Marcus Höfl, a fellow German Sports entrepreneur, for nearly three decades with his own agency MHM, representing German Icon Franz Beckenbauer and several other top sports stars.  Great stories from his time Franz Beckenbauer to many other interesting projects and lessons learned as a sports entrepreneur.

Key Highlights

1. Growing up in Herzogenaurach, the town of Adidas and Puma – great stories how this little Bavarian town operated under those two powerful brands and owners
2. Influenced by his father who was in PR in Adidas and Mum working in sports retail - and looking up to Robert Schwan (at that time Franz Beckenbauer’s manager) 
3. First client – Erdinger Weissbier – sponsorship of a second division club and continuing building relationship with Robert Schwan
4. In 2002, Robert passed away – Beckenbauer now on his own – FIFA World Cup 2006 just four years away – opportunity to become the successor of Schwan
5. Franz picked Marcus as the successor (still in his twenties) and he moved to Kitzbuehl to be closer to Beckenbauer
6. Dream to set up a business in New York with a partner, didn’t work, closed down
7. Business partnership with Franz Beckenbauer
   1. Initially just coordinating everything for Franz – especially leading up to the World Cup in Germany (Beckenbauer was the Chairman of the Organizing Committee)
   2. Buying the rights to Franz Beckenbauer’s image from Robert Schwan’s widow – story behind it
8. Franz Beckenbauer stories
   1. Visiting 31 countries who qualified for the World Cup – cris crossing the world
   2. Complimenting each other, good cop/bad cop
   3. Grew large commercial revenue around Franz Beckenbauer’s image – 8 different commercial partners at the peak
   4. Franz’ strength, his patience, treated everyone the same
   5. Also motivating him in his older days
9. Red Bull – Mateschitz and Beckenbauer – Red Bull entering Football
   1. Red Bull buying Salzburg as first team, MLS team in New York team, etc
   2. Joined board of Major League Soccer (MLS), build relationships with other owners
10. Comparing US sports vs European football structures
11. FC Augsburg – buying a piece of the team and plans to shape the team’s image – sold to David Blitzer
12. Working with other athletes and the challenges scaling it
13. Camp Beckenbauer – from Kitzbuehl to Shanghai , set up an office in Shanghai for a few years, lessons learned
14. Maria Höfl-Riesch – German top Skier – from client to wife
15. Investments – focus on fan engagement, digital, data, performance
    1. Partnering with Sports Accelerator leAD (Legacy of Adi Dassler) – fill circle to his youth

About

Marcus Höfl is a founder, investor and expert in the international sports industry.

Grown up in Herzogenaurach (Germany) - the hometown of Adidas and Puma - he has always been active in the football industry and shaped the business in various roles and positions on a global scale.

From 2003 to 2006, Marcus was closely involved in the strategy development, planning and implementation of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

From 2003 on, Marcus exclusively represented Franz Beckenbauer in all commercial matters, as he owned the football icon’s global personality rights.

As Head of Global Soccer since 2006, he has developed Red Bull’s strategy and commitment to soccer. Thereby he also acted as Member of the Board of Governors of Major League Soccer (MLS) in North America.

Marcus Höfl was also a member of the Advisory Board of DFL Sports Enterprises from 2009 – the organization responsible for the national and international licensing, sponsorship and sale of Bundesliga media rights.

Moreover, Marcus was a co-owner and shareholder of the German Bundesliga club FC Augsburg from 2016 to 2021 and was thereby a Member of the club’s Board of Directors.

He also mediates, develops and leads international sponsorship, consulting and implementation projects for global companies such as Mondelez (sponsorship with the Bundesliga/DFL since 2021), Lenovo (sponsorship with Ferrari and Ducati 2018 & 2019) or Hermes (sponsorship with Bundesliga/DFL 2012 -2017) and further leading clubs and associations from the sports sector such as FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Hertha BSC Berlin and the Bundesliga/DFL.

Marcus Höfl also managed the football World and European Champion Stefan Reuter and the German soccer player of the year 1996, Matthias Sammer as well as the he multiple Olympic Champion in swimming, Franziska van Almsick, the tennis legend Boris Becker, the former alpine skier and three-time Olympic champion Maria Höfl-Riesch (since 2009), TV presenter Andrea Kaiser (since 2012), former world class -Biathlete Simon Schempp (since 2010) and the eight-time world rally champion Sébastien Ogier (since 2015).

Since 2021 he has also represented the basketball professional, NBA player and captain of the German National Basketball team, Dennis Schröder as a manager, primarily in marketing and communication issues worldwide.

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Gareth Balch, from an inspiring Olympian, with a data driven approach, taking his passion to building Two Circles into one of the hottest digital sports marketing agency from the UK, conquering the world of sports.

Key Highlights

1. Short intro on Two Circles – help grow value of sports – data driven approach
2. Gareth early days as a young athlete – wanting to be an Olympian – short distance runner (800 m), representing Great Britain
3. Great learning at Manchester City
4. How Two Circles got started – Gareth together with Matt Rogan – founding client English Cricket Board (ECB) and Manchester City
   1. Dream Team, Claire and Matt – first employee Data Scientist
5. Data driven approach – source was First party data (from fans to organizations)
6. Harnessing data and using it to generate new revenue, solve commercial problems, change fan behavior
7. Scientific approach to sales and improving commercial revenue streams
8. Examples – from All Blacks to FIFA+, NFL+ to UEFA’s Women’s EURO 2022 – very different services for these clients
9. Thinkers and doers – strategic and executioners – from coming up with the ideas derived by the data to delivering the new revenue streams
10. Mixed remuneration models based on clients needs
11. Business plans for clients – score cards based on deep data and models
12. Live video rights – selling media rights in a new way
13. Growth story of company over the past 13 years – investors, acquisitions, offices around the world, etc
14. Starting with a clearly defined philosophy – build the sports business of our lifetime
15. Operating like an athletes as the leader of the business – detailed planning
16. Massive learning journey – never sold the business in his mind – just making it bigger and better – focus on delivering for the clients
17. Acquired five companies in last few years
18. Current focus on certain territories, regions, sports and new clients

About

Gareth co-founded Two Circles following a successful athletics career, representing Great Britain in the 800 metres.

Transferring his passion and energy to the business side of sport, Gareth’s first industry experience involved helping sports organizations such as Manchester City grow their commercial revenues, before in 2011 – at the age of 28 – he created Two Circles, an agency for the digital age, borne out of a desire to build direct relationships with sports fans using data.

In the early years of Two Circles, when Gareth was Managing Director, he led the delivery of client work and helped revolutionize the UK sports landscape through a data-driven approach – recognised in 2014 when Two Circles was named Agency of the Year at the prestigious BT Sport Industry Awards.

Since 2015 Gareth has been Chief Executive of Two Circles, his unique style of leadership and infectious enthusiasm for sport, staff and clients providing the driving force for the company’s rapid growth.

Currently Two Circles has a global network of teams working from London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Bern with a client base of over 150 of the world’s leading rights-owners including the Premier League, NFL, UEFA, Formula 1 and Wimbledon.

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Guy-Laurent Epstein a Football Association veteran and senior UEFA Executive for the past 20 years, shaping European football, the commercial side and beyond.  Deep dive into  UEFA’s world from Club Football, new National Team competitions, to the growth of the Women’s game and much more.  Highly educational and lots of great details you don’t want to miss.   

Key Highlights

1. How it started, from a passion for mathematics, to Arthur Andersen auditing to Sony Music
2. Commercialising the licensing rights for the FIFA World Cup in 1998 for Sony Music
3. ISL Marketing days – joining ISL in Luzern during an interesting time for the agency
4. Spending time in Asia, around the 2002 FIFA  World Cup Korea/Japan
5. ISL collapse in 2001 just before the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2001, FIFA creating FIFA Marketing to take over agency role
6. Joining UEFA shortly after the 2002 FIFA World Cup  – comparing notes on the event
7. The start of a two decade adventure with UEFA in Nyon
8. No Marketing department within UEFA yet when he first joined,  developing new projects and showing value to the administrators of European Football
9. The “old” way of doing things in European National and Club competitions at the time, early 2000
10. Change of guards, EBU, mostly state controlled broadcasters vs more commercially driven free to air channels
11. Non-linear channels emerge -  Pay TV – now digitization, Amazon relationship, DAZN, Apple testing
12. US Market importance for both European Club and National team football
13. UEFA.TV -  create new content from archive, exploring new ways to invest in brand – home of Youth and Women’s football
14. Relationship between UEFA and their agencies (Team Marketing – Club competitions & CAA Eleven – National Team competitions)
15. Big changes and success stories from the CAA Eleven deal
16. UEFA Nations League – the creation and where it is now and some of the challenges
17. New UEFA Champions League format from next season explained
18. Next steps in the governance of club competitions and relationship with the European Club Association (ECA)
19. Covid impact on UEFA competitions – looking back, moving EURO 2020, etc
20. Success of Women’s EURO 2022 in England and the growth and unbundling of UEFA Women’s Football – www.weplaystrong.com
21. EURO 2024 in Germany – high hopes for another big Football Summer Festival

About

Guy-Laurent Epstein graduated from Paris IX Dauphine University with a Master in Applied Mathematics & Social Sciences in 1990, and completed his studies with a MBA at ESSEC Business School in Paris, which he obtained 2 years later.

After four years working as a financial consultant for Arthur Andersen, he decided to shift his career towards sports marketing and worked for the 1998 World Cup in France. After that, he joined ISL Marketing where he was in charge of the licensing and merchandising programme for the 2002 World Cup. In 2001, Guy-Laurent joined FIFA Marketing, where he continued to oversee the good development and implementation of the Licensing programme.

He started in October 2002 at UEFA as TV& Sponsorship Manager and became Head of Marketing Activities in December 2004. In June 2005, he created the Media Rights unit which is responsible of the overall sales of the UEFA competitions TV and other media rights, which he managed till March 2010, when UEFA decided to set up a new company – UEFA Events SA - to handle all UEFA’s commercial and event operations. Consequently, Guy-Laurent was appointed Marketing Director of UEFA Events SA and as such, he is responsible for the ongoing development of the marketing and commercial activities, including media and sponsorship, across all competitions of UEFA.

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Paul McVeigh, from playing professional football in the Premier League to becoming a trained psychologist, and now advising C-suites and top corporate executives. Tons of great stories and lessons from his career as a professional player and how a Tony Robbins book put him on the path to studying psychology and becoming a keynote speaker.

Key Highlights

1. Growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in a rough neighborhood in the 80s – what it was like playing football with tanks driving around the streets
2. A journey from Belfast to London, getting offered a contract with Tottenham Hotspur in mid 90s and meeting football legend Jurgen Klinsmann
3. His beliefs at the time about himself and what then happened in order to make his Premier League debut
4. His football journey from Tottenham Hotspur to Norwich City, Burnley,  Luton Town and why the key was to constantly adapt his style to fit various roles for each team 
5. How to deal with winning/losing, the psychology and mindset behind it for a professional player, being relegated and achieving promotion again
6. Who is truly responsible when a team wins or loses?  Coach versus players?
7. “Awaken The Giant Within” by Tony Robbins – our stories and the impact this book had on us and how this led to a degree in Sports Science and Psychology and a career in public speaking
8. Next stops, working as pundit at Sky Sports, BBC, and giving key note speeches and running corporate leadership programs
9. His book “The Stupid Footballer Is Dead: Insights Into The Mind Of A Professional Footballer” and an understanding of the mind of an elite sportsperson
10. Concept of accountability – a pre-season story and his learning being exposed to world-class players
11. Making conscious choices
12. His current project: bringing in first-class athletes, world champions and securing them as keynote speakers to corporations, including top military, doctors, etc
13. His contacts. Website: https://paulmcveigh.com  LinkedIn:  (5) Paul McVeigh, M.Sc. | LinkedIn  Email: paul@paulmcveigh.com

About

Paul McVeigh is a Premier League football player and Performance Psychologist. Paul's credibility comes from the unique combination of reaching the pinnacle of elite sport as well as being the first Premier League footballer to qualify with a Master's Degree in Psychology. Paul specialises in implementing the psychology required to elevate the performance of leaders and teams from the financial services' industry. He has recently worked with PWC, Grant Thornton, Aviva, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Nat West, Cisco, Microsoft and many more. These lessons are even more applicable today in our remote and virtual workplaces in order to empower individuals to understand that our thinking unlocks the required behaviours that are necessary for elite performance. Paul shares his psychological framework from growing up in war torn Belfast, Ireland alongside the strategies he implemented performing under the intense scrutiny of 75,000 fans across the world. He is also an established broadcaster on TV and radio with BBC, Sky Sports, BT Sport and is also a published author of the ironically entitled book ‘The Stupid Footballer is Dead’. The insights Paul shared as a Sport Psychologist for 2 Premier League clubs have helped many players compete in, what is considered, the most prestigious and ruthless sports league in the world.

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Jerome Valcke, a true legend and also tragic figure in our industry. We are going back to his early days at Canal+/Sport+ to his amazing time as Secretary General of FIFA.  30+ years in the industry, his ups and downs and the challenges at the end of his FIFA reign and his comeback plans.    

Key Highlights

1. Early days of Canal+, first Pay TV operator in France - as news presenter and magazine producer (from wars to news)
2. 1991 -  getting involved in acquisition of sports rights for Canal +, dealing with Don King to David Stern
3. Forming Sport+ (internal agency of Canal+) to buy sports media rights for Canal + and sell across the world, working with other agencies around the world
4. Don King story and doing business with him (negotiation is same as war)
5. French Football League (Ligue One) and the new Pay TV money coming in to change the game forever – new production values
6. Canal+, turning channel into a 24 hrs Olympic channel for the entire two weeks of the Barcelona Olympics 92’ and Atlanta 96’
7. Merger between three agencies, JC Darmon, UFA Sport and Sport+ -  Bertelsmann (UFA), Jean-Claude Darmon and Canal+ (Sport+) merged in 2001 creating SportFive – and the rest is history with decades of changes for the agency
8. Joining FIFA in 2003 as Director of Marketing – FIFA Marketing AG – in-house agency created after the collapse of ISL Marketing (initially focused on sponsorship only -  Media rights still with Robert Louis Dreyfus (owner of Adidas, Olympique Marseille).  Jerome lobbying to bring media rights in-house too.
9. Agency offering large guarantee to FIFA – (Swiss) 1.8 billion per World Cup -  Joseph Blatter (President at the time) putting his trust in Jerome and he delivered in 2010 – close to 4 billion 
10. Changing what FIFA was delivering to broadcasters, going beyond previous offerings
11. Infront & Dentsu controlled certain territory rights in Asia, and other agencies around the world – top countries controlled by FIFA directly, FIFA signing all contracts
12. Secretary General of FIFA -  the link between the political side of the Federation with the commercial and operating side
13. Dealing with Governments and Head of States to deliver the FIFA World Cup – need to deal with politics
14. Blatter stories – his rise within FIFA, from a low level marketing role to President -  “I am FIFA, FIFA is me” 
15. Bidding process for World Cups – 2018 & 2022 – huge significance for the winners
16. World Cup Legacy – South Africa 2010 stories – falling in love with the country and more…
17. Brazil World Cup 2014 – it was complicated …….. being banned for a period of time from entering the country…..
18. Could World Cup ever be moved if the event is at risk? Legal position vs actuality/reality
19. 2018 & 2022 host country choices and his view on it
20. The different parts of FIFA, from Committees and other parts of the organization
21. Women’s Football at FIFA level – Women’s World Cup wasn’t yet able to make enough money on its own – role of FIFA to support and develop Football for everyone
22. Mastercard vs VISA and what happened on Sept 2015……. his side of the story
23. Moral vs criminal accusations –  rules of engagement – code of conduct in business

To reach Jerome Valcke - Jerome.valcke@gmx.es  (+34607937298)

About

Jérôme Valcke, born 6/10/1960 in Paris French and South African citizenships Living in Carrer Catalunya 17, 08960 Sant Just Desvern, Spain E-mail: jerome.valcke@gmx.es Mobile number: +34 607 937 298

• 1983 RMC Journalist
• 1984 to 1988 CANAL+ News Presenter
• 1988 to 1991 CANAL+ Deputy Editor in Chief Newsroom
• 1992 to 1997 CANAL+ Deputy Director Sports Division. Responsible for all international sport rights acquisitions
• 1997 to 2001 CEO Sport+, Media Group CANAL+. Sport+ was a subsidiary of the Group CANAL+ for Media and Marketing rights. Sport+ acquired the international of all major football European leagues.
• 2002 COO Sportfive. Sportfive was created by Group CANAL+, UFA- Bertelsmann and Group Jean-Claude Darmont. Sportfive was one of the leading sports agencies in the world.
• 2003 to 2006 FIFA Marketing & TV Director
• 2007 to 2015 FIFA Secretary General. CEO of the institution. My main task was the preparation, organization and delivery of the World Cups (2010 & 2014) and the preparation for WC 2028 & WC 2022. Management of a team of 500 people.

