Unofficial Partner Podcast

For millions of people, Rick Shiels' YouTube channel is how we watch golf in 2024.Shiels is our very special guest today. He started by uploading golf tips to YouTube 12 years ago to attract people to the Trafford Golf Centre in Manchester. Now there are 900 golf channels on the platform, but only one Rick Shiels, with more than 3 million combined subscribers whose videos have attracted more than three quarters of a billion video views.So this is a conversation about how we watch and consume sport today and the questions that creators like Rick Shiels are posing for sport's traditional media and event rights holders.This episode is sponsored by Leaders In Sport.   Leaders in Sport connects the most influential people and the most powerful ideas in global sport to catalyse discussion, and drive the industry forward.Through a series of global summits in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, invitation-only memberships and long form content, Leaders in Sport provides professional executives, both on and off the field, with access to a community of peers to share best practice and trends that are shaping the future of sport.Their flagship event, Leaders Week London, returns from 14 to 17 October, with The Summit taking place at Twickenham Stadium hosting the most senior executives from over 40 countries, including over 100 brands.We'll be there, and you should join us.Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information and use UP15 for a 15% discount on your Summit passes.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.

Other People's Money is our regular series on sports investment, with regular co-host Matt Rogan, co-founder of Two Circles. Our guests today are Jonathan Lenson and Sam Johnson, CEO and head of sport respectively at Milltown Partners, the communications and public policy consultancy co-founded by Paddy Harverson, the former PR to Manchester United and King Charles, among others.The conversation is prompted by some focus group work carried out by Milltown in to the reputational challenges that surround football's relationship with private investors, particulary from the US. It was Gary Neville of Sky Sports fame who called investors from North America 'a clear and present danger to the pyramid and fabric of the game'.Was he right? How many football fans share that view? How does the reputation of American money compare to other sources of investment from for example, Arab countries, such as Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, or even Hollywood stars like Ryan Reynolds?This gets us to other, deeper questions as to the cliches and tropes that attach themselves to sport's relationship with private investment of all types.This episode of Unofficial Partner is sponsored by We Are Sweet, helping you tell compelling stories in-the-moment, as they happen, from the heart of the action. We Are Sweet captures live biometric data from athletes to uncover great stories, from the big occasions to subtle micro-moments you might not even know are taking place. These are crafted into captivating stories and transformed into stunning visuals ready for your broadcast, live event displays, and second-screen fan experiences, all in real-time. From head-to-head heart rates to anticipated overtakes, We Are Sweet provides AI-driven insights to fuel conversations, inform bookmakers and predict future outcomes, all in the name of deepening fan engagement. Enhance your audience’s understanding of the action like never before by using live data from We Are Sweet.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.

NBA v TNT – Exclusive Negotiating Periods and Last Matching Rights are central to the big row over NBA rights. But how they work and why does everyone hate them?Click here to read The Bundle Bulletin for the homework notes from this episode, compiled by regular co-hosts Murray Barnett and Yannick Ramcke.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.

Ben Sharpe, one of the most influential people in the golf business, as Managing Director & President of Callaway Golf across Europe, Middle East and Asia. Callaway is the largest manufacturer of golf equipment in the world and as such is a bellwether for any conversation about the commercial health of the game. Its tentacles run from the very top of the professional tours down to the participation at grass roots and in to retail and golf entertainment, via its TopGolf and Toptracer subsidiaries. Wedge Issues is an Unofficial Partner Production. This week’s Unofficial Partner Podcast is sponsored by Loughborough University London and the Institute of Sports HumanitiesLeadership in Sport MA 2024 Applications Open Applications for the next intake on the 2024 Leadership in Sport Masters are open.The Leadership in Sport Masters is designed for sports industry executives to study part-time alongside their careers.The programme is co-delivered by Loughborough University London and the Institute of Sports Humanities (ISH), experts in leadership education.Loughborough University is ranked best university in the world for sports-related subjects (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017-2023).Find out more https://www.sportshumanities.org/masters-ukor contact tom.rann@sportshumanities.orgUnofficial 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 Paris 2024 Olympic Games are over, the medals have been won and lost.And now the sports business conversation shifts to who won the other game, played between some of the biggest companies in the world, each seeking to stand out in the crowd of global and local brands sponsoring, or ambushing, the Olympics. What worked, what didn’t and how has the proliferation of digital channels changed how TOP partners and others approach the job of associating with the greatest show on earth.Our guests are two experts in digital marketing. Alex Balfour was head of digital at London 2012 and is co-founder of Generate Digital.RJ Kraus is head of sponsorship intelligence at KORE Software and was co-founder of Hookit, the sponsorship measurement business acquired by KORE in 2022. To help frame the conversation, we refer to all new KORE research insight fresh from the Games. You can access this data 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.

