Richard and Sean head to Dublin for the PFL Europe. It's a brutal world, in and out of the ring. Guests:Sean O'Connell is former professional mixed martial artist who most recently competed and won a title in the Light Heavyweight division of the Professional Fighters League. Sean fronts the event and media coverage of PFL Europe.Jon Culligan is Partner at Portas Consulting, the global consultancy dedicated to sport and physical activity. 00:05 From esports to MMA, Copenhagen to Dublin00:51 Meeting the Guests: Sean O'Connell and Jon Culligan00:58 Expectations for the PFL Europe Event01:32 Understanding the World of Mixed Martial Arts02:56 The Influence of Regional Styles in MMA04:52 The Role of PFL in the MMA Landscape05:38 The Media's Coverage of MMA07:02 The Future of PFL and MMA10:34 The Differences Between PFL and UFC18:59 The Life of a Fighter in MMA27:50 The Impact of Self-Promotion in MMA32:12 The Role of Personality in MMA34:00 The Future of MMA: A Global PerspectiveUnofficial 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.

Victoire Cogevina Reynal is asking some really interesting questions about the value of women’s football, now and in the years to come.She is the founder of Mercury 13, an investment consortium created to build a multi club ownership group in women’s football clubs across Europe and Latin America.The consortium includes former players such as the ex-England forward Eni Aluko, who is also a former Aston Villa and Angel City sporting director, the former Italy goalkeeper Arianna Criscione, Fifa’s former chief innovation officer, Luis Vicente, and Nancy Hensley formerly worked of Stats Perform.Last week, the group’s attempt to invest in Lewes FC broke down following an initial exclusive negotiating period.This would have seen Lewes, in the second tier of English women’s football, become the first of a multi club network of women’s teams, part of $100 million Mercury plan to invest over the coming years.So this is a timely conversation, which covers a great deal of ground, from Lewes, FC Barcelona and Angel City to the appeal of a closed Super League, the media rights market for women's soccer and the toxicity of the culture war era.You’ll hear us reference our Unofficial Partner Women’s Football Brainstorm event at DAZN HQ, 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.

Tia White is Amazon's General Manager of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Amazon Web Services (AWS), responsible for owning go-to-market, product, and engineering for a portfolio of services on track to exceed profits of more than $25M including one of the fastest-growing services at AWS. Joining her is Wyndham Richardson, Group Executive Director at Two Circles, previously founder of Pulselive, digital partner to some of the biggest names in sport which was acquired by Sony Corporation in 2011.The podcast explores the current state of the sports marketplace, specifically focusing on how user personalization and artificial intelligence (AI) are paving the way for the industry's development. They discuss how Amazon is offering advanced tools to create customized experiences and insights resulting in higher user retention and engagement. We unpack the future of AI, speculating on its impact by 2030, and how generative AI might revolutionize the way audiences are segmented. 00:00 Introductions and Location Check00:22 Discussion on the Future of Sports Marketplace01:09 Introduction to Tia and Her Role at Amazon02:30 Tia's Personal Connection to Sports03:39 Understanding Tech in the Sports Industry05:17 The Concept of Personalization in Amazon08:17 The Importance of Personalization in Customer Retention09:04 The Risk of Getting Personalization Wrong10:31 The Role of Technology in Solving Problems14:03 The Impact of Personalization on User Engagement23:29 The Future of Personalization and User Authentication28:20 The Importance of Data in Personalization31:09 The Power of Data in Sports31:28 Leveraging AWS and Amazon Personalized for Sports32:23 The Importance of Data Security in Sports33:41 Investing in Tech: A Risk or Necessity?34:31 The Evolution of the Sports Industry36:08 The Role of Technology in Sports Strategy36:28 Loyalty in Sports: A Unique Phenomenon39:44 The Intersection of Sports and Other Industries45:51 The Impact of Generative AI on Personalization49:03 The Future of Generative AI50:13 Generative AI: A Tool for Progress55:15 The Role of Generative AI in Content Creation56:58 Generative AI: A Threat or Opportunity?01:01:28 The Unexpected Necessity of Cash01:02:20 Closing RemarksUnofficial 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.