Today, owner of a winery located in Spain in the DOQ Priorat, Mas Igneus.

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Alex Inglot, the Commissioner of the ESL Pro League (Esports). We discuss his legal background, his various sports roles before he entered the Esports world. Alex has been involved across multiple spectrums of the sports industry and is sharing his experiences with us before diving deep into his current role as Commissioner of the ESL Pro League (CS:GO).  Lots of great stories and learning across sports and gaming.

 Key Highlights

1. How it all started, studying law at Oxford, playing Volleyball at Uni to his first internship at IMG – Rugby World Cup contract work
2. A few years of commercial law at various law firms in London – looking at a way back into the industry
   • Took FIFA International Master program to bring him back into the industry
3. First job after the program, heading to Mexico working at Atlante FC (club had just moved to Cancun), establishing a new fan base and building relationship with the region
4. Couple of years at JTA – working on Manchester United Corporate Communication, working with owner Jon Tibbs, difference between legal and marketing communication principles
5. Sportradar – promoting Sportradar’s integrity services to Federations and other rights holders (as Director of Communication), later involved in the non-betting services and then the opportunities in US sports betting
6. ATP Tour – Board Director – European Player Representative -working with ATP Player Council to drive progress for the members, redistribution of prize money, etc
   • Setting up systems, processes, transparency (eliminating distrust between players and tournaments) -driven by Andrea Gaudenzi’s vision, the new Chairman of ATP Tour
   • How ATP Tour survived Covid and continued the vision of Gaudenzi – creating a JV mentality between players and events
   • During COVID, ticketing revenue, which had always been very important for tennis events now became a vulnerability
7. ATP Media – broadcast arm, bundling rights across different levels of events – aggregating media rights was key to create one stop shop for broadcasters and/or fans
8. Commissioner of ESL Pro League (CS:GO – Counter Strike – Global Offensive) – major title by Valve
   • Intro to CS:GO – history the past 10 years – one of the major FPS (First person Shooter) games, played globally
   • ESL Pro Tour – owned by ESL FACEIT Group (new entity, created through merger, owned by Savvy Gaming Group from Saudi Arabia)
   • CS:GO landscape with total Price money US$ 18 mil across all events  - players earning US$ 20-50k per month
   • Comparison with other games and economics for teams – power of Publisher
   • Louvre Agreement – distribution of money ESL makes to teams to build ecosystem – helping to sustain teams investments
   • CS 2.0 is coming later this year and how the transition will happen
   • Structure of League – 12 founding member teams – revenue share of traditional revenues such as sponsorship – guaranteed slot in Pro-League (currently 15 out of 32 team format)
   • Opportunities for sponsor by aggregation of rights, bundling is key opportunity
   • League staged in Malta – teams fly in for periods of time – Malta Gaming establishing itself as Esports/Gaming hub
9. Esports/Gaming after Covid – from red hot to current slow down, is there a “winter” or just a natural correction?
10. The fundamentals of Esports are solid and very attractive, especially anyone targeting the younger demographics (Metaverse, digital items, etc)

About

A unique strategist drawing on years of international corporate and commercial law in the City of London; nearly a decade working at the sharp end of global sports communications and public affairs; and now Commissioner of the ESL Pro League. Focused on reading the landscape, developing a direction, securing buy-in and delivering impact. Driving the new structure that sits behind the CSGO ecosystem-leading EPL to ensure optimal governance and operations, record-breaking revenues and fair distribution, and the realisation of existing and upcoming aggregation opportunities. In parallel, using the platform to break down barriers across the wider CSGO stakeholder map and to drive collaboration for ecosystem optimisation. Took a driving role in the full review and overhaul of the ATP's leadership in order to bring in new structures and dynamic individuals, to ensure the Tour can continue to grow in a fast-changing entertainment landscape. Juggled stress-testing a seismic strategic vision, defining a clear governance upgrade and adapting to the challenges of a global circuit in COVID times, all while undertaking upgraded player outreach to ensure structure and policies were effective, well understood and beneficial. Previously led the whole range of communications and public affairs activities of one of the fastest growing enterprises in the global sports technology and innovation space, promoting their full range of expertise across data, content, betting, esports, streaming and integrity. This followed a number of years as a senior PR and international relations consultant to big names in football, Olympic sports and the integrity space. Over the years, I have been a regular spokesperson across conference panels, workshops and seminars, while also guest lecturing at academic institutions across Europe and sitting on industry event and award advisory boards. Former member of the English National Mens Volleyball Team Former coach of the Swiss Cottage Ladies Volleyball Team

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Misha Sher, a sports marketing veteran, author, lecturer with a unique background and great stories from working with Pele to many other big sports properties and brands. We are going deep why brands engage with sports, esports/gaming, women’s sport and how to activate it, athlete marketing and unpacking his current role as Global Head of Sport, Entertainment and Culture at MediaCom (now called EssenceMediacom and part of WPP’s GroupM). 

Key Highlights

1. Born in Ukraine, immigrating to the US at the age of 13, culture shock, didn’t speak the language.  Football/Soccer was his language and helped him to integrate
2. Dream to be a pro Footballer cut short, first job in Banking in Boston – start making a living
3. Next stop Masters Degree in Football in Liverpool – back to his passion – thesis on Premier League Clubs in North America
4. Soccerex – Director of Business Development – helping expand to Singapore and new commercial ideas, ie cities paying host fees
5. Short sting as Ranger Football Club as Global Partnership Director – some lessons from it
6. Entering MediaCom – short intro on the company being part of WPP’s GroupM – managing billions of dollars of advertising money
7. Media agency investing in traditional media channels, agency starting to offer new services to take “customers” (Brands) into sport and other entertainment spaces
8. Sports marketing agencies and Media Agencies, from partners to rivals
9. Pele – amazing opportunity to represent him for several years to help build his brand and create commercial opportunities (Pele was 72 at the time).
10. Brazil about to host the FIFA World 2014 and Olympics 2016 – most iconic Brazilian sports star – building his brand by association with other iconic brands (Coca Cola, Emirates, Hublot, Procter & Gamble, etc)
11. Amazing networking by being around him and meeting Heads of States to CEO’s  - signing multi years, multi million dollar deals for him – managing and maximizing his time
12. Some personal stories about Pele, the Legend and the man he was
13. Deploying Clients Money – over USD 1 billion in his career across B2C and B2B opportunities -  value creation is the key
14. Transactional nature of industry vs “why” would/should the fan/customer care and what is the best vehicle to achieve the client’s objectives
15. “As a brand, don’t disrupt what people love, be the thing what people love” -  Eintracht Frankfurt sponsor example (Indeed), perfect alignment with club
16. Discussion about lack of understanding and budgets beyond the initial budget to buy into a property by many brands – ratio spending on activation
17. Balancing risk factors for brands between engagement in athletes, clubs/teams and leagues, different risk vs rewards
18. Athletes and influencers becoming “media platforms”, huge social media reach and the opportunity for brands
19. Gaming/Esport/Web3, where are the opportunities for brands – examples and discussion about future growth
20. Growth of Women’s sport, the importance and opportunities for brands
21. Working on new book  – (working title) “From Athlete to Enterprise” – how to build a personal brand and build sustainable future incomes     

About

Senior commercial & marketing executive with more than 15 years international experience developing some of the most iconic brands, rights holders and talent. Having operated at the cross section of sport, media, tech, talent and advertising, have an intrinsic understanding of how to unlock growth to drive commercial and strategic objectives. Have advised on strategic direction, negotiation and execution of more than £1B in partnerships across sport & entertainment in more than 40 markets. Strong business leader, with track record of building and managing diverse teams while operating in a multifaceted global organization. Possess a considerable global network of C-suite executives across sport, music, brands, governments, media owners and agencies. Passionate about embracing disruption and driving industry innovation, with opinions regularly featured in major media outlets (CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sport Business Intl). Co-Author of a best-selling book, ‘Art of Branded Entertainment’, exploring the future of uninterrupted marketing. Specialties: Leadership, Strategic planning, Marketing & Brand strategy, Business growth, Commercial partnerships, Revenue generation, Sport & Entertainment strategy and activation, Public speaking, Pitching, Sales & Business Development, Talent Management, Negotiation, Brand building. Clients include: Toyota, Coca-Cola, American Airlines, Dell, Shell, indeed, Skoda, Subway, Hotels.com, BAT, Allianz, GSK, Fonterra, Sony PlayStation, Beats by Dre, Richemont, Pelé, Brian Lara, Eniola Aluko, Liverpool FC, Watford FC.

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Ben Nichols, a veteran sports communication and public relations expert with decades of experiences across the industry from WADA, Commonwealth Games Federation, Sportsradar to many other consulting jobs around the world. Listen to Ben’s unique journey around the world and his new company – Padel 22 – a dedicated communication consultancy for the world of Padel sport.

Key Highlights

1. How his career started -  combining his love for writing with sports, travelling and working around the world
2. Working in Dubai on ATP/WTA Tour stop and Emirates Dubai Rugby, next stop Lotus Renault travelling the globe and F1 circuit
3. How to differentiate one F1 team from another and how to communicate it
4. WADA  – unpacking his 4 years at the World Anti-Doping Agency – heading to Montreal, Canada – media relations and communication
5. During his period, various scandals hit the press from Lance Armstrong to Russian Doping scandals, IAAF  – his experiences
6. WADA, an “independent” body although funded by the IOC – working across all departments to assure a clear message goes out
7. Pound and McLaren reports – big global media focus
8. Athletics Integrity Unit  set up by IAAF President, Sebastian Coe – the sport working on cleaning up its act
9. Commonwealth Games Federation – Gold Coast Games in Australia – setting new standards and targets for sports from gender equality to disabled vs abled body athletes competitions
   1. From briefings at Buckingham Palace to writing opening speeches for the President    
10. Sportradar unique service– providing Anti-Doping Services to major event organizers  (intelligence investigation services, athlete performance monitoring, etc) – business development role
11. PADEL 22 – his new agency – https://www.padel-22.com
    1. What is Padel – background and difference to other similar sports (ie. tennis, pickleball, squash, etc)
    2. Dynamic, urban, cool new sports
12. Vision and mission of Padel 22 – why he set up a single focused agency – one sport, global focus
13. Padel vs Pickleball (European vs American style sports promotions) and ambitions of both sports
14. Final thoughts – opportunities around the world - “sports nomad”

Link: https://www.padel-22.com/

About

A leading Sports Communications, International Relations and Padel Industry professional who ran Media Relations for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) during 'the biggest sporting crisis of the 21st century' - the Russian Doping Scandal. Ben also led Communications and Public Affairs for a revitalised Commonwealth Sport movement at Gold Coast 2018, transforming the perception of the modern Commonwealth Games. Ben brings with him with 17+ years’ experience and a proven track record of success running communications for the world’s leading sports series, leagues, events, teams, leaders, athletes, brands and media. Ben is an entrepreneurial figure with expertise in Strategic and Corporate Communications, Media Relations, Public Affairs, Issues & Crisis Management, Event Operations, Speech Writing, Executive Communications Counsel, Marketing and as a Spokesperson. By 26, Ben was overseeing Communications for the award-winning ATP and WTA Dubai Tennis Championships and leading the Middle East region's Communications for the 2010 Asian Games 'Road of Asia' campaign. At F1 team Lotus Renault GP, Ben led Media activity including for drivers Nick Heidfeld, Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean and team sponsors. He oversaw Media Relations for WADA during a turbulent period for international sport. He was Communications Counsel for leadership; Editor of Play True Magazine; Speechwriter; and creator of widely-acclaimed interview series, WADA Talks. He executed Media Relations and Social Media for the high-profile WADA Investigation into Doping in Athletics, achieving a total US$4.60 Billion AVE in the process and resulting in #WADA becoming the World's No.1 trending topic on Twitter. As the Commonwealth Games Federation's first Director of Communications and Public Affairs, he developed and implemented the Marketing & Communications Strategy, positively shifting the public perception of what the Commonwealth Games meant worldwide. Ben ran his own Sports Communications Consultancy working with the likes of the International Padel Federation (FIP), Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), USA Weightlifting, USADA and the Athletics Integrity Unit, and also worked for global sports media and technology innovators, Sportradar, heading the Anti-Doping Services team for Europe. Today, he is working as a Strategic Communications and PR Consultant in the burgeoning sport of Padel – widely described as "the world's fastest growing sport".

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Great discussion with Professor Simon Chadwick, a highly respected academic in the world of sports, with several books and papers to his name and various successful consulting roles across the world combining academics with the real world.  We take a birds eye look at the world of sports, the hottest topics and issues out there, across Simon’s 20+ year career.

Key Highlights 

1. How it all started, growing up living across his local team, Middlesborough – passion passed down by generations
2. Premier League paper in mid 90s got the ball rolling, leading to a PhD with his thesis focused on Football Shirt deals in English Football
3. How to connect a brand to the heart of the fan through shirt sponsorship discussion
4. Working with overseas Master & PhD students to study overseas fan behavior, how do fans in China pick a “favorite club”
5. Stories – Ferran Soriano early vision at Barcelona & Manchester United Tour lessons from 2005
6. Lessons learned from trips and work IN PLACES INCLUDING THE GULF, China, Russia, - understanding the differences and impact on sports. Teaching around the world from Brazil to Japan TO THE UNITED STATES
7. Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy – work with them prior to the World Cup
8. Our discussion on “migrant worker” issues and “Sports Washing” history lessons, politics, nation branding, etc
9. China – what is happening since Covid – recent Winter Olympics, dropping the AFC Asia Cup (Football) as host (Geo political issues)
10. Public sector entrepreneur – writing books looking at Mega trends (Managing Football, Handbook of Sports Marketing, etc.  New book “The Geopolitical economy of sports” – coming out this year (Publisher: Routledge)
11. Women’s sports discussion, opportunities and challenges
12. Esports & Gaming – how countries take advantage of investments in Esports to build new industries, ie. Korea, Saudi Arabia, China
13. Sports coming out of Covid – survival of the fittest, concentration of power (industrial concentration)
14. Recession talk vs Mega Media deals globally (how to explain it) – polarization

About

Professor Simon Chadwick is a researcher, writer, academic, consultant, policy advisor, and speaker with more than twenty-five years experience in the global sport industry. His work focuses on the geopolitical economy of sport. Chadwick is Professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy at Skema Business School in Paris, where he is also a member of its think tank - Publika - as well as Programme Director of Skema's Global Executive MBA in Sport. Simon previously co-founded and directed Emlyon Business School's Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry, the University of London's Birkbeck Sports Business Centre, Coventry University's Centre for the International Business of Sport, and Salford University's Centre for Sport Business. In addition, he has worked at several of the world's most prestigious business schools, such as IESE in Spain, Otto Beisheim in Germany, Tsinghua in China, COPPEAD in Brazil and Waseda in Japan. He has written numerous articles, books and research reports for the likes of Forbes, Sloan Management Review, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Forbes, Thunderbird International Business Review, Mastercard, Newsweek, Reuters, Time, Routledge and Financial Times Prentice Hall. Chadwick has consulted for some of the biggest names in sport, such as FC Barcelona, UEFA, Adidas, the Association of Tennis Professionals, Nielsen, the European Clubs Association, Ping, Formula E, Coca Cola, and the Asian Football Confederation. Simon tweets via @Prof_Chadwick Some examples of his writing can be found via channels including: https://www.iris-france.org/geosport/ https://www.policyforum.net/authors/simon-chadwick/ https://theconversation.com/profiles/simon-chadwick-94601/articles https://www.ejinsight.com/eji/author/id/10880

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Leigh Steinberg, aka the real life Jerry Maguire, the US Super Agent goat sharing his illustrious career and accomplishments and the trials and tribulations across his 50 year career.  Enjoy the history lessons and learnings.