“As soon as the Southport murders happened, the way Muslims specifically were targeted has made you question again whether we do belong, whether deep down in the end, we're always having to justify our existence,” says Azeem Rafiq, the former professional cricketer on today’s podcast. “On an individual level. I’m not sleeping, I’m patrolling around the house, covering letterboxes up, that sort of thing is what all of us have been doing, getting in touch with each other, making sure if you do have to go out, that people know where you are and you're on a very, very high alert.”Today’s conversation is about the impact and implications of the racist rioting that followed the devastating and tragic murder of three children in Southport on July 29th.Azeem Rafiq has written a book, called “It’s Not Banter, It’s Racism: What Cricket’s Dirty Secret Reveals About Our Society, records his experiences confronting institutional racism while a player at Yorkshire County Cricket Cub.He is joined by Sanjay Bhandari MBE, who was appointed chair of Kick It Out the anti racism charity in 2019, from where he lobbies government and sports governing bodies for greater black and Asian representation across every level of football, and helped construct legislation for the new Online Safety Act, which was passed earlier this year. We talk about the role of Twitter and it’s owner Elon Musk, the role of sports governing bodies and their sponsors, and we ask, for all the talk of it’s power to influence societal change, does sport really matter?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 go deep in to the North American market today with Daniel Kaplan, one of the very best reporters covering the US sports business beat. I’ve known Daniel for over twenty years, first when he covered tennis and the NFL for SportsBusiness Journal, and then more latterly at The Athletic, Front Office Sports and Awful Announcing, the sports media news site. We dissect three recent stories involving some of the biggest names in the US market: NFL, UFC, NBC and the Olympic Games.  This week’s Unofficial Partner Podcast is sponsored by Loughborough University London and the Institute of Sports HumanitiesLeadership in Sport MA 2024 Applications Open Applications for the next intake on the 2024 Leadership in Sport Masters are open.The Leadership in Sport Masters is designed for sports industry executives to study part-time alongside their careers.The programme is co-delivered by Loughborough University London and the Institute of Sports Humanities (ISH), experts in leadership education.Loughborough University is ranked best university in the world for sports-related subjects (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017-2023).Find out more https://www.sportshumanities.org/masters-ukor contact tom.rann@sportshumanities.orgUnofficial 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’re in the middle of the Olympic Games in Paris so it’s a good time to ask some bigger questions as to the future of the Olympics and mega sports events more generally, with regular contributor Ed Smith, founder of the Institute of Sports Humanities and fellow guest Dr Simon Rofe, a world leading expert in the field of sports diplomacy, and himself a visiting lecturer at ISH, which helps its students decode the signals derived from history and interrogate the impact of globalisation on sport. Simon has an international research profile addressing sports diplomacy, with a particular focus upon the relationship of the sporting ecosystem with diplomatic practice, having been instrumental in establishing the field of study since 2010.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.

A documentary special - UP Productions' Matt Cutler explores the changing relationship between two cultural institutions in the UK: football and the pub.The pub has an important place in both professional and grassroots football.As the place friends and family meet before the game, and dissect a win or loss afterwards. Where old school friends reserve a table under the big screen to catch-up on a weekend.And where Sunday League teams - many who operate thanks to patronage from their local pub - congregate, celebrate and commiserate.However, the number of UK licensed premises fell below 100,000 for the first time since records began in 2023 – and in the first quarter of 2024, pub closures increased by 51%.And it's already having a major impact on football fan culture.Leadership in Sport MA 2024 Applications Open  Applications for the next intake on the 2024 Leadership in Sport Masters are open. The Leadership in Sport Masters is designed for sports industry executives to study part-time alongside their careers. The programme is co-delivered by Loughborough University London and the Institute of Sports Humanities (ISH), experts in leadership education. Loughborough University is ranked best university in the world for sports-related subjects (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017-2023). Find out more sportshumanities.org or contact tom.rann@sportshumanities.orgUnofficial 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.

Why has the value of the NBA's media rights tripled, from $25billion to $75billion this week?"Purely because of gambling,' says Sam Sadi, CEO of LiveScore Group, the media and gambling platform, referencing the opening up of the US gambling marketplace. 'Nothing else that would drive that. Everything was trending downwards until five years ago, and nothing changed in the environment. It can be easily isolated and all of a sudden you see these increases that are much higher than what were projected five years  And the NBA timed it perfectly."We recorded this conversation yesterday at LiveScore's Soho headquarters in London with fellow guest James Liddy, an investment banker with a hugely impressive track record as a deal maker in the gaming leisure and hotel sector, first with Deutsche Bank in London, and now at Jefferies's where he leads on that sector across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This is a conversation that changed my view on what's happening in the macro environment for sport. Hopefully you'll find it as enlightening as I did.  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.