Unofficial Partner podcast: Insights from Blast's eSports event in CopenhagenIn this episode Richard and Sean travel to Copenhagen to go behind the scenes at the BLAST Fall Finals, one of the big esports moments of the year, featuring the leading Counter Strike teams including FaZe Clan, Vitality and Cloud9 at the Royal Arena, Copenhagen. We talk to Tom Greene, COO of BLAST, who shared his insights about eSports, the event and esports ecosystem business model, the dynamic between publisher, event holder, team and star players, and the future growth potential of the eSports industry.This episode is sponsored by Turnstile, the leader in the fair market pricing of sponsorships. Are you frustrated by decades of inflated and unrealistic media equivalency valuations?Are you struggling to understand the value of your Intellectual Property, the real value of exposure and the detailed value of benefits in your sponsorship deals? There is a solution. Turnstile was built with a single-minded focus...to help the industry solve the million- dollar question...how much is this sponsorship actually worth? Their approach leverages $billions of dollars’ worth of real-world sponsorship contracts to provide a fair market pricing approach that reflects the true value of sponsorship assets. This approach is trusted by the world’s biggest rights holders, investors and brands because its credible, defensible and accurate. So now you can know the fair market price and transact with confidence. If you would like to understand more visit turnstilegroup.com to contact the team.Episode timeline00:00 Introduction and Sponsorship Message00:56 Live from the Counter Strike Final09:14 Post-Event Discussion with BLAST COO Tom Greene17:38 Understanding the Business Model of eSports25:58 The Role of Streaming in eSports27:47 Exploring the Reach of eSports27:57 Understanding Sponsorship in eSports29:01 The Role of Media Partnerships 34:23 The Evolution of eSports and its Impact on Brands37:44 The Role of Athletes in the eSports Ecosystem41:28 The Intersection of eSports and Traditional Sports42:07 The Influence of Sponsorship in eSports44:09 The Global Reach of eSports48:32 The Role of Storytelling in eSports51:58 The Impact of Long-Term Investment in eSports54:05 The Relationship between eSports and Mainstream Brands55:25 The Future of eSports: A 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.

Regular co-hosts Yannick Ramcke and Murray Barnett discuss the European soccer market, Viaplay's exit, the impact of changing macroeconomic environment on sports leagues, the role of private owners in sports broadcasting, the challenges and opportunities in sports media rights, the impact of big tech on the industry, the future of women's football, the bankruptcy of Recast, the shift of NFL Network to OTT, Amazon's role in sports media, the impact of Gen Z on the industry, and the NFL's collaboration with Toy Story and Taylor Swift.

How will the ESG agenda impact sport?ESG is short for Environmental, Social and Governance, and is a set of standards measuring business's impact on society, the environment, and how transparent and accountable it is; an attempt to capture all the non-financial risks and opportunities inherent in a company's day to day activities. It relates to sport in a number of very significant ways. For example, some major corporations are using ESG as a framework with which to shape their sport sponsorship spend.  Is the sports team or event rights holder transparent in its governance and supply chain practices? Is its workforce and executive suitably diverse? And what is the impact of its events on the climate? But the ESG movement has also proven controversial. Elon Musk called it 'the devil' and dismissed it as 'woke', after tobacco companies scored higher in sustainability indexes than Tesla: 'How could cigarettes, which kill over eight million a year, be deemed a more ethical investment than electric cars?' wrote Musk, accusing ESG of creating unintended consequences and creating a misleading rule book that's open to being gamed by unscrupulous business owners.To help us unpick where sport plays in the ESG debate, we're joined by Nick Keller, the CEO and founder of Benchmark, and the global foundation Beyond Sport, which has been backed by global leaders including Richard Branson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.00:00 Introduction and Benchmark Overview02:50 The Role of Agencies in Sports06:55 The Importance of ESG in Sports15:51 The Challenges of ESG Investing22:53 The Future of Sponsorship in Sports32:18 Understanding the Supply Chain in Sports33:09 The Role of Sustainability 33:26 The Impact of AI on Sports33:37 The Ethics of Sports Sponsorship34:13 The Role of Brands in Sports39:14 The Power of Athlete Activism39:59 The Future of Sports Sponsorship44:12 The Challenges of Major Sports Events51:56 The Role of Sustainability in Major Sports Events57:51 The Impact of Cancer on Personal LifeUnofficial 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 third episode in our Project 2030 Series, made in collaboration with Two Circles that models the next decade in the sports marketplace. The idea is to test some of the assumptions about where sport goes from here. What type of sports property will be rewarded by the marketplace, and which ones will be punished?They’ve modelled the size of the market - everything, media rights, sponsorship, merch, tickets.That number is £220billion in 2032, a rise of 50% in a decade.So, our podcast series is asking how that growth will be distributed across sport, and what are the implications for people in different parts of the industry. This episode questions how sports related content will evolve, and the role it will play in driving commercial returns, both for rights holders and broadcasters. Previous episodes can be found by searching Unofficial Partner on your favourite podcast app.This group discusses the Future of Content Creation in Sports Media.GuestsBen Gallop, Head of Radio and Digital at BBC SportNatalie Gibson, Senior Video Content Manager, The FAMoe Hamdhaidari, Head of Commercial, Content at Two CirclesTimeline00:13 Discussion on how Drive to Survive emerged as an idea.01:51 Ben's Role and Experience in Digital and Commissioning for BBC Sports02:32 Challenges in the Shift to Digital Media03:45 Moe's Role and Experience in Commercial Content04:50 Challenges in Building Meaningful Relationships with Fans06:00 Discussion on Direct to Consumer and Cultural Shifts07:10 Comparison Between Working for F1 and the FA08:47 Understanding the Lionesses' Fanbase09:52 BBC's Approach to Covering the Lionesses14:01 Discussion on Content Strategy16:41 The FA's Approach to Content Strategy18:15 BBC's Relationship with Platforms27:03 Discussion on Official and Unofficial Content29:32 The Fifth Stand: Chelsea's Digital Stand29:45 The Power of Forums and User-Generated Content30:51 Leveraging Supporters Clubs for Global Reach31:31 The Evolution of Media Companies and Editorial Control34:43 Engaging Younger Fans and the Role of Platforms36:18 The Rise and Impact of Podcasts in Sports50:22 The Role of AI in Sports Media55:00 The Intersection of Sports and EntertainmentUnofficial 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 live panel discussion brings together a group of experts to debate the issues arising from The Pirates vs The Premier League, our successful podcast series that investigated the world of illegal streaming in sport.Joining Richard on stage at Sportel in Monaco are Simon Bryden, head of sport and video network, SynamediaCarlo DeMarcis, strategic advisor, CleengThibaut Fresse, sales and marketing director, TMGGuillermo Rodriguez, chief operating officer of Sportian, a joint venture between Globant and La Liga.Together they examine the growing trend of piracy among consumers of legal OTT services and its implications on the sports industry. 00:00 Introduction to the Panel Discussion01:26 Understanding the Piracy Problem02:01 The Technical and Psychological Aspects of Piracy02:51 The Music Industry Analogy and its Relevance03:15 The Scale and Impact of Piracy03:54 The Role of Social Media in Piracy04:15 The Business of Piracy and its Consequences05:27 The Need for a Comprehensive Anti-Piracy Strategy06:39 The Challenge of Piracy in a Fragmented Market08:50 The Impact of Piracy on Governments and Society09:35 The Role of Technology in Combating Piracy14:43 The Future of Sports in the Face of Piracy19:40 The Relationship Between Piracy and Legal Media Consumption22:18 The Complexity of Going Direct-to-Consumer35:22 The Role of Password Sharing in Piracy39:04 Closing Remarks and Future EventsThis episode is sponsored by Turnstile, the leader in the fair market pricing of sponsorships. Are you frustrated by decades of inflated and unrealistic media equivalency valuations? Are you struggling to understand the value of your Intellectual Property, the real value of exposure and the detailed value of benefits in your sponsorship deals? There is a solution. Turnstile was built with a single-minded focus to help the industry solve the million- dollar question: how much is this sponsorship actually worth? Their approach leverages $billions of dollars’ worth of real-world sponsorship contracts to provide a fair market pricing approach that reflects the true value of sponsorship assets.This approach is trusted by the world’s biggest rights holders, investors and brands because its credible, defensible and accurate. So now you can know the fair market price and transact with confidence. If you would like to understand more visit turnstilegroup.com to contact theUnofficial 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.