Key Highlights

1. Going way back to the 1960, height of Vietnam war and dealing with then California Governor Ronald Reagan (later US President)
2. The start of “Agents” in American Football – first deal with Steve Bartkowski in 1975 at the age of 25 straight out of Berkely Law School  
3. His passion to give back to the community and how that has driven his selection of clients
4. Growth of the company – focus on NFL Quarterbacks, expanding into other Sports – first book, adding agents
5. Helping the city of San Francisco to keep SF Giants in the city, instead of being sold to investor group.
6. Becoming a steward of sports  (being the bridge between owners vs athletes – billionaires vs millionaires – avoid strikes, etc)
7. Start of the company, key partners Jeff Moorad and later David Dunn joining and some of the challenges
8. Discussion about the pioneers of the industry, from Mark McCormack to David Falk
9. Explosion of content to drive industry – sports becoming the most popular form of television programming
10. Selling the company and what happened after and how plans changed
11. Early days of athletes content online during the dot.com boom
12. Personal struggles taking a toll and his personal crash in 2010 – recently celebrity 12 years of sobriety – starting all over
13. Lessons from that time and how others can learn from it
14. The new beginning – Steinberg Sports & Entertainment
15. Story behind Jerry Maguire and how the movie came about and a bit about “Any Given Sunday”
16. Current biggest stars on his roster,  superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes II – comparing contract numbers across sports and agent commissions
17. Endorsement deals for sports stars – big difference in sports – the billionaire sports superstars of our era
18. NIL and the impact for High School and College players – managing expectations – social media as currency
19. Athletes taking equity in businesses they promote – new form of wealth creation – agency helps to cut those deals
20. Content creation by athletes, production and social media
21. What makes a great athletes a Superstar – certain qualities required
22. His view on the future of sports and Esports and new focus on health and wellness
23. Other things that keep him busy, new book, podcast, charity to agent academy -  www.steinbergspeaks.com

About

Leigh Steinberg, premier sports agent, entrepreneur, Chairman and founder of Steinberg Sports and Entertainment, is best known for his work building athletes into stand-alone brands. He is often credited as the real-life inspiration for the Oscar-winning film Jerry Maguire. Leigh has represented many of the most successful athletes and coaches in football, basketball, baseball, hockey, boxing, golf, etc., including the number one overall pick in the NFL draft for an unprecedented eight times in conjunction with 64 total first round picks. Furthermore, Leigh has represented other notable athletes, including Oscar De La Hoya and Lennox Lewis, as well as multiple Olympians and professional teams. With an unrivaled history of record-setting contracts, Leigh has secured over $4 billion for his 300+ pro athlete clients and directed more than $800 million to various charities around the world.

Before making a name for himself in the sports industry, Leigh was born and raised in Los Angeles by his parents, a teacher and librarian. He obtained both his B.A. in political science and his J.D. from UC Berkeley, where he was student body president during each tenure. Passionate about giving back and making it his unrelenting personal goal to make the world a better place, Leigh has also distinguished himself by his dedication to philanthropy. He has received commendations from Congress, State Senate, State Legislature, the Los Angeles City Council, the Orange County Board of Supervisors, President Reagan, President Bush, and President Clinton. Leigh has been named “Man of the Year” over a dozen times by a variety of groups, including the March of Dimes, Cedars-Sinai, the Southern California Boy Scouts, the Orange County and Los Angeles Human Relations Commissions, the Orange County and Los Angeles divisions of the Anti-Defamation League, and several other professional and charitable organizations. He has also been awarded the “Keys to the City” in San Francisco, CA, Memphis, TN, Jacksonville, FL and Concord, CA and has even been honored with the declaration of “Leigh Steinberg Day” in San Francisco after his efforts to save the Giants. In 2017, Leigh was inducted into the California Sports Hall of Fame.

Over the course of his career, Leigh has been featured on numerous national television programs, including 60 Minutes, Larry King Live, The Today Show, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Frontline, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and many more. He has been profiled in a host of magazines, including Business Week, Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, People, Forbes, Playboy, GQ, and FHM. Leigh has also served as a consultant on several feature films and television series, including Jerry Maguire, Any Given Sunday, For Love of the Game, and Arli$$. Additionally, he has supplied his expertise on the business of sports and athletes for The Dan Patrick Show, The Jim Rome Show, and The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and multiple other radio and TV outlets. Leigh contributes a weekly column to Forbes, HuffPost, and the Daily Pilot and is a guest columnist at The New York Times, Sporting News, and Yahoo Sports. In addition, Leigh has penned notable articles such as “The Future of Sports” for the Sports Business Journal, “Around the NFL in 80 Million Dollars” for Inside Sports Magazine, and “The Future of Sport” for the Smithsonian Magazine.

In addition to his work in the industry, Leigh is also a best-selling author. His first book, Winning with Integrity, provides insight on how to improve life through non-confrontational negotiation, and his most recent book, The Agent: My 40-Year Career of Making Deals and Changing the Game, details his decades of dominance in the sports industry and sheds light on overcoming his personal struggles to launch his comeback. Leigh has been named one of the most powerful people in the NFL by Football Digest and one of the most powerful people in sports by Sporting News. He currently resides in Newport Beach and has three children.

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Great discussion with my old friend Andrea Radrizzani, an Italian sports entrepreneur who build MP & Silva to a billion dollar company, the journey from Milan to Asia to now Leeds as Owner & Chairman of Leeds United.

Key Highlights

1. How it started,  Media Partners,  early days of live streaming and website development (Web 1.0)
2. Working with strong leaders and visionaries at Media Partners
3. Move to Asia – first two years in Shanghai  - distribution of media rights , next move to Tokyo
4. Dream was to distribute Serie A rights in Asia -  it became much bigger
5. How MP & Silva got started, partnering with Riccardo Silva –  set up in Singapore (50/50 partnership)
6. Growth of business with focus on Media rights -  close to USD 1 billion in revenue at the end
7. Clear focus on Football rights initially, premium content, pay extra to get into market and build credibility
8. Focus on local market knowledge, at one point 21 offices around the world,  breaking rights into smaller packages
9. Sell of MP & Silva to a Chinese group and the aftermath -  starting the next businesses (Eleven) and buying Leeds United, making mistakes and learning from them
10. Proving he can build successful platforms, investors and partners joining along the way
11. Strategy of Eleven – focus on markets with less competition and opportunity to become a leading platform quickly (Poland, Portugal, Taiwan, etc)
12. Deal with DAZN and ELEVEN – future plans and roles
13. Leeds United story – how it all started and where it is now, boyhood dream come true
14. The journey from The Championship up to Premier League and staying there last season (scoring in last minute of game to stay in)   
15. Working with High profile Investors (49ers, American Football team) and the combination of skills
16. Learnings from his career – how you define risk taking and the level you are comfortable with
17. Changing management style, lessons cost millions, listen more – building strong management teams
18. Play for Change – passion project and new projects coming up

About

Andrea Radrizzani is the Chairman of Leeds United and a leading entrepreneur who has been at the forefront of the global sports media industry for more than twenty years.

A self-made businessman, Andrea founded the investment platform Aser Ventures in 2015, specialising in sports, media and entertainment properties. Aser became co-owners of Leeds United in January 2017 and since May of that year, Aser has been the ultimate parent company of the club with Andrea as Chairman.

During his time with Leeds United, Andrea has overseen the return of the club to the Premier League in the 2019/20 season, following 16 years in the lower divisions. Whilst at Leeds, he has also appointed world-renowned coach Marcelo Bielsa, supported the development of one of the most successful academies in English football and bought back the Club’s iconic Elland Road stadium.

Andrea’s success in the business world dates back over two decades. Radrizzani began his career in sports media in 1999 with digital sports content distributor Media Partners and founded Media Partners’ China business. 

He went on to co-found MP & Silva in 2004, launching the renowned sports media agency’s operations from its headquarters in Singapore and leading its global expansion into 20 countries as CEO and major shareholder.

Later, through Aser, Andrea launched the international sports content platform ELEVEN SPORTS in 2015. ELEVEN has since established itself as an innovative and fan-centric media platform in markets across Europe and Asia, with a rights portfolio that includes LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Premier League, UEFA Champions League and F1. ELEVEN recently secured domestic rights to the Belgian Pro League for the next five seasons.

Andrea is also the Founder and Chairman of Play for Change, an international charity that uses the power of sport to improve the lives of children in his native Italy and around the world.

Born in Milan, Andrea studied Public Relations at the city’s IULM University and graduated in 1996.

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Tracy Benson gives us an insight look into her amazing career with great stories, from her struggles as a Pro Volleyball player, to having a very successful Corporate career, learning all the tools and tactics of consumer marketing and digital to becoming an Entrepreneur and launching Obsesh, a new digital sports platform, just before Covid hit the world.

Key Highlights

1. From student athletes to Pro Volleyball player and the changes since then (NIL) (30 years ago) – dream come true and the struggles
2. Trying to make a living being a Pro Volleyball player, winning tournaments and prize was a case of Pepsi
3. Moving into the corporate world, first stop Home Depot and the learning coming in as an athlete, being a leader/captain every day
4. Olympic Work program, great way to bring fellow athletes into Home Depot and giving them a chance to make a living  (full benefits, part time work)
5. Next stops, Jack Morton & Razorfish, learning advertising and experiential marketing (early days of Web 1 and moving into Web 2)
6. Head of Digital/Marketing at Best Buy – building a consumer digital platform, story telling was key
7. Best Buy buying Napster, everything shifting online, meeting with Facebook when it was a few guys around Mark
8. Monster and Beats by Dre story, how Best Buy helped create the brand and drive sales (Black Headphones) – learning from lots of mistakes
9. Joining Monster as Global Chief Marketing & Product officer, coming out to California, being around digital innovators
10. OBSESH – peer to peer sports marketplace for 1:1 remote access to the best athletes as coaches  (go.obsesh.com)
11. Focused on the 99% of athletes who are struggling to make a living with their sport
12. Coming through Stadia Ventures Accelerator – investors include YouTube founder Chad Hurley, Harvard Business School Alumni Angels.  Ranked top 5 sports tech company to watch in 2021
13. Helping athletes building their brand, huge opportunity after NIL ruling with College athlete now
14. Covid impact on the business was positive being born a “digital technology” company, also the off/on of sports during Covid, speed up space of adoption, more reasons for athletes to join the platform and seek new income streams, accelerated business across many aspects  (timing is crucial starting a business)  
15. Company working truly online around the country, no physical office space, opportunity and challenges
16. Business model – focus on athletes first, athletes set their own price points and keep 100% - percentage fee on top of athletes fee (mark up)
17. Top five things every athlete wants, great details shared by Tracy
18. Obsesh Athlete Academy – free support for athletes to learn about digital, social media, contracts, trademarks, etc – including access to standardized contracts from appearances to social media deals, learning rules of NIL, etc
19. NFT Marketplace – in partnership with Beasy Unite,  peer to peer NFT marketplace for athletes, tokenizing memberships, digital merchandise
20. Web3  discussion -  our “Before they were Pros” NFT project and how fans are also a very important part of the ecosystem
21. “Chief” – founding member of private network designed to empower women in leadership roles  (https://chief.com)
22. Being a voice for women, gay community and spreading the message of inclusiveness – global ambitions in the future
23. How to connect with Tracy - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tbdigital/,  email: athletes@obsesh.com

About

Tracy Benson is the CEO and co-founder of Obsesh, the sports marketplace platform connecting consumers to top athletes, and empowering athlete entrepreneurs to manage, merchandise, market, and monetize their fans online. Previously she was Global Chief Marketing Officer at Seek Thermal, Global Chief Marketing & Product Officer at Monster Inc. (maker of Beats by Dre and Monster headphones), Head of Marketing at Best Buy, Hyper-Growth Market leader at The Home Depot (where she developed the first athlete-work program for Olympians) and Sales & Marketing Manager at AT&T. Tracy was an All-Conference NCAA volleyball athlete at Western Illinois University before becoming a professional beach volleyball player. She earned an MBA in Marketing & Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

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Our guest Prof. Dr. Sascha Schmidt, a German Sports Business Professor with a McKinsey background. We look into the future of the industry, with his book “21st Century Sports”.  We explore the different technologies, how to categorize them and how to create your own tool to better follow the trends and take advantage of them.

Key Highlights

1. Early days from Uni to his first Consulting gig at McKinsey working in Switzerland, New York and South Africa.
2. Thesis for his Phd “Walk the talk”, do company’s deliver on what they promise
3. a-connect – German operations, develop business with sports clients in Germany, bring top tier consultants and sub-lease them to multi-national companies.
4. Institute for Sports, Business and Society – Dietmar Hopp one of the founding partners (SAP Founder, Billionaire and owner of TSG Hoffenheim)
5. Exploring SPOAC – Sports Business Academy by WHU , Havard Business School Case studies and MIT Sports Entrepreneurship Bootcamps
6. Book – 21st Century Sports – essay collection, how technology will effect sports in the future.  21st Century Sports (whu.edu)
   • Athletes and tech impact on them
   • Sports Consumer – how tech changes consumption of sports
   • Management – how the sports executives and leaders use tech

1. Impact of AI in sports – example scouting , science and art
2. Moneyball and new tech coming – motion tracking technology, even used for amateur sports
3. Man(kind) vs Machines – how far has it come and will it go
4. Fan controlled sports leagues (Fan Controlled American Football in the US) - younger sports fans, different consumption habit, want more participation
   • Lessons on Customer Engagement from Fan Controlled Football

1. Consumer tech in sports, AI – individualization of content, virtual arena’s, metaverse – Sportsfix white paper example (and learning effect of Amara’s law)
2. Management and tech – can be overwhelming – below a simple matrix navigation system to sort through the tech jungle
   • Physical tech  (robotics, wearables)
   • Data processing (AI, Quantum tech, etc)
   • Human interaction tech
     • VALUE to:
       • Athlete
       • Consumer
       • Management

1. New Football concepts from Kings League (Gerard Pique), Baller League, The Icon League (Toni Kroos)
   • Deliver an online experience, streaming, voting, influencers
   • The Golf League (Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, etc)
   • IPL – Indian Premier League Cricket

1. Blending sports, music, fashion, education – edutainment products
2. Esports discussion – big push in Asia and Middle East,  World Cup of Esports in Saudi – US$ 60 million prize pool (new Club Championship concept), difference to traditional sports, publishers control
   • Traditional Football teams entering the space – diversification moves

1. FC Barcelona – new approach in the tech and digital space with Barca Media
2. Transformational Technologies Course – in partnership between WHU, MIT and Borussia Dortmund
   • bvb.de/online-course/transformational-technologies-by-borussia-dortmund?cmpscreencustom

1. Sports becoming an Asset Class – new institutional capital coming in – SMRF Capital – new value creation, still in development
2. Bundesliga and new Investors collapse
3. Resource:  WHU European Sports Business Program

About

Sascha L. Schmidt is a professor and director of the Center for Sports and Management (CSM) at WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management. At the same time, he is the academic director of "ESBP - European Sports Business Program“ of WHU, ESSEC Paris and Stockholm School of Economics as well as affiliate at the Laboratory for Innovation Science (LISH) at Harvard University in Boston/USA. 

He studied economic sciences at the Universities of Essen and Zurich, where he also graduated with a doctorate. At the invitation of Harvard Business School faculty he worked in Boston as a visiting scholar, after which he joined strategy consulting. After several years at McKinsey, Sascha was appointed director of the ICS research program at the University of St. Gallen, and qualified as a professor at the EBS University (habilitation). He then entered into the world of entrepreneurship, building up the activities of recruitment agency a-connect within Germany. In 2011, he returned to academia and founded the Institute for Sports, Business & Society at EBS University. Sascha joined WHU in 2014. In 2019, he was a lecturer at the first MIT Sports Entrepeneurship Bootcamp.

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Steve Patterson, a fellow YPOer and top US Sports Executive turned Entrepreneur with an incredible four decades of experience in the business, who learned the ropes working for his dad at the age of 10. Incredible stories and insights across the US sporting landscape from NBA, NFL, NHL to major Universities and working with several US billionaire owners over the decades.  Tons of great facts and figures of record breaking deals and no end in sight for him.

