managing a team of over 100 across multiple sites.He was formally Marketing Director of Aviva, the insurance company and CMO of the Post Office, RSA and More Than.To find more conversations about every facet of the sports business, just search Unofficial Partner in your favourite podcast app, and sign up to our weekly newsletter 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.

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs was a term I didn’t know a couple of months ago, and now I see them everywhere, particularly in relation to sport.So, this podcast goes in to what they are, why they’re very popular and what are the implications of this new investment vehicle for the sports business.To do this, I’ve asked Michael Broughton for help. Michael was co-founder of Sports Investment Partners, Europe’s first Investment Vehicle focused specifically on the sports industry. He has been a senior advisor to FIFA on business technology, innovation and investment strategy and is now an advisor to Acceleration Equity, focused on the acquisition of and investment into sports teams and franchises.Note this conversation took place just before the news broke of a possible IPO of the Fenway Sports Group via RedBall Acquisition Corps, the SPAC created by Gerry Cardinale and Billy Beane.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 week we’re looking in to the long tail of grassroots sport and ask if streaming technology has created a much needed commercial opportunity for teams, clubs and governing bodies who make up the vast majority of the sports participation pyramid.To do this we’re talking to Michael Emery, CEO of Joymo, a streaming platform which allows parents, fans, players and coaches to film games and training sessions then store the content and sell access via a dedicated mobile app or through an unmanned camera. Joining us in this conversation is Craig Edmondson, former head of marketing for the Premier League and MD of Zwift esports division, who is helping the international rollout of Joymo, which has its base in Norway. 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.

We’ve been wanting to talk to Timo Lumme for ages - but he’s been quite busy apparently.It’s sometimes said Lumme has had the perfect sports business career: IMG then Nike then Disney/ESPN then for the last decade and a half, the IOC’s big commercial job overseeing broadcast revenue and the TOP sponsorship programme, the largest of its type in sport.(And we haven’t mentioned a stint running Quokka, an early sports tech startup around the first Dotcom boom).So it’s fair to say that with that CV, not much surprises him. But then came Covid, and Tokyo 2020 became Tokyo 2021. So this was a great chance to spend an hour or so in Timo’s company and peer in to the business of the Olympics and the future of the greatest show on earth.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.