At the recent IOC session in Mumbai a number of IOC members called for IOC President Thomas Bach to go another term in the job.This would give Bach a further four years. The optics aren’t great. It’s all a bit North Korea.Jens Sejer Andersen of Play the Game wrote this: Eight-to-12-year term limits for Presidents to prevent accumulation of power are the single most important principle of governance reforms across Olympic sports. If Thomas Bach’s term is extended, hundreds of sports Presidents at the national and international level will be inspired to follow suit."So,  ripple effects. But did the calls for four more years arise organically or is it an idea planted by Thomas Bach’s people?Bach’s response was to wave away the calls for another term. Yet the idea is now out there, in the air. A conversation has begun. The Second Bounce - The Coe conundrumSuccessors to Bach are positioning themselves for election, scheduled for 2025.These include Juan Samaranch Junior, son of former President, which is another tricky optic for the IOC’s comms dept to handle. And then there’s Seb Coe.The problem for Coe has been conflict of interest.His ownership stake in sports marketing agency CSM is often whispered as a barrier to his elevation to the top job. A few weeks ago, that problem went away, when CSM was bought by Casey Wasserman’s company. So Seb Coe no longer chairs a major sports agency. Fast forward to that IOC session, and the idea of Thomas Bach going again is mooted by fawning IOC members who owe their place in the room to, erm, Bach. If Bach goes four more years to 2029, Coe will be aged out. The Bach-Coe relationship is described as ‘frosty’. The President would prefer his legacy candidate to be Kirsty Coventry.It’s all a bit Succession.So we asked two hugely experienced Olympic insiders for some guidance as to what's really going on.Michael Payne was the IOC's first marketing and broadcast rights director, from 1983 to 2004 and was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin Medal by the IOC for services to the movement. Jon Tibbs OBE is Chairman and founder of JTA, a leading international relations and communications agency specializing in the area of international sport and particularly clients linked to the Olympic Movement.  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 the second episode of our series made in collaboration with Two Circles, where we model the market for sport over the next decade.Today we analyse the role of the athlete, and to help us we're delighted to welcome Jazz Sawyers, British track and field athlete, two time Olympian, five time national champion who recently won gold in the Long Jump at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, where she broke the British record by breaking the 7 metre barrier for the first time.Off the track, Sawyers has developed a sports presenting career, competed in The Voice on BBC and also found time to study for a law degree. Joining Jazz are Leo Thompson and Christian Harrell-Baker from Two Circles. Together we ask what will the market for sport reward over the next decade, and what will it punish, who will win and who will lose? Jazz Sawyers is managed independently by Jon Kilmartin, Director of Media Strategy and Insights at Two Circles, and we thank him for his help in setting up the podcast. Hear the first episode of the series here, recorded live at the Two Circles Client Summit in London.  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.