Key Highlights

1. How it all started, through his dad, co-founder of Milwaukee Bucks, him answering the phone at 10 years old
2. Background of his dad (Ray Patterson), All American Player, turned Coach and early investor in Bucks when they went public in 1968/69
   • His dad drafting Kareem Abdul Jabbar and winning the Championship in 1971
3. Moving to Houston and first major role with Houston Rockets as Director of Business Operations
4. His Houston Rocket Days, breaking attendance records, doubling TV revenue, first NBA game in Mexico City, first Spanish Language TV show, great stories around them
5. Building a Championship team, including Hakeem Olajuwon, creating the team that won the NBA title in 1993-94 – how it started and the role of Def Leppard ….
6. Difference between a General Manager and the Coach – long term vs short term view
7. Next stop, President & Partner in Houston Aeros (Ice) Hockey Team in the IHL and Compaq Center deal
8. Helping to bring Houston Texans (NFL) to Houston in early 2000 – Chuck Watson and Bobby McNair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McNair  (later Senior VP & Chief Development Officer)
   • Massive numbers across the deal, including purchase price (US$ 750 million), deal terms revealed
   • Building a stadium, hiring staff and team from scratch
   • Over US$ 450 million of Contractual Obligated Income (COI) generated to create first investment grade sports franchise
9. Learn about the Texas “Superbowl Bill” and its legacy to help bring major events to the state ever since
10. From NFL to NBA – Paul Allen, owner of Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers – taking role as President/GM for Trail Blazers
11. Comparing numbers between Rockets and Trail Blazers 20 years later, difference in media landscape, building set up, etc
12. Team lost US$ 135mil the year he arrived, turned it around over four years -  US$ 52 mil in “luxury tax” due on first day on the job
13. Starting Pro Sports Consulting in 2007, providing services to companies, US governments, universities and individuals to seek, acquire, sell major/minor league sports properties, from design, finance, building to maximizing revenues
14. Roles at Arizona State University – VP of Athletics and later Men’s Athletic Director at University of Texas, Austin
    • Differences between Pro Sports and College Sports in the US – different stake holders
    • UT has US$ 180 million budget, largest athletic budget in the country and how it’s spend
    • NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) discussion and Steve’s interesting perspective
15. Arizona Coyotes, NHL team, successfully positioned team for sale
16. Most recent venture, Legend Labs – branding and crisis consulting firm, representing athletes to Universities, and other entities – Co-Chairman & Partner  
17. Pro Sports Consulting – working on Charlotte Hornets, new Stadium project  & Executive Coaching role

About

Steve Patterson has served as an innovative and successful executive in the NFL, NBA, NHL, professional baseball, and college athletics for over 35 years. He has built championship teams and organizations, designed, financed, built, and run stadia, ballparks, and arenas with record setting revenues all over the United States. Patterson successfully led the effort to bring the Houston Texans NFL team and Super Bowl XXXVIII to Houston, Texas. As General Manager of the Houston Rockets, he built the 1994 NBA Championship team.

Patterson is currently the President of Pro Sports Consulting, which provides services to universities, companies, government entities, and individuals that operate or seek to acquire or sell sports properties, to design, finance, build and operate sports facilities and to maximize the revenue of these and related entities. He is also the Co-Chair of Legend Labs a brand and crisis communications consultancy.

Patterson is formerly the President, CEO and Alternate Governor of the Arizona Coyotes. He is also the former Director of Men’s Athletics for the University of Texas at Austin where he oversaw the largest athletic department budget in all of college sports while setting records for academic success, revenue generation, endowment growth and philanthropic giving to the athletic department.

Prior to UT, Patterson served as Managing Director of Sun Devil Sports Group, Vice President for Athletics and Athletic Director for Sun Devil Athletics at Arizona State University. In that capacity, Patterson was responsible for all ASU Athletic Department business and sports operations, acquisition, development, and operation of current and new sports facilities and assisted with the development of the 425-acre Sports Facilities District adjacent to the University in downtown Tempe.

As President of the Portland Trail Blazers, The Rose Garden and Rose City Radio. Patterson refined his skills as a turnaround specialist, while garnering national recognition for his player acquisitions when he took over the team’s General Manager duties.

As the Trail Blazers General Manager, Patterson engineered a record six draft day trades that resulted in the selection of NBA Rookie of the Year and three-time NBA All Star Brandon Roy and fellow All Rookie 1st team, seven-time NBA All Star and five time All NBA member LaMarcus Aldridge. Patterson also revamped the entire basketball operation, hiring then GM Kevin Pritchard and Head Coach Nate McMillan.

Patterson formerly served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer of the Houston Texans NFL franchise where he led Bob McNair’s successful effort to acquire a National Football League franchise and Super Bowl XXXVIII for Houston, Texas. Patterson was responsible for the establishment of the team’s business, legal, media and political operations, as well as the development, design, finance, construction and operation of NRG Stadium and related facilities.

Prior to joining the Texans, Patterson was the President, General Manager and Governor of the Houston Aeros hockey team. For his efforts he was named the 1995 winner of the Andy Mulligan Trophy as the International Hockey League’s Executive of the Year.

In addition to his roles with the Aeros, Patterson also acquired and served as President and Partner in Arena Operating Company, which managed and operated Compaq Center, Houston’s home of the Rockets, Aeros and Comets.

While overseeing all the business and basketball operations of the Houston Rockets, Patterson was the chief architect of the 1993-1994 Houston Rockets squad that captured the first NBA World Championship in franchise history signing, drafting, or trading for all the team’s players and coaches. Patterson also led the club’s successful bid to host the 1989 NBA All-Star Game in The Astrodome, which held the all-time NBA All-Star Game attendance record of 44,735 for 21 years.

Born and raised in Beaver Dam, WI. Patterson attended the University of Texas, graduating with honors earning a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 1980. He graduated from UT’s Law School in 1984. He is married to Yasmin Michael with whom he has three grown children.

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Today, I am talking to Gagan Palrecha, the CEO of NFTSTAR, a new Bay Area startup in the NFT sports space. Palrecha is an engineer by training and has been fascinated by sports & music since his youth. We cover some of the stops across his career, the build-up to his current role, including time at Dapper Labs as VP of Operations. We go deep into the blockchain, crypto, NFTs, Web 2.5 to 3.0, the metaverse, digital stadium, play-to-earn, and many more current buzzwords and of course, his vision for NFTSTAR. 

Key Highlights

1. Palrecha grew up playing sports & had a passion for music. After studying computer engineering and science, he was attracted to the startup scene in San Francisco in the early 2000s.
2. Palrecha joined Loudcloud, a startup backed by VC company Andreessen Horowitz, before moving to a few other startups.
3. As his first entrepreneurial exploits, Palrecha started First Time Records.
4. Palrecha helped develop a space for artists and creators at the following businesses:
   1. Zattoo -- live streaming, the first virtual cable operator
   2. Peekok -- a platform to help artists and labels create a direct retail relationship with fans, via social and interactive marketing (early days of NFTs)
   3. Chirply -- fundraising for design marketplace
5. 2013: Blockchain and Bitcoin 
   1. The concept of a distributed ledger that governs ownership without government interference fascinated him.
6. Palrecha’s experience at Dapper Labs:
   1. Crypto Kitty was the first big project for Dapper, before it was called Dapper Labs.
   2. The NBA took a risk and jointly created NBA Top Shot in 2020. By the end of 2020 and early 2021, NFTs took off and NBA Top Shot lead the way.
   3. Over 1 billion worth of trading volume with NBA Top Shot.
7. What worked and didn’t work at the height of NBA Top Shot:
   1. Dealing with backlogs and regulatory issues.
   2. Blockchain challenges and issues with bots.
   3. Challenges of the virtual trading card model. 
8. NFTSTAR: Palrecha’s vision as CEO (website: https://m.nftstar.com/) 
   1. NFTSTAR is building the biggest sports stadium in the Web3 metaverse.
   2. The company is working with athletes to build a direct relationship with fans. 
   3. Current projects with:
      • Neymar Jr, Luis Figo, Son Heung-Min (Soccer)
      • Giannis Antetokounmpo (Basketball)
      • Christian McCaffrey (American Football)
   4. NFTSTAR is currently in its startup stage, with its first collection coming out in the fall of 2022
   5. Beyond the usual NFT headshots, NFTSTAR will include mobile gaming elements, as well an interactive and immersive fantasy world around its athlete partners.
   6. Prioritizing a meta stadium and virtual stadium vision, NFTSTAR rewards the fans and viewers with avatars and more.
   7. NFTSTAR is funded through private investors, not through a token raise.
9. Play-to-Earn discussion:
   1. There are many current challenges early play-to-earn games are facing—taking a look at Axie Infinity for example.
   2. NFTSTAR is looking at the game and user experience first before focusing on play-to-earn business strategies. 
   3. NFTSTAR is not building a speculative platform. Instead, members are rewarded for participation with special privileges or items.
10. NFTSTAR athlete engagement:
    1. Upcoming Neymar NFT drop, where Neymar and his team are heavily involved.
    2. NFTSTAR is all about the athlete and how they grew up, where they come from, and what shaped them. 
    3. The company helps build a community around the athletes by prioritizing experiences.
11. If you’d like to reach Palrecha, contact him at nftstar@vsc.co.

About

Gagan Palrecha joined NFTSTAR as COO in September 2021, and is responsible for business development and operations, strategic partnerships, and product strategy. As the former Vice President of Dapper Labs, creators of NBA Top Shot and the Flow blockchain, Palrecha brings extensive experience and expertise in the NFT startup space. He has held several leadership positions in business development, product and operations and has done extensive work in Europe and Asia. He is also an active angel investor through his investment fund, Palrecha Capital. Palrecha is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and currently resides in the Bay Area. 

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Damian Willoughby, turned his passion for football, playing in his youth in the UK, then NCAA football to spending his career across Rangers FC, Chelsea FC, Manchester City and the City Football Group till his current and most recent role at EA (Electronic Arts) in Esports.  Listen and learn from his experiences at some of the biggest Football brands and now at EA.

Key Highlights

1. From playing youth Football in the UK, to NCAA “soccer” and getting his MBA at University of Liverpool in Football
2. Leading to his first first role in Rangers FC, leading sponsorship programs
3. Despite the huge rivalry between Rangers and Celtic (collectively called “The Old Firm”) on the pitch, both clubs cooperated on sponsorship deals to avoid brands having to split across the fan base.  Very clever
4. Talking numbers, front of shirt and other revenue streams for Rangers.  Very competitive with the big UK clubs at the time due to passionate fan base, 50k fans in stadium, etc.  The big Premier League Media income started to make the difference and swing power to English Clubs.
5. Next stop Chelsea, Abramovich’s early era and success started to make a difference. Talking Samsung and leveraging the power of the Premier League globally.  Discussing the “not invented here syndrome” of global brand sponsorships and how to deal with it.  Singha Beer deal discussion.
6. Moving into Player Management side with James Grant Sports Group for a couple of years to learn that part of the business, wasn’t his thing
7. Manchester City, new Arab owners already in place and club on major trajectory – joining in global sponsorship sales role
8. City Football Group (New York, Melbourne, Mumbai, Yokohama, etc) – 12 clubs now globally – (and Ferran Soriano’s role in it)
9. How it works from a commercial point of view and creating synergies across the different clubs, leveraging the global power of Manchester City combined with the local strength of the various partner clubs
10. Moving to Singapore running global business from there for six years, last few years also CEO of City Football India (Mumbai City FC), last few years during Covid
11. How players move around the City Football Group ecosystem
12. In the Middle of Covid, mid 2021, Gaming/Esports is booming, next move, VP Partnerships for EA Sports – huge company, US$ 7 billion in revenue, 13,000 people worldwide
13. Talking Esports & EA properties, much more than FIFA, leader of sports simulation games (Madden NFL, F1, UFC, NHL, PGA Tour, etc) and other successful non-sports games (Apex Legend, Battlefield, The Sims) – difference between sports and non-sports games
14. Huge player base and time spend in the game by Gamers, massive audiences and engagement levels – still lots of education to be done with brands on how to leverage it
15. FIFA split, what he could share – big plans for EA Sports FC , nothing changes in the game, the teams and general feel of the game
16. Stevenage FC and Burger King,  how it went viral, creative thinking on how to leverage a game

About 

A highly accomplished and respected global football executive with 20+ years experience in generating and managing over £1.3bn in revenues, motivating large (+65 staff) and globally diverse (13 offices) teams to achieve sporting and financial goals around performance, brand, revenue and fan growth for leading sports properties including City Football Group, Chelsea & Rangers FC.

Most recently CEO of City Football India following the strategic acquisition of a majority stake in Mumbai City FC, worked with CFG and Reliance as shareholders to develop the Club, Indian Super League and Indian football.

Currently VP, Partnerships at Electronic Arts, originally head hunted to develop the commercial strategy for Esports across key global EA franchises (FIFA, Madden & Apex) and now working in a small core executive team to shape the future of the company’s marquee football franchise.

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Sandy Brown, another true American Sports Nomad, especially in the Media and Broadcasting space.  Listen to amazing stories of Sandy’s globe trotting career around the world from ProServ, NBA, ESPN/Star Sports, Univision, ONE World Sports and more.

Key Highlights

1. Growing up playing tennis, made connections through his Tennis Club in Delaware
2. How he got started at ProServ, first meeting with Donald Dell, driving his limo around the airport
   • Dennis Spencer one of his early mentors (shout out to one of the nicest guys in the industry)
   • Pro-Serve, top roster of Tennis and NBA players, tennis tournaments – peak of company
3. Before Sportel Monaco days, MIP TV and MIP Com , flogging sports TV rights in Cannes  
4. Next stop NBA, international TV rights – David Stern his next mentor, early days as Commissioner (know your business better than anyone else was his mantra)
   • CCTV story.  Happened to me before as well
5. ESPN Asia,  move to Hong Kong  -  at the age of 28 (1992)
   • Birth of Cable industry in Asia, Satellite distribution just started – DTH business across the region
   • US content as a start and Monday night Premier League matches
   • Creative deal making in China
6. Merger of ESPN Asia and Star Sports in Asia (Murdoch) (new set up in Singapore) – Managing Director of new JV
   • Big change in broadcast landscape and shock for Rights holders and agencies
   • Two different corporate cultures working together, very focused on turning a loss making entity to break even
   • ESPN had carriage fees,  Star Sports was free for platform owners (Advertising driven)
   • Exploits in India, cable operators in India are another level (try to visualize it) – Chris McDonald/Manu Sawhney (wild west of India, machine guns, etc)
   • ARPU blend discussion – penny a sub in China, 5 cent in India to 1 dollar in SEA and Taiwan – retail rate of partners
   • Disney/ESPN recently shut the entire network structure down after acquiring FOX Sports globally a few years before, about 30 years later  
7. Next stop CNBC Asia (NBC Universal) – learning the GE culture, Jack Welsh as CEO
   • Business News different thing
8. After 15 years, time to come back to the US – biggest take away, working with great people makes the difference
9. Univision – President of Sports – launching a domestic US cable sports channel focused on Hispanic population – bringing in new ideas and concepts, pushing Rights holders to new grounds
10. ONE World Sports – new platform targeting Asian diaspora in the US (Seamus O’Brien behind the venture)
    • From two affiliate deals, pushed up to 70
    • Lots of live content, Chinese Super League, KHL (Russian Ice-hockey), ECB (English Cricket), European Football Club Channels, Table Tennis, etc
    • Alternative to ESPN, heavy promotions and support to rights holders to market their product in the US
    • Eventually shareholders decided to sell the business – to ELEVEN
11. Commissioner of Major League Lacrosse – turn around situation, difficult set up with owners and commercial structure
    • League had been around for 20 years, lots of cleaning up to do
    • Competitive League shows up (PLL), plus Covid gets in the way
    • Merging with PLL now, handing it over, winding up MLL
12. Poshando Inc – starting his own consulting business just recently (back in Baltimore)
13. Final thoughts on Broadcasting/Streaming industry currently,  subscription models (Netflix), investor expectations vs industry realities  (ARPU blend vs Sub growth) –
    • quality of subscribers
    • cost of acquisition of subs (cost of broadcast rights

About

Alexander P. Brown joined Major League Lacrosse in February 2018. Since taking the helm, Brown has drastically improved the experience and opportunity for players, teams and fans. During his tenure, he has restructured the ownership group, rebranded the league marks and reacquired the league’s media rights, leading to exponential growth in nationally televised reach. In 2019, Brown welcomed ten new partners to the league, introduced a creative and sophisticated digital team (generating 194% growth in social traffic, 97% growth in social engagement and 393% growth in web traffic) and achieved a 16% increase in total attendance year-over-year.

During the 2020 COVID impacted year, Brown oversaw the most successful year in MLL’s history in terms of overall engagement, generating over 150mm digital impressions over an eight (8) day tournament. Further, the league’s impressions on ESPN and ESPN + increased by 150% and 1600%, respectively.

Brown is an accomplished executive with over 25 years of leadership experience who has spearheaded the launch and growth of multiple sports media outlets. Most recently, he was the President/CEO of One World Sports, where he launched the HD channel across both linear and digital platforms to over 50 million US subscribers through cable and satellite distributors as well as over-the-top (OTT) platforms.

In 2010, Brown became President of Univision Sports, the leading media outlet for Spanish-speaking Americans, where he created and launched Univision Deportes to over 15 million US homes. As part of this effort, Brown oversaw the rebranding of Univision Sports. Additionally, he not only supervised the production of the highest rated primetime sports broadcast in the channel’s history at the time with the Mexico vs. Honduras match in the 2011 Gold Cup, but he developed Univision’s nightly version of SportsCenter, “Univision Deportes Extra” or “UDX” as well as the network’s signature soccer pregame program, “Futbol Central”.

Brown has extensive experience in the international markets. Based in Hong Kong and Singapore, he launched ESPN’s business in Asia while serving as the Managing Director of both ESPN Asia and ESPN Star Sports. Brown’s international work in sports began in the late 1980’s when he was hired by the NBA to oversee their international television interests in over 100 countries.

Brown played lacrosse collegiately at Washington and Lee University and represented the university in the 1985 USILA North South Game.

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Scott Levy, a globetrotting senior US sports executive with a stellar resume and decades of achievements in the NBA.  Get an inside scoop into the growth of the NBA internationally, and Scott’s role and journey over more than two decades with the organization.

Key Highlights

1. Passion for traveling inspired early after University, starting in the advertising world with Y&R and McCann-Erickson in New York City with a goal to combine his passion with work
2. Joining the NBA in 1996 working in marketing and moving in Media and international television distribution
3. His first decade at the NBA unpacked (1996-2006)
   • Massive growth of global distribution, especially country by country deals – media a big focus of then Commissioner David Stern
   • Over 20 deals in China alone, Shanghai Media story 
   • Clear strategy to keep everything in house, not using agencies – Scott explains the reason behind it 
   • David Stern, always pushing his team to get better, be the most educated guy in the room 
   • The impact of players on growth,  Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki and the US superstars from MJ to Kobe Bryant
   • The different impacts of Yao and Dirk in their respective territories, Kobe and LeBron, social media exploits and travelling the globe 
   • Teams travelling globally to promote the League (pre-season games), comparing to European/UK Football Clubs.  Decisions are centralized and coordinated by the League
     • Initially teams often didn’t want to travel (Coaches preferred to train at home for pre-season) and now it’s a part of their global brand and team building
   • Teams been travelling since the 90s, first in Japan, up to 6-8 teams now regularly travelling each year, mostly teams playing each other
   • Teams now using Tours to expand fan base, bring in new sponsors, etc, also driven by more diverse group of NBA Team owners   
4. MJ Global Sports & Media – short 2-3 year break as consultant 
5. Back into the NBA for the second round (2009-2022)
   • Coming back as SVP & Managing Director for NBA Asia based in Hong Kong
   • His role, everything in region excluding Greater China (separate NBA China office), firstly “learn about Asia”
   • Philippines, highest basketball affinity in the world – mad about the game – Eric Spoelstra visiting the Philippines
   • India, important market and development started a decade ago
   • Basketball Africa League (BAL) success and model, potential for other regions?
   • NBA Digital platforms (NBA League Pass) – variety of feeds (Player, Refs & Mascot cams) different languages, local influencers calling a game in local language, different packages, fourth quarter pass, etc.  Very customized to each region and country. As low as US$ 20 dollars (correction to US$ 10 dollars comment) per season
   • Rakuten, important partnership in Japan (media partner) and globally
   • Short form content, very important for engagement, vertical video format, finding the right mix, longer content demand growing (20-60 min)
   • Local partnerships, depends on country, ie. Philippines, Australia and China has strong local partnerships
   • Junior NBA program – healthy livestyle focus, more opportunities to grow with local partners
6. Scott leaving the NBA, becoming a digital nomad, spending time between Asia and US – next moves
   • Consulting companies in Web 3 space     
   • NBA Top Shot, NBA an early adopter in NFT space – US$ 1 billion dollar worth of transaction 
   • Scott sees exponential growth in the Web3 space from metaverse to Dao’s – still early days 
   • NB2K – a form of a metaverse already,  NBA Fortnite – NBA All-Star Game content (16 million visiting NBA Hub in Fortnite)
   • His focus is on being heavily immersed in this space in the foreseeable future on his own
   • Final words on the current NBA Play-offs and teams in the Conference Finals 

About

SCOTT LEVY, Executive Vice President & Managing Director, NBA Asia

As Executive Vice President & Managing Director of NBA Asia, Scott Levy oversees development and expansion of the NBA’s branding and basketball initiatives in Asia-Pacific, including Australia, India, Japan, Philippines, South Korea and other countries across Southeast Asia and Oceania.  Levy directs all of NBA Asia and NBA India’s business groups, including media distribution, marketing and marketing partnerships, merchandising, events, digital media, and gaming.  Levy reports to NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum.

Since Levy’s arrival in 2009, the league has dramatically expanded its local partnerships in Asia-Pacific, resulting in more than 460 retail locations and e-commerce sites, multiple new media and marketing partnerships, the launch of the Jr. NBA across Southeast Asia, and amassing more than 35 million followers from Asia across the league’s social media accounts.

From 2006 to 2009, Levy ran his own consulting company, MJ Global Sports and Media Inc.  Levy previously worked for the NBA for 10 years and left as Senior Vice President, International Television and Marketing Partnerships.  During his tenure, Levy helped grow broadcast distribution for NBA programming to more than 200 countries and 40 languages.  Under his leadership, the NBA launched many new content offerings internationally, including NBA TV, the league’s 24-hour network.

Prior to beginning his first NBA stint in 1996, Levy traveled independently and extensively throughout China, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.  Levy is on the board of the Global Health Society, a nonprofit organization that conducts camps and develops programs for children with bleeding disorders.  He has competed in multi-sport and adventure races, including the New York Marathon, Oxfam Japan Trailwalker and many triathlons raising funds for Fred’s Team and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Levy is based in Hong Kong with his wife Ilene and sons Matthew and Joshua.

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Oliver Slipper, a true British Sports Entrepreneur, best known for his role building PERFORM (now Stats Perform) and now the Executive Chairman of Pitch International.  Lots of great insights into Perform’s business model and his follow up moves as an Entrepreneur with Head Ball and PickGuru to his current role at Pitch International, a leading sports media rights agency in the UK.

Key Highlights

1. From playing Cricket to his first job at Accenture.  Why athletes bring unique attributes to the business world and learning on the job at Accenture.
2. NTL, first project in sports at Accenture.  Premium TV – very early days of streaming services in the UK
3. Lots of learning from all the mistakes being made in the business, losing money and the flawed business model at the time
4. After restructuring the deals with Football Clubs, getting to break even and slowly business model is taking shape
5. Winning UK horseracing deal, merging with Inform to launch Perform - Andrew Crocker’s role in setting up the new company
6. Perform business model unpacked, doubled revenue every year in next four years – leading to IPO
7. WTA deal, switched to buying all rights, not just betting rights anymore.
8. Netflix model and distressed media rights market inspired DAZN
9. Latency challenges and how to overcome it for bookmakers  
10. His thoughts on DAZN and current owners end game
11. His next moves as an Entrepreneur: 
    1. Masomo, building a great sports game called Head Ball - www.headball2.com, with 200 mil downloads and sold the company after a few years   
    2. Understanding the “K Factor” – key to growing online user base, learning App economy
    3. PickGuru, how it started during Covid – sports prediction game (App only in the UK)
12. Executive Chairman of Pitch International – role since mid 2018 – media rights agency business, leading UK Football, Cricket, Rugby agency
13. Four parts to the Pitch business, from content creation to distribution, including sponsorship and Brazil National team Tours
14. Some of his investments over the years,  from Play Sports Network to Cage Warriors
15. Wrapping it up with his non-executive roles, including England & Wales Cricket Board (new event “The Hundred”)

About

Oli Slipper, is the Executive Chairman of Pitch International, the leading Sports Marketing agency. 

In a career spanning 25 years, Oli co-founded Perform Group, a pioneer in sports streaming and data and lead it’s IPO and ultimate privatisation. 

Subsequently Oli, co-founded Masomo, a mobile studio focused on sports games which was acquired by Miniclip. More recently Oli, co-founded PickGuru, a sports prediction app. In the last 10 years Oli has been an active investor in the sports, fintech and consumer tech space including: Global Cycling Network (GCN), Grabyo, Marshmallow, Cage Warriors, Sixes amongst others.

Oli sits on the Board of the Professional Darts Corporation and Oval Invincibles.

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Philipp Grothe, best known as the co-founder and driving force behind the KENTARO agency in the UK, a true pioneer and entrepreneur in the sports business over the past 20+ years.  Great stories from Philipp’s career across UFA, IMG, KENTARO and what he is doing now.

Key Highlights

1. Early days, coming out of Law School in Hamburg, Germany, lots of side hustles, own Ad agency, a Band, running two clubs, etc
2. First job, UFA Sports, part of Bertelsmann Group in Germany, second largest Media group in the world at the time
3. Competition with Kirch Media Group in Munich – small group of young sports marketing pioneers developing industry in Europe
4. Interesting time, growth of Private TV networks in Europe, downfall of the Iron Curtain, new Eastern European countries opening-up
5. European Football at the height of the “decentralized” era, different agencies from across Europe/UK chasing after pieces of the cake
6. Stories on how deals were done both with the clubs and broadcasters, mostly trading with 2ndand 3rd party rights
7. The power of Football, closely linked to powerful people in politics, creating entire new channels with key matches
8. How the money of the Champions League has skewed the balance of power in the various domestic European leagues
9. Next stop, IMG London – or from Guetersloh to Cleveland – learning different cultures
10. IMG – key parts at the time, IMG Talent management and TWI Media/production at the time – company not in great shape at the final days of Mark McCormack
11. Looking to build the House of Football – including building a Super agency – not everything worked and why
12. Being very German and contradicting Bob Kain at the first meeting in Cleveland
13. Bundling of rights, the oldest agency trick in the world
14. Setting up KENTARO in a hotel in London (Kentaro meaning Lion Mother), good timing, next boom years coming  
15. Heavy focus on Football and some Boxing (Sauerland), stay focused on core competence important
16. Key to early success, quick decision-making process compared to bigger agencies or institutional money and always hungry for the next deal (always as good as your last deal)
17. Not always dealing with the person you thought you were dealing with, some painful lessons
18. New concept of “two National teams playing in a third country – neutral ground”, starting with England vs Argentina in Switzerland.  Brazil World Tour is born, 120 games later and the stories behind it
19. Kentaro by numbers, over 500 players under contract, over 150 employees, over E$ 200 mil in revenue at the peak, but also overheads of E$ 20 mil – feeding the beast
20. Asian Football stories, Thai FA and how this leads to helping purchase Manchester City for Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra (former Prime Minister)
21. Managing egos, the key skill for anyone running an agency  & what happened to Kentaro at the end
22. Moving back to Germany, this time Berlin, new company Akani – focused on sports and entertainment, football, celebrities, MENA region, etc
23. Final thoughts on Covid and impact on Football, industry in review over the past 20 years, agency business never stops, similarity to Investment Banking

About

Philipp started his career after his law degree at University in Hamburg at Bertelsmann’s Ufa Sports in 1994. He was responsible for the international football division of the company dealing with federations, leagues and clubs during a time, where broadcasting rights became "golden dust“ for TV-channels across Europe and the rest of the world.

In 2000 Philipp moved to London and became the Managing Director of the football division of IMG, founded by Mark McCormack and the biggest sports rights agency in the world. In 2003 he set up together with his partners his own agency Kentaro, one of the leading marketing companies in the football business in the following years. Philipp relocated in 2017 back to Germany, where he is still active in the business focussing on digital activities and revenue generation for various rights holders in Europe and the Middle East.

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Special Edition with Patrick Mouratoglou, the #1 Tennis Coach on his new NFT project – “The Coach”

Key Highlights

1. Quick check in since we last spoke on the previous Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast,  new project in Malaysia, etc
2. “The Coach” - Patricks’ new NFT project – creating an exclusive Club of 2,000 Tennis fans and Web3.0 enthusiasts
3. The Concept - different levels of rarity (Warm up, The Match, The Celebration) – total only 2,000 NFTs
4. Wide range of benefits, special coaching sessions, one-on-one interaction with Patrick, future pro players, bringing fans, players and Web3.0 enthusiast together and access to future opportunities of projects Patrick is creating
5. All 2000 NFT cards will be sold at the price of $550 (estimated gas fees included)
6. Pre-sales start on March 17th and 500 spots are available
7. Public sale 26th March (unveiling of NFTs on 27th March)
8. Purchase on dedicated website www.thecoachnft.io, secondary market on other NFT platforms (on Ethereum blockchain)
9. Support team available to on-board customers who are not familiar with NFTs, purchase via credit card available
10. Where did the idea come from and how it started & long term view, learning by doing

Hope you enjoyed this short episode and introduction of an exciting new NFT project.  Check it out and let us know what you think.

We have no direct affiliation and/or stake in the project and this is not investment advice.  Please do your own research and homework before you invest in any NFTs. 

About

THE COACH will see the merging of the NFT and sports worlds into an exclusive, one-of-a-kind club. Using the power of Web3.0, Patrick and his collaborators are creating a new experience, forming a powerful community, and looking to find new ways to improve engagement and interaction with fans. 

This meeting of minds is set to change the landscape of both the sporting world and the NFT/crypto landscape — pushing the boundaries of possibilities for fans and players alike.

With only 2,000 NFTs in total up for purchase, across three levels of increasing rarity — Warm-up, Match, and Celebration — fans will have to act quickly to secure their spot in this elite circle. Each NFT will unlock exclusive benefits, unrivaled access, and unique experiences. For those who manage to secure a Celebration card, you could be opening a once-in-a-lifetime experience, from a 1-to-1 tennis session with The Coach himself to the chance to chat side-by-side for an exclusive podcast opportunity.

This is just the start of the NFT adventure. For those who join THE COACH on this first venture, there will be exclusive pre-sale access for future projects yet to come. The mint will be randomly selected and will take place publicly across platforms on the 26th March.

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Ralf Reichert, is considered a founding father of the Gaming/Esports industry, having shaped the industry for the past 20 years as an Entrepreneur.  We are unpacking the early days of ESL Gaming and off course the current state of play and plans for the future.  Recording from my hometown in Koeln (Cologne), Germany.  Happy holidays everyone. 

Key Highlights

1. Growing up in Oberhausen, the “honest” Coal mining part of Germany with two competitive brothers
2. Great learning from his apprenticeship at a BWM dealership while studying in Essen
3. How SK Gaming started in 1997, by his brother.  1999 connecting with Jens Hilgers (now Bitkraft Ventures), Alex Mueller (SK Gaming) to start Turtle Entertainment, later called ESL Gaming (Electronic Sports League)
4. SK Gaming stories, started with playing Quake World and his involved at the beginning of the team.  Later sold shares due to conflict of interest with ESL
5. ESL Gaming, the “world’s largest independent esports company”,  where everyone can be somebody – creating an ecosystem where Gamers can be stars, from amateur to pro player (From Zero to Hero)
6. First 10 years, hard to find sponsors and funding, had to be smart and cost efficient – fight for survival – ESL was a match making platform
7. The first big break, Intel Extreme Masters (IEM), 2006, longest running global pro gaming Tour in the world
8. Working with Twitch when it was still Justin.tv  – 2010 -2014 the golden era and big break through of Esports as an industry
9. Bootstrapping the company the first 8-9 years, only small fund raise (US$ 1 mil), being frugal was the key. 
10. From 2010-2016 growing from a US$ 10 mil company to US$ 100 mil company – the big growth period
11. The different events and Leagues 2002 ESL Pro Series, local Pro League in Germany,  ESL Pro League 2013,  ESL Pro Tour 2018 (local, regional and global competitions)
    1. Focus on Counter Strike for Pro League, because of the maturity in the Game and longevity
    2. Individual Tournaments on top of the Leagues, ie. IEM and ESL ONE  - world championships type of events
12. Prize money and event model – own and operated (ESL branded events), hybrid events in partnership with Publishers, Esports Services (agency model, power Esports for Publishers)
13. Global footprint of ESL from Cologne to New York, regional HQs in LA, Singapore, Riyad, etc and production hubs in Poland and Malaysia and local offices in partnership with local partners
14. 2000-2010 start up phase, 2010-2015 scale up phase, 2015-2021 globalization phase
15. Modern Times Group (MTG) transaction in 2015 (which wasn’t a sale according to Ralf), Swedish group, synergies, neutral and independent
16. Constant changes in industry, staying focused on ESL Brand premise (North Star) and making adjustments as industry growth
17. New partnership with Immutable X, first dip into NFT space – always trying and investing in new things
18. ESL during Covid – going back to roots, being online focused – Esports continued to grow during Pandemic
19. Being global is difficult and hard but the best thing the company did and ESL thrived in Covid, setting new processes
20. Close to 700 people now, after merger with DreamHack in 2020
21. Other activities, advisory roles, etc mostly connected and synergies to main role as CEO of ESL – some angel investment   

About Ralf Reichert

Ralf is Managing Director / CEO of Turtle Entertainment the world’s largest eSports company leading the industry in raising eSport production and audience levels to those of mainstream sports. Alongside the creation of Turtle Entertainment, Ralf has been an integral part of the development of ESL Gaming which is now the largest global Esports league, as well as the elite pro gaming tour Intel Extreme Masters which has given out over $3.5million of prize money spanning across 8 seasons.  Reichert’s passion for gaming and technology is for all to see, and with over 20 years of experience in the industry, it is no surprise that Turtle Entertainment has been such a resounding success.

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Ben Smith, a chartered financial planner for the past 10 years, is on a mission to educate young athletes about wealth management, proper financial planning and goal setting.  Very important messages for anyone dealing with young athletes and of course for athletes themselves.  Listen and learn. (The Podcast was NOT sponsored by FLM)

Disclaimer: No financial advise or recommendations are given. The Podcast is purely highlighting options available.

Key Highlights

1. How Ben got into the industry and how childhood lessons shaped his career path and mindset about investing
2. Chartered Financial Planner, help clients make great decision with their money, from planning, tax, legal structures, etc
3. FLM (Financial Lifestyle Management Ltd) a partnership affiliated to St James’s Place Plc – a Footsie 100 company (150 billion under management), different investment solutions (highly regulated environment in the UK)
4. The stats behind the reason for the Podcast and why it’s so important for young athletes to be aware of it
5. Early 90s, salaries in Football were only around avg GBP 20k pa, now nearly GBP 2 million per year – high earning in early part of the career (young age), opposite to traditional career path  
6. Process to engage young athletes – step by step process to educate them in an interactive way and setting goals
7. Passive Income and Compound Interest – key to understand it – Jill and Jack example
8. FLM focus on Football, Rugby and Golf
9. The process, value added services by FLM, fee structure and steps to take by athletes and families
10. Athletes as investors beyond their Money – bringing their Name into investments – Athletes are Brands - Whoop example – risk and returns
11. FLM’s background and history over the past 20 years  (www.Flmltd.com)

About Ben Smith

I help busy, successful people make great decisions with their money. I believe that wealth is dictated by behaviours, not earnings, Everything I do is focused on creating world class money habits that help my clients achieve financial freedom. This is the ability to live life to the full without financial constraints. I believe that in any area of your life, a lack of clarity can be fatal. It can lead to anxiety and hold you back from achieving what is really important to you and your family. When I first joined the industry in 2011, I had studied business, finance and economics throughout my education, yet I knew very little about personal financial planning. From working with many families over the last 10 years, I have found that money is very poorly understood in the UK which really can hold people back in a quest for a better life. With this in mind, I am passionate about financial education and the importance of having a plan. How many of us studied money or personal finance at school? It is also rarely discussed, even between close family members. I really believe in helping my clients learn as we work together, which brings both enjoyment and greater peace of mind. Having a well thought through plan allows you to get on and enjoy life whilst striving towards the things that are important to you. Everyone has a different 'why' which ultimately gets us out of bed in the morning. Maybe you want to send your kids to private school, maybe you want to retire at 45 or maybe you want to own a second home in France. The harsh reality is that, without a clear plan, you are unlikely to achieve these goals. Over the last 10 years I have worked with busy, successful individuals in London to help them establish their ‘why’ and put in place prudent, robust financial plans to meet their goals. Life is as busy as it has ever been, and very few people find the time to put in place adequate financial plans and for those who do, even fewer continue to monitor them over time. I believe everyone has experienced some kind of financial inertia during their life – for some this will be for longer than others. It is arguably the single greatest threat to ones financial plans.

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Marco Balich, the Master of Ceremonies, in the true sense of the word - we explore the exciting world of Marco’s career being involved in creating some of the most memorable moments in Opening/Closing Ceremonies for major sports, cultural and entertainment events around the world.

Key Highlights

1. Growing up in Venice, being surrounded by art, the carnival, entertainment and beauty
2. Leaving the “island” and exploring the world in the 80s, studying in Chicago, exploring Soviet Union countries, etc
3. Dream of joining the Olympics in Fencing – Western block of 1980 Moscow Olympics stopped this
4. Starting as Concert Tour Manager in Italy, U2, Simple Mind, etc – great learning experience
5. Pink Floyd concert in Venice – a successful disaster  
6. Moving into Music Video space – VIVA in Italy – short lived
7. Back into Live Music -  Heineken Jammin’ Festival in Milan, in late 90s
8. First Olympic gig – Flag Handover ceremony at Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics to Torino Olympics – just after 9/11 attacks
9. Breaking into the Olympic world, beating dominant incumbent Anglo-Sachsen agencies – with a different approach
10. Each ceremony a piece of Art – going through some of the iconic moments of past Opening ceremony’s
11. Discussing the different roles and challenges with different countries and locations
12. Process of an Olympic ceremony – two year journey – scale and size of budgets (huge dollars)
13. How to deal with the cultural differences – not driven by money
14. Tokyo Olympics – and what happened to the Opening Ceremony – the Covid games
15. Focus of Balich Wonder Studio – giving creative talent platforms to showcase their talent  
    1. Building new iconic environments and structures for real estate projects
    2. Luxury brand launches
    3. Major global events
    4. Immersive IP and technology (Disney project)
16. Usage of AI in the creative world
17. Final thoughts on Paris Olympics and EURO Opening, etc

About

Creative Director and Executive Producer with a record number of 14 Olympic Ceremonies and 12 Regional Games credits and several large-scale events produced all around the world. Marco’s Olympic experience, awarded with an Emmy Award in 2006 and a Compasso d’Oro in 2017, began with the Salt Lake City 2002 Flag Handover, followed by Torino 2006 Olympic Ceremonies. He was involved in the Sochi 2014 Olympic Closing Ceremony and Paralympic Ceremonies and acted as Executive Producer of Rio 2016 Olympic Ceremonies (produced by CC2016), watched by 2.6 billion people. He covered the role of Artistic Director of the Italian Pavilion at the 2015 Expo in Milano, where he created the ‘Tree of Life’ icon. He conceived the revolutionary format Superlive, with ‘Giudizio Universale, the Sistine Chapel Immersive Show’, the highest selling show in Italy in 2018, in association with the Vatican Museums. In 2013, together with long-time partners Gianmaria Serra and Simone Merico, he founded Balich Worldwide Shows, today Balich Wonder Studio, sharing the ambition to introduce a new era in the live entertainment industry where true emotions are the driver of the creative narrative. As Chief Creative Officer of Balich Wonder Studio he embodies the role of leading inspirer and mentor of a multicultural and diverse team of highly talented Creators. His vision has been crucial to attract, recruit and raise some of the best professionals in the industry, making Balich Wonder Studio a unique playground for creative visionaries from all over the world.

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Chris Lencheski, also better known as “SKI” in the industry is a true serial sports Entrepreneur from his early days around the Atlanta Olympics to his very successful years across global motorsports.  SKI & Company left its mark on the industry on many levels and Chris till today continues to shape the industry.  Great insights and learning from his own businesses to the various groups he worked with over the decades (Comcast Spectacor, TPG Speciality Lending, MyyTake India), including an interesting opinion on what happened to MP & Silva.  Listen and learn.    

Key Highlights

1. Starting at The Easton Events Company (spun out from United Media) – involved in the Atlanta Olympic Games and developing the protection of the marks, oversight of licensing rights, building activation plans, a great way to learn the ropes
2. Delos Associates – first Entrepreneurial venture
   • exclusive event marketing and management company for 1996 US Olympic Team Trials for Cycling; developed Official Corporate Marketing Partners Program
   • first look at motorsports
3. Next stop,  CMDC (Chesapeake Motorsports Development Corporation),
   • oversaw advertising, marketing, sponsorship, licensing, real estate, development, co-partnership, sanction, and television deals 
   • involved in big Pepsi deal for new Venue (NASCAR track)
4. MFP Agency (Marketing for Fun & Profits) – first time CEO working for someone else (Legendary Rod Campbell) 
   • Rod Campbell, founder of Campbell & Company (exclusive agent of Ford Motor Company’s racing efforts globally)
   • MFP, was separate entity involved in other motorsports ventures Indycar, F1 (lots of new learning experiences from Rod Campbell)
5. Next up, TSI Agency for a few years
   • Strategized commercial aspects as COO for organization that fielded teams in NASCAR Busch Series and Winston Cup competitions for Christian Fittipaldi and Kenny Wallace
   • Created the "The Cadillac Grand Prix" with George Debidart and the late Don Panoz (founder of ALMS), the first racing event in Washington, DC – comparing with the KL City Grand Prix in Malaysia where TSA was involved 
6. SKI & Company – back being an Entrepreneur
   • General Motors (GM) had a problem and Chris had the answer – great story on how the company got started by helping to fix a problem for the largest automobile company in the world
   • GM’s mishap in Golf – bidding against itself for a major sponsorship
   • How a white paper turned into the assignment as “Global Agency of record for GM Racing”, developing strategies country by country, brand by brand (from Vauxhall, Opel, Holden, to Chevy - fingers in any and all with blessing from GM)
   • GM’s large interests in motorsports around the world, including NASCAR, F1, Le Mans, etc
   • Growth comes at a cost – selling the business to principals of former CSS Stellar
7. Phoenicia Sports & Entertainment (live after SKI&Company) – transferring the learning and philosophy
   • Involved across Motorsports and Football/Soccer (Bologna)
8. Next stop, President of Front Row Marketing & Analytics (a Comcast Spectacor company)
   • Operated the stadia, sports media commercial rights and entertainment agency inside the greater Comcast ecosystem
   • Being part of a huge group and the pros and cons of it - picked up big clients Americas Cup, EPL Teams, French Football Championship Trophee Game (NYC), etc.
9. IRG Sports & Entertainment – A TPG Specialty Lending Group company ,  involved in change management
   • From Drag Racing to race tracks around the world & bringing ESPN back and growing Australia business rapidly.
10. MP & Silva – Senior Advisor to the Board – Chris’ observation as an Advisor to what happened?  
    • Everbright Securities & Beijing Baofong investment (at the time of China’s big push into Football/Sports globally)
    • Lots of senior leadership was let go and/or advice was being ignored by the Chinese leadership which had different ideas
    • Story not finished yet
11. Current role at Winning Streak Sports (a Granite Bridge Partners company – linked to Wafra - Sovereign Fund of Kuwait)
    • Number One premium licensing company in the world. From Board Member to CEO at request of Board
    • From Live streaming, social commerce, media support to premium licensing for major sports franchises globally
12. Last thoughts, success is not easy, never linear and not a ladder (more like a spray paint can) & when juggling businesses, especially going through Change Management, the rubber balls are the businesses, clients, etc.,(these balls will bounce) but don’t drop the glass balls (which are the people you work with and the most important part of any pivot - especially in commercial rights)

About Chris Lencheski

• Chairman, Phoenicia Sport and Entertainment January 2009-present 
• Chief Executive Officer, Winning Streak Sports March 2019-present 
• Board of Directors, MyyTake (India) March 2021-present 
• Board of Directors, Electronic Gaming Federation January 2019-present 

Chris Lencheski has worked in the global sports and entertainment sector for more than two decades. 

As founder and chairman of Phoenicia Sport and Entertainment, a sports and media consultancy firm he launched in 2009, he advised purchasers of Italian top-tier (Serie A) football teams, developed and executed commercial rights programming for Newman/Haas Racing, the IndyCar racing team of Paul Newman and Carl Haas, developed sports television programming for the Sportsman Channel, and has represented a host of traditional sponsorship/media clients, including managing the U.S. sports marketing debut of Chinese solar company, Trina Solar (SHA:688599). From 2009-2010, through Phoenicia, Mr. Lencheski was owner of International Hockey League franchise the Quad City Mallards, an affiliate of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers. The team was IHL Franchise of the Year during Mr. Lencheski’s tenure. 

In March 2019, while a director of Winning Streak Sports, a portfolio company of Granite Bridge Partners, Mr. Lencheski was asked to assume the role of chief executive officer, where he currently oversees all business affairs of both Winning Streak Sports and affiliate Prinstant Replays, which, together deliver the number #1 premium licensed goods and collectibles product line in professional sports by both sales and quality. 

Prior to Winning Streak, from 2015 to 2019, Mr. Lencheski was the Senior Advisor to the chairman and board of managers of, MP & Silva, the Italy-based global sports media company. From 2015 to 2017, Mr. Lencheski also served as co-chairman, chief executive officer and a director of IRG Sports + Entertainment, a TPG portfolio company and leading promoter of sports and live entertainment experiences. IRGSE is the parent company of the International Hot Rod Association and the International Drag Bike League and owns and operates Palm Beach International Raceway, Palm Beach Driving Club, Memphis International Raceway, Cordova International Raceway, and Maryland International Raceway. IRGSE promoted more than 1,150 global motorsports, live entertainment, and corporate events annually at its venues and within its series. 

From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Lencheski was president of Comcast-Spectacor's (now Spectra) wholly owned subsidiary Front Row Marketing and Analytics (“FRMS”), which managed commercial rights, sponsorship, and analytics for the entirety of the Comcast ecosystem of stadiums, arenas, teams, and Comcast properties. FRMS was acquired by Learfield Sports in 2015. While at FRMS, his work included collaborations with the Americas’ Cup, English Premier League Football, the Olympics, Formula One Racing, and FIFA World Cup projects, as well as a host of international and national properties, including every major sports league in the United States and international sport governing bodies. 

In 2002, Mr. Lencheski founded SKI & Company. With offices in New York, London, Dubai, Charlotte, NC, and Bethelem, PA, SKI was the first global agency for General Motors Racing and the recipient of BrandWeek Magazine’s Gold Award in the National Sales Promotion Campaign category for Mr. Lencheski’s work on behalf of client Turner Broadcasting and developing their program with Target Corporation. At SKI, Mr. Lencheski authored industry-setting standards and practice guidelines followed by major entities from network and cable television providers to Fortune 500 companies. From 2005-2008, SKI was majority owner and operational manager of its NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series racing Teams. In 2009, Mr. Lencheski sold SKI to a UK-based company, the terms of which cannot be disclosed. 

Mr. Lencheski has extensive experience and connectivity in motorsports. He held operational and ownership positions in teams competing in NASCAR. Through SKI & Company, from 2005-2008, Mr. Lencheski was the majority owner and chief executive officer of his NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity team. Through his role as minority owner and chief operating officer of The Source International, a sports and entertainment agency, and their racing team, Innovative Motorsports, for the 2001 and 2002 seasons, Mr. Lencheski was responsible for fielding a NASCAR Busch/Winston/Xfinity Series teams. During his time in NASCAR, Mr. Lencheski developed many sponsorship relationships with global brands including General Motors, Goulds Pumps/ITT, Stacker 2, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, NOS Energy Drink, Pure Fishing, and Smith & Wesson. Operating on limited budgets, Mr. Lencheski’s teams competed both full and part time, amassing one race win, five pole positions, 23 top-five finishes, and 58 top ten finishes with two top-ten year-end point standing finishes in 2001 and 2002. 

From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Lencheski was chief executive officer of the MFP Agency, an automotive-focused sports marketing agency founded by automotive marketing legend Rod Campbell of Campbell & Company. From 1997-1999, he was the executive vice-president and coo of Chesapeake Motorsports Development Corporation. From 1995 to 1997, he made his first run at launching his own sports marketing firm, Delos Associates Corporation, selling the portfolio to Joe Mattioli (whose family are the longtime owners of NASCAR Cup Series Pocono Raceway). Mr. Lencheski began his career as a vice president of event marketing, Olympics marketing, and director of sponsorship at The Easton Events Company, the official event management company of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. 

Mr. Lencheski has been an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies’ Sports Management Master’s Degree program since 2015. He is a member of the board of directors of Winning Streak Sports, MyyTake India, Electronic Gaming Federation and a Founding Member of the Board of Advisors for Syracuse University’s Falk College. Mr. Lencheski is a graduate of Syracuse University and an alumnus of Harvard Business School, having completed the Advanced Management Program. He is married with four daughters. 

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Michel Masquelier had an incredible career with IMG over 35 years starting as an Intern and finishing as the Chairman of IMG Media and SNTV.  Over that time he had the privilege to work with and learn from the charismatic owners from Mark McCormack,  Ted Forstmann to Ari Emanuel at the end.  Pioneering a variety of new innovations and setting up new business units over his tenure. Fascinating stories of an amazing career.  Also check out Michel’s new book “This is not a Dress Rehearsal” for more.

Link to the book: http://getbook.at/NotADressRehearsal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m_masquelier/

Key Highlights

1. Taking a plunge and heading over the channel from Belgium to the UK to seeking new challenges in London
2. Reading Mark McCormack’s book and being inspired to seek employment with the company (1985), working for free at the beginning
3. First role in sponsorship activation, with Yves St Laurent and later focusing on sales in Benelux countries
4. Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France – advising the Organizing Committee
5. Mark McCormack, first interaction – “you the guy who plays golf before coming to the office in the morning” story
   1. A man of amazing innovation, vision and anticipation
6. Setting up the Office in Brussel, at the start of the European Union
7. After 10 years, took a six months break and toured the world – NY Office story
8. Next stop, Media Division, selling Media rights, involvement in pioneering projects (China Football story)
9. Intrapreneur within the company, building teams, leadership style (Love & Respect)
10. Head of Sales Europe, Head of Sales Worldwide to President IMG Media
11. European Tour Production deal and Mark’s vision and foresight examples
12. The shock and worry when Mark suddenly passes away across the organization
13. Ted Forstmann era starts – US$ 750 mil purchase – leader in Private Equity
14. New focus on “ownership” in sports,  becoming a small shareholder in the business
15. Ted initially wanting to replace him due to clashes in strategy before new found respect
16. Frustrating moments with Ted when it came to Minimum Guarantees for Media Rights
17. Next Super-agent Ari Emanuel backed by PE money takes over (US$ 2.4 billion deal) and his drive and vision for the company (WME -IMG leading to Endeavor)
18. Moving from President of IMG Media to Chairman of Events/Media, slowly winding down
19. Huge growth from UFC deal to recent IPO at US$ 10 billion valuation under Ari’s leadership and future of industry thoughts (data the new gold)
20. “This is not a dress rehearsal”, his book about his experiences and journey – coming out in December 2021
21.  Reminiscing about the parallels of our careers and philosophy in life

About Michel Masquelier

Michel Masquelier is an Entrepreneur that has spent over 3 decades at the heart of the sports industry. Making his way up the ladder from intern to Chairman, he has become a respected leader in his field, and recognized as peoples manager. He now takes on the role of advisor to governing bodies, media organizations and private equity firms. He is also an active investor, board member and consultant for small enterprise, with a focus on the media industry. Michel is still a compulsive networker, but his passion has shift to stimulating education, especially amongst future generations. In the same spirit of innovation and disruption, he is involved in philanthropic projects, motivational speaking and development of educational programs for young executives. More recently he has been working on a book - This is not a Dress Rehearsal. In this part-memoir, part-manifesto and career guide, all inspiration-from-the-heart book, he shares stories from his early life in Belgium to his unique experiences rubbing shoulders with sports stars, business moguls and media pioneers. With open and honest examples of his triumphs, failures, and everything in between, there is something for everyone – the sports fans, the misfits, the motivated and the intrepid.

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From his two decades with DENTSU Sports to now 17 years with FIFA, Hide Arai has been at the heart of the Japanese presence in sports marketing globally for decades.  Great stories and insights into the Japanese Advertising Giant’s influence in global sports for the last 40 years, driven by the emergence of Japanese super brands.  And a short discussion about FIFA’s state of play, with several sensitive topics appropriately edited.   

Key Highlights

1. How it all started in the mid 80s, producing Japanese TV commercials at Dentsu Advertising
2. Dentsu’s first foray into sports marketing started in 1982 at the FIFA World Cup in Spain and 1984 LA Olympics – two Japanese Dentsu executives (Hartori & Takahashi) started to build a close bond with Horst Dassler, the powerful German businessman who controlled adidas and had launched ISL Marketing.
3. Coinciding with the growth of Japanese brands globally.  Dentsu taking on calculated risk to acquire the rights to certain packages and then selling it to one of it’s 3,000 clients.
4. Dentsu’s investment in ISL Marketing (49%) in 1984  and playing a significant role for decades
5. ISL Marketing taking the FIFA rights away from Coca-Cola which were managed by West Nally at that time.  Host Dassler cutting a deal with FIFA’s President Joao Havelange
6. First role at Dentsu Sports Division in 1990,  sponsorship sales and rights activations
7. World Championship of Track and Field in 1993, Stuttgart, Germany – we were both there.  Mike Powell story and Panasonic package size
8. 1992, Barcelona Olympics – strong Japanese sponsor presence
9. Fuji & Kodak rivalry (FIFA vs IOC sponsorships) , Sony (Playstation, FIFA ) and Panasonic (Olympic TOP program) stories
10. His ISL Marketing years as “Dentsu Rep” (or Spy as his colleagues jokingly called it)” and some Papa Diack stories
11. His perspective on how the ISL powerhouse crumbled – loss of key management, wrong investments and missed IPO (Heinz Schurtenberger)
    1. Loss of CEO may put on brakes at ISL (sportsbusinessjournal.com)
12. Back into Dentsu for the World Cup 1998 in France and then back to Japan to set up a new Media Rights trading division
13. Buying FIFA World Cup, Italian League (Canal+), Bundesliga (UFA Sports) buying rights for Japan territory
14. Growth of MLB rights in Japan due to Japanese players playing in the League since the 90s (NHK largest MLB broadcaster in the world)
15. Dentsu’s stake in World Sports Group (AFC Marketing agency for two decades) (Seamus O’Brien & Jack Sakazaki, JSM)
16. FIFA role from 2004 till now – Deputy Director, Business Development, sales & distribution of Media rights (partnering again with Jerome Valcke)
17. Difference between Agency life and life at a Federation. Different type of stakeholders and their needs
18. ISL and Kirch Media Bankruptcies endangering FIFA – on the back FIFA Marketing AG was created, FIFA taking commercial rights in-house, massive growth of fees (driven by Jerome)
19. Mastercard vs VISA drama
20. Growth of FIFA from 30-40 staff in the 90s to now 1,000 staff globally, all brought in-house, from ticketing, security to other areas

About Hide Arai

An avid baseball fan has turned into a sports business marketeer, Hide Arai’s association with the sports business has started in the early 80s when he joined Dentsu, the advertising giant in Japan and was subsequently assigned to ISL Worldwide in Switzerland during early 90s.  As VP at ISL, his activities had entailed sponsorship sales to Japanese global brands including Canon, Fujifilm, Panasonic and Toyota, as well as sponsors activations surrounding FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games, and IAAF (now World Athletics) World Athletic Championships. 

Back at Dentsu’s Sports Division from the late 90s to early 2000s, Hide Arai had driven scores of major sports rights deals as GM of the Division, including FIFA World Cups 2002-2006, Major League Baseball, English Premier League, Serie A, The Open (Golf).  

After 22 years of tenure at Dentsu, he switched his career and geographical base to a sport governing body, FIFA at Zurich, Switzerland in 2004.  Hide has been involved in sales and distribution of FIFA’s media rights, covering the entire Asian and African regions, as well as host broadcast production for the last 17 years. 

Hide Arai holds a BA (1981) in Political Science from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan and an MBA (1987) from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, US.

His current personal pursuits are scuba-diving in South Pacific and occasional golfing.

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Great stories and learning from Murray Barnett’s illustrious career across NBA, ISL, World Rugby and F1 to turning entrepreneur with his own boutique consulting agency during the pandemic. Lots of wisdom and great sharing from his journey over the past 2 decades.

Key Highlights

1. Starting at Orbit, Satellite TV space in Rome, Italy and some Italian House Music 
2. From Rome to Budapest to the NBA Europe in Paris – plan, plan and plan again – amazing level of detail, great lessons from David Stern 
3. Lessons from being at ISL Marketing for the final years of the agency handling FINA & FIBA accounts. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true (ATP disaster) 
4. Next stop ESPN, Russell Wolf offering a role as Employee #1 in ESPN’s Disney office in London
5. His focus at ESPN International – selling rights portfolio to other broadcasters, supervising ESPN channels in Middle East & Africa , identifying new opportunities to build the brand    
6. Big international expansion and ESPN UK (Premier League rights for one cycle) – what worked and didn’t work 
7. Success stories, ESPN Middle East, growing to 3 channels on ART and growth of ESPN Latin America and learning from top Disney/ESPN executives 
8. ESPN MVNO (ESPN The Phone) – culture of trying lots of new things and turning failure into learning to pivot into new areas
9. World Rugby (IRB),  Chief Commercial Officer role, from TV to sponsorship to hospitality.  Rugby World Cup 2015 in England and other competitions (HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series deal)
10. Rugby’s different philosophy as a sport and significance of rebranding the sport to World Rugby, Olympic inclusion for Rugby Sevens 
11. Rugby World Cup scale and size – US$250 million per event & Maradona visiting Twickenham story 
12. Private Equity in sports - bringing external “influencers” to push change in sports, the role of “outsiders” like CVC and similar groups investing and coming into sports with a different perspective 
13. Formula One Management – Head of Global Sponsorship & Commercial Partnerships – track side and hospitality packages       
14. Massive ten year deal with Aramco (largest company in the world, Saudi Oil giant) and how AWS (Amazon Web Services) came into the sport 
15. Aramco deal unpacked and how the deal happened.  And the big difference between selling TV rights and sponsorship deals. 
16. F1 Esports, fan festivals and other new innovations 
17. Founding 26West Sport during the Pandemic , boutique sports consultancy specializing in TV rights, sponsorship and commercial development 
18. “Learning” being an entrepreneur the past year 

About Murray Barnett

Murray Barnett is a Sports Marketing professional with over 20 years’ experience in Media, Marketing & Sponsorship worldwide. He has uniquely worked for sports leagues, governing bodies, TV/media companies and sports marketing agencies.

Starting out in Italy and Hungary with Orbit and Nethold respectively, Murray worked on two international TV start-ups in marketing, sales and programming capacities.

Upon leaving Hungary, he was employed by NBA Europe to manage marketing partnerships & programme development with NBA Broadcast partners. From there he was headhunted by ISL to manage TV accounts for FIBA basketball and Fina swimming.

Amongst ISL TV’s sales portfolio were also IAAF, FIFA and ATP Tennis which Murray sold across a number of European territories. From there, he was asked to join ESPN to launch their European TV Sales operations which included 3 channel brands and over 10,000 hours of content sales. Murray was also part of the launch team for ESPN UK which broadcast English Premier League, Rugby and US Sports for four seasons.

After 11 years at ESPN, Murray was recruited for the role of Chief Commercial Officer at World Rugby, the governing body for the sport. His many responsibilities include all TV sales, content development, sponsorship & commercial agreements, licensing and hospitality.

Following the change of ownership at F1, Murray was asked to join the management team as Director of Global Sponsorship & Commercial Partnerships tasked with developing and growing commercial opportunities for partners within F1.

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Stephane Schindler, another French industry veteran who has left his mark across the sports world and in particular with CAA Eleven which changed the face of UEFA’s National Team competitions and commercial structures. Lot’s of great stories and details in our discussion.  Enjoy.  

Key Highlights

1. Starting as Intern at EUROSPORT, early days of cable TV in Europe
2. Next stop Canal+, Head of Sports Acquisition of sports rights, Sport+ and Jerome Valcke connection
3. Connecting with all the major rights holders during the role – early days of Sportel Monaco
4. Joining IMG Media in France in 2000,  Michael Grach and Michel Masquelier roles   
5. Great six years at IMG from selling rights to dealing with rights holders, lots of learning in the commercialization of sports rights (Golden Age of industry 1990-2010)
6. Meeting Arnaud Lagardere and starting the agency in 2006, because Lagardere being a big listed company, organic growth wasn’t an option.  M&A growth model.
7. Setting up Lagardere Sports from scratch as first employee and going on big acquisition spree from Sportfive, World Sport Group, IEC in Sports, etc. Building a portfolio of companies.
8. Total acquisition cost, in the EURO 1 billion range for the above agencies to buy scale in the industry fast  
9. Recently, the group was sold for around Euro 110 million (renamed Sportfive), 90% drop in value – failure in implementation and execution, at peak Euro 60-70 mil in profits
10. Founding his own agency, Media Sport System, short 1 year as advisor
11. CAA Eleven, how it all started in 2012 with UEFA looking to centralize the National Team rights  - idea driven by M. Platini, G. Infantino, G. Laurent Epstein, etc
12. UEFA was looking for a similar structure to their successful TEAM Marketing partnership for their National Team rights
13. Finding the right partner to create a brand new agency which would only focus on UEFA rights, partnering with CAA, big US talent agency
14. Multiple rounds of bidding, starting with 15 bidders, final rounds against IMG and Lagardere.  Advantage of being a start up and brand new company, totally dedicated to the project.
15. How CAA Eleven won the deal?  UEFA wanted to keep full control and have protection through an agency.  CAA Eleven’s first block of rights, 2014-18, since then renewed twice, currently till 2028
16. UEFA Nations League – turning friendly matches into something more meaningful for fans and players – every match counts – going from 700 official matches to 1,500 on offer
17. Successful both on and off the field (commercially)
18. UEFA EURO 2020 in 2021 – his experience from the inside. UEFA made an early decision to move up by one year. Renegotiate with everyone from host cities, sponsors, broadcasters, teams, etc
19. Overall big success and positive feedback from partners – now focused on EURO 2024 in Germany (Football is coming home 😊)
20. Insights into UEFA’s and CAA Eleven OTT and media strategy and approach
21. His crystal ball on future growth of media rights for Premium sports properties – live is rare & rare is gold  

About Stephane Schindler

Stéphane Schindler started his career in 1996 at Eurosport as Operational Marketing Manager. In 1998, he joined Canal+ and became Head of Sports Acquisitions. In 2000, he became part of IMG as TWI International Vice-President and IMG Head of Business Affairs France. He was in charge of: - the sale of the rights of prestigious sports events (Rugby World Cup, America’s Cup) - the relationships with the French sports governing bodies (24 hours du Mans, French Tennis Open, “Tour de France”, “Ligue de Football Professionnel” (French Football League)) Stéphane joined Groupe Lagardère in September 2006 to launch the Sports Division for Arnaud Lagardère and became Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Lagardère Sports, where he managed and supervised: - the strategy, the development and the acquisitions of the whole Lagardère Sports division (SportFive, IEC in Sports, World Sport Group, Upsolut and PR Event) - all the operational activities in Media, Marketing and events In 2011, Stéphane Schindler decided to launch MEDIA SPORT SYSTEM, a consulting firm operating in the Media & Sport business, as well as a worldwide network of independent partners in the field Stéphane Schindler is graduated in TV and Telecommunications Management (DESS) from the University of Paris IX Dauphine, and in Management and Economics (Master’s degree) from the same University (Paris IX Dauphine) Specialties: Media & Sports business : - Sports media rights management - Sports media production - Media & sports investment strategy (M&A experiences) - Brandtainment in sports

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Andrew Croker, Chairman of multiple enterprises and one of the most outspoken sports Entrepreneurs hailing from the UK.  Fun and colorful deep dive into Andrew’s 40+ years in the industry from his days following his dad around Football club board rooms to successfully launching Perform, the Global Cycling Network and getting Hawk-Eye into Football.

Key Highlights

1. How it started, back in ancient history in 1973, his father becoming the General Secretary of the English FA
2. Opening doors and hanging out with his dad in Football club board rooms and socializing with everyone in sports
3. Joining BSB (later BSkyB) as employee #4-5, drawing up weekly sports schedule
4. Finders, Binders, Minders and Grinders.  He was always a “Finder”
5. How sitting next to Sir Frank Lowe (Advertising Legend) on the Concorde lead to launching Orbit –  sports marketing agency   
6. Next stop, Ian Todd asking him to start IMG Football Division together with Paul Smith   
7. Sportal – massive rise and big crash  - missed the big sale by weeks – dotcom boom and bust story of the year 2000
8. Premier League international TV rights (IMG, Sport+, Fox/Newscorp partnership) –  working with new Sportfive as International Board Member and UK CEO
9. How “Perform” idea was seeded and came together – group in Hamburg looking at Digital Production idea – Oliver Slipper – Premium TV  & Inform team
10. Access Industries (Len Blavatnik) comes into the picture – meeting Robert Louis-Dreyfus – and eventually cutting a deal with Len to merge Premium TV and Inform to form Perform
11. Going public and taking it back private, from de-coupling Perform’s profitable B2B business from DAZN’s B2C business and the differences in business models and valuations
12. Next opportunity arrives with Play Sports Group – Claude Ruibal, Global Head of Sports of YouTube at the time providing the “seed money” for the Global Cycling Network on YouTube (Chairman role) – great story from how it started and eventually sold to Eurosport/Discovery Network in 2019
13. Fascinating Hawk-Eye Football story (South Africa World Cup story and how we ended up in the same stadium in Bloemfontein)  and our thoughts on VAR (Video Assistant Referee) in football
14. Oakwell Sports Advisory – Chairman Advisory Board – intersection between sports world and Private Equity
15. His views on PE in sports, not mincing his words as usual – and a bit of Consultant bashing to top it off
16. Final thoughts on why we both love the industry and can’t wait to get back out

About Andrew Croker

Andrew Croker is a very well-known figure in the sports management and media business, with over forty years’ experience. He has worked with many of the biggest rights holders, media owners, agencies and sports brands in the world. Andrew was the first Head of Sport at BSB, the forerunner to Sky Sports, and started and ran IMG’s global football division.

In 2007, as Executive Chairman, he co-founded the digital sports rights agency, Perform Group, now DAZN, the live and on-demand sports streaming service. He remains an adviser to Stats Perform, the leading sports data and streaming service. He also consulted to Hawk-Eye for ten years until 2019, focussing on the introduction of technology into football, and was also Chairman of Play Sports Group, which included the Global Cycling Network - the world’s leading community of cycling fans - until its sale to Discovery Networks in 2019.

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John West, a serial entrepreneur across multiple businesses before getting into the exciting world of Sports content, influencers and social media platforms.  Started Team Whistle in 2009 after several years of figuring out his next move.  Recently partnered and merged with Eleven Sports.  Learn about his entrepreneurial journey and amazing stories of how he build a company that now has over 4 billion impressions per months across over 1,600 “Channels” of influencers and online personalities.  

Key Highlights

1. Early days as entrepreneur in environmental engineering business in his early 20s – company still around till today
2. Getting a Harvard MBA while working and sold the business
3. Next stop, New York City – Mitchell Madison, new Consulting group – fast growing business
4. Silver Oak Solutions – 2nd entrepreneurial company in “spend management”, software to automate spending patterns of private equity firm’s assets – sold successfully as well
5. How he got “back” into sports and learning from his kids habits on how they consumed content (media).
6. A group of people who made the difference in getting Team Whistle started (Geraldine Laybourne, Don Tapscott’s book “Growing up Digital”  and Mark Lazor)
7. Researched topic for four years, personal learning curve and getting the product right – GenZ focus – first few ideas didn’t work well
8. Focus on UGC (User generated content) across social media platforms – now managing over 1,600 channels and platforms
9. Big hit with “Dude Perfect” , help them with wider distribution, content creation and bring advertisers to them
10. Now over 500 “partners” (influencers) and over 200 Whistle owned channels
11. Not going Negative – Content focused on being “positive, fun and entertaining”, focus on 13-15 year old’s
12. Raising Money for growth – total raise over US$ 110 mil by now
13. Revenue share model with partners and influencers - don’t need to own all the content, key is owning the data behind it and finding ways to monetize it
14. “Brother”  big show on Snap – one great example with a social media platform
15. 4 billion monthly views, 600 million followers globally across all channels. Currently focused on US and Europe. Expanding globally
16. Further growth by acquisition, getting high profile investors into the business (lots of miles travelled) and partnership with Eleven Sports (Andrea Radizzani).
17. Logic behind the deal with Eleven and the synergies between the companies – merged stock deal – combined US$ 300 mil in revenue
18. Esports & Gaming – 25 Pro-Gamers as partners, lifestyle, etc
19. Harvard Business School connections and his involvement as the President of the Harvard Alumni network

About John West

John West is the Executive Chairman of Team Whistle, which he founded in 2008.  Prior to that, he was the CEO and Chairman of Silver Oak Solutions, which he founded in 1999, and sold to CGI in 2005.  Prior to that he was a Partner at Michell Management Group, and also Founder and CEO of Enstrat from 1989 until he sold it in 1996.

John has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  He has served on several Boards at Harvard, and is currently the volunteer President of the Harvard Alumni Association.  John lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Harpreet Singh Rai, the CEO of OURA Health Ltd, a Finish company which is making a huge splash in the wearable health and wellness space through its smart ring product.  He shares his stories how he became involved in the business and where he is planning to take it.  Great stories on how the product works and the benefits behind it, to the future growth and plans of the business.   

Key Highlights

1. Coming out college wanting to be an engineer, spending his first 10 years in the financial world on Wall Street, including Eminence Capital, multi billion dollar Fund, investing in tech 
2. Combined his passion for health and wellness with his research in the tech space and getting into wearables as an early adopter/user
3. Running into the co-founder at a grocery store – and hitting it off 
4. Personally investing in the company in 2016 and joining the board.  Joining the company full time, in 2017 as President/CEO 
5. Founders from Finland, country with great history in tech and health culture (Nokia, Polar, etc)
6. OURA – focus on sleep tracking – massive benefits of the right amount and type of sleep (lack of sleep is detrimental to health)
7. OURA ring – how it works, the data it measures, what it does and comparison to other wearables 
8. “Sleep is the world’s best (legal) performance enhancing drug” quote by Matthew Walker, Author of “Why we Sleep”
9. What were the first users, beyond the early “bio hackers” adopters – awareness of Sleep becoming more main stream
10. Sports connection, with NBA, UFC, NFL teams all inbound requests based on the product benefits 
11. Covid influence on the business – very positive due to the ability to detect potential Covid infection before people show symptoms
12. Shipped over 500k rings since inception, doubling every year – raised Series C, over US$ 100 mil 
13. Great diverse group of investors globally, from Google to Temasek (Singapore Wealth Fund), Michael Dell and others. Strategic Investors supporting growth.
14. Ouraring.com – only available online, shipping to 100 countries globally  - North America biggest markets, Europe and Asia growing 
15. What’s the future going forward.  Wearable market, 200 million units globally – smart phones over 1 billion. 
16. Opportunities for more use cases to measure important health markers and build in preventive measures to detect heart attacks and others early signs of illnesses      
17. Next steps after raising the money -  growth, SPACs, IPO and other options out there 
18. Strong growth margins and profitable business 
19. Challenges and how to overcome them – strong company values = solutions focused (find 3 solutions to every problem), Ubuntu (ancient African word -humanity to others)

About Harpreet Singh Rai

Harpreet Singh Rai is the chief executive officer of Oura and a member of its board. His purpose is to be part of a team that is committed to improving the well-being of others. Under his leadership, Oura has grown to a team of nearly 100 employees and has launched its Generation 2 ring, shipping over 100,000 units to 90 different countries. He is responsible for Oura’s vision and strategy and guides decisions that ensure the organization’s financial health.

Before Oura, Rai was a portfolio manager who led the technology, media and telecom portfolio at Eminence Capital for 9nine years. He began his career working in Morgan Stanley’s merger and acquisitions group. Rai studied electrical engineering at the University of Michigan.

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Terrence Burns is best known as the “Bidding Guy” (in his own words), having supported and worked on more successful Olympic bids than anyone else in the industry. Lots of great stories and learn from his incredible experiences at Delta Airlines (which inspired several books) to working with sponsors and brands across the world. Great insights into the Olympic Games, from bidding processes and how it has changed, to branding the Games, to emotions which describes what the Rings mean to people.  Enjoy the history lesson of the Games while watching the Tokyo Olympics 2020-21.   

Key Highlights

1. Starting at the bottom of Delta Airlines fresh out of College –  Maintenance Utility Employee & working his way up the ranks over a period of 15 years 
2. Official Airline of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta – how it all started 
3. Leading Delta’s sponsorship program of the Games, massive learning curve.  Key setting clear KPI’s, to manage the board expectations
4. Moving from being a Client to the Agency side with Meridien Management, official marketing agency of the IOC
5. Joining Founders Chris Welton and Laurent Scharapan as Sn. VP Marketing – commissioned first proper research on the IOC and Olympic brand  
6. McDonald’s five Cheeseburger Olympic story to illustrate the change in thinking
7. Sponsors have to tell a story to show consumers why they are involved and build the connection.  The fee is just the entry ticket to the party. 
8. Celebrate Humanity Campaign with Robin Williams 
9. Talking numbers of Olympic programs in early 2000 – both for the TOP and LOC program 
10. Salt Lake City crisis and how it turned around through “research lead facts” with sponsors 
11. Losing Moscow Bid, character building and leading to the next gig – Sochi 
12. Partnering with Frank Craighill, one of the foundering partners of ProServe (Donald Dell’s Agency) and Chris Walton to launch Helios (adding Chris Renner, Prescient later)
13. Success with Five Olympic bids & 2 World Cups , bringing Wrestling & Golf back into the Games, Asian Games, etc – helping to steer those bids and creating the stories around it
14. PyeongChang winning bidding story vs Munich’s losing story 
15. New IOC approach to decide on future locations – no longer beauty parades, now Executive Board looks at which cities reflect the Olympic Values and best location for the movement 
16. Emotional Senegal story – Olympics means “hope” 
17. Asian Games gig – a balancing act – Doha 2030 and Saudi Arabia 2034
18. Current focus for him – working with Sponsor on the great decade of global Sports for North America, from the 2026 World Cup to the 2028 LA Olympics to potentially the Winter Olympics in 2030
19. Basic advice to sponsors – don’t sign the BTA (Basic Terms of Agreement) before you get advice from an expert
20. Latest numbers, US$ 200 million fees for TOP or LOC programs (4 year cycle) – the ratio of fees to activation investment debate
21. LA Bid about the next 100 years of the Olympic movement 
22. Sochi story – the US$ 50 billion number unpacked 
23. Tokyo 2020-21 thoughts to wrap it up – differences in sponsor mind set in Japan or China vs the US market

About Terrence Burns

I have a long history in Olympic marketing, dating from 1993. My background is unique, and includes: 

1. A combination of sponsorship consulting/sales, Olympic and World Cup bidding, Olympic Agreement negotiation, and international sports branding and communications.
2. Serving "on all sides of the table" - as an Olympic sponsor, as a rights holder with the IOC/Meridian, and as a consultant to bidding cities and nations, rights holders and sponsors around the world.
3. Advising clients as varied as Allianz, the Australian Rugby Union, Australian Football Federation, Samsung, Petro-Canada, the City of Moscow, BHP Billiton, TNT China, Bell Canada, Dow Chemical, Nissin Foods, the International Olympic Committee, and the International Paralympic Committee to name but a few.
4. Directing Delta Air Lines' highly successful sponsorship of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
5. Joined the IOC’s then-new external marketing agency, Meridian Management SA after the Atlanta Games where I served as Senior Vice President – Marketing, responsible for managing the marketing and client servicing relationships with the IOC’s global TOP Partners.
6. At Meridian, I helped spearhead the first-ever global assessment and positioning of the Olympic Brand, resulting in the IOC’s first brand image campaign, “Celebrate Humanity”.
7. Served as the lead brand and marketing consultant for the successful Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic bids, the 2018 Russia FIFA World Cup & United 2026 FIFA World Cup bids, and the Doha 2030 Asian Games bid.
8. Served as the lead brand strategist for Golf and Wrestling’s bids to return to the Olympic Games.

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Patrick Mouratoglou, also known as “The Coach”, currently the most influential coach in tennis, sharing his incredible journey with us, starting with his difficulties in his childhood to overcoming them and turning his passion for Tennis first into a business (Academy) and then into a profession (Coach).  Amazing stories and incredible learning on multiple levels.  Best warm up story ever on the Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast. I am certain you will enjoy it.  

Key Highlights

1. Early childhood stories and challenges (from low self esteem and panic attacks) and the lessons from it
2. Winning the fight against his body and mind at the age of 11 – (first little victory) – lesson, we are the product of our life lessons (have a little win every day)
3. Started playing tennis at the age of 4, playing 8 hours per day – Court was only place where he felt safe and confident 
4. Age 15, parents “forced” him to stop playing against his will – another turning point in his life – his dream was destroyed
5. Age 17, started psycho therapy for 10 years – developed tremendous skills how to read people due to his in-ability to interact with people 
6. Working in his father’s company to learn the trade from the ground up – but wasn’t for him – pursued his passion for tennis again
7. Great life Lessons from his meetings with his parents 
8. Starting his first academy – renting two Courts (for E$ 3 per court per hour) – putting flyers on cars – after one year 40 “average” players taking lessons
9. Next step – approached Bob Brett (at that time Boris Becker’s coach) to partner with him for the “Bob Brett Academy”
10. Had two months to put it all together before Bob Brett showed up. Patrick was the “manager” and running the academy, unfortunately, after six years Bob leaves. 
11. Worst business decision to build a name for someone else and now the “brand” disappears on him – luckily his young players stayed on
12. He decided to put his own name on the “door”. Only problem was, he was not a Coach (yet).  
13. From that decision onwards, it took him 10 years to win his first Grand Slam as a Coach – we unpack that incredible journey
14. Marcos Baghdatis, first protégé, next lesson (from bad coaching)
15. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, just made French Open Final  – 16 years old when she joined him, struggling together, great story 
16. Serene Williams, she was going through a tough moment when they first met, hadn’t won a Grand Slam for two years and lost in first round in Paris 
17. Called him to train in his tennis academy in Paris (at that time he was coaching Grigor Dimitrov) – “talk to me” story 
18. He showed her what he thought she was doing wrong, working for 3 days and she loved it – next meeting in Wimbledon (which she won while Patrick coached her)
19. Massively successful year in 2012, winning Grand Slams, Olympic Gold, etc at the age of 30 – and 10 Grand Slams later 
20. Patrick Mouratoglou Academy  - from Nice, France to Greece & Dubai (Tennis Centers within top resorts)  
21. Schooling and sports program – 200 students, 40 different nationalities – also for families, hotel, medical center, seminar area, etc 
22. UTS – Ultimate Tennis Showdown – amazing new concept, shorter format, adapted rules, focused on digital audiences, players love it 
23. Patrick talks us through his vision for UTS and what he thinks is right and wrong with tennis right now – must listen for anyone in the business of tennis
24. UTS formula - short, dynamic, immersive and authentic content – started in 2020 in height of pandemic – coverage across 100 countries, 20 mil viewers, 10 invited players 
25. Raising US$ 50 million right now, to build a League, 10 events per year in amazing locations across the world – like F1 (only same 10 players)

About

Patrick Mouratoglou is a French tennis coach and sports commentator of Greek descent. He has been the coach of Serena Williams since June 2012.

He founded the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in 1996 near Paris (later relocated to the outskirts of Nice), and has coached many up-and-coming players, including Marcos Baghdatis (whom he coached to the final of the 2006 Australian Open), Julia Vakulenko, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Aravane Rezaï, Irena Pavlovic, Jérémy Chardy, Laura Robson, Yanina Wickmayer and Grigor Dimitrov.

Mouratoglou started coaching the ATP player Marcos Baghdatis in 1999 when Mouratoglou invited him to his Tennis Academy in October 1999, on a one-week basis. Baghdatis was, according to Mouratoglou, "not an athlete at all", however within seven years he would become a junior world No. 1, win the 2003 Australian Open boys' title, reach the final of the same tournament in 2006 and reach the world's top ten.

In July 2007, he started coaching Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Within two years, Pavlyuchenkova reached the world's top 30 and has since made two Grand Slam quarterfinals and reached a career-high ranking of world No. 13. They ended their association in August 2009, and Mouratoglou moved onto coaching both Aravane Rezaï and Yanina Wickmayer. Rezaï enjoyed a successful 2010 season, entering the world's top 20 and winning the Premier event in Madrid whilst Wickmayer reached a career-high ranking of world No. 12 in April 2010. Mouratoglou stopped working with both Rezaï and Wickmayer in August 2010 and April 2012 respectively.

In December 2010, Mouratoglou started coaching Laura Robson, who was world No. 217 at the time and still struggling to break into the senior tour. They worked together for six months before separating shortly before Wimbledon in 2011, when Robson was still struggling to make any progress on the WTA Tour, having slipped further to world No. 257. During this same period, Mouratoglou also coached Jérémy Chardy within his academy.

In March 2012, Mouratoglou started coaching Grigor Dimitrov and set about guiding him back into the world's top 100, having dropped to No. 102 by the time he started. This association ended in September that year and Mouratoglou moved on to coaching Serena Williams.

By the time Mouratoglou started coaching Williams, she had just suffered her first-ever opening round defeat in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, losing in the first round of the 2012 French Open. Since then, Mouratoglou has guided Williams to her fifth, sixth and seventh Wimbledon titles, the Olympic gold medal, her fourth, fifth, and sixth US Open titles, her second and third French Open titles, three consecutive year-end championships titles, her sixth and seventh Australian Open title and lifted her back to world No. 1 in the WTA rankings.

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Alan Pascoe, former Great Britain Olympian and founding father of Sports marketing in the UK, shares his amazing stories on how he got started, the Athletics events he created, the agencies he build and sold, and many more…

Key Highlights

1. Early days, how o he got his start as a hurdler in school which lead him to win Medals for Great Britain in the European Championships, Commonwealth Games and Olympics and become one of the most recognized athletes in the UK at the time
2. Discovering his passion for the events business – while being a lecturer – his very first event at Cystal Palace grounds for 150 pounds and getting on the BBC live (20 min prime time) in 1971
3. Using his College “office” to organize events at the beginning – while winning a few more Medals for Great Britain and building his own brand name – “are you the Alan Pascoe”….
4. From Athletics to Sunday Times Bridge Championship and how to leverage the power of an “influencer” Omar Sharif, Egyptian Actor at the time    
5. Other early projects, Sunday Times Fun Run in Hyde Park (before London Marathon existed) – in late 70s
6. Start as an Entrepreneur – Alan Pascoe Associates (APA) – 1983 – taking over an existing agency, owner retiring – with partner Edward Leask
7. Childhood Asthma story and how to think out of the box – ask questions, don’t pitch at client
8. Sold APA to WCRS Ad agency for One Million pound in cash – bought it back later
9. Other projects, Broadcast sponsorship of NFL, Fantasy Football with Daily Telegraph and more
10. Different focus to other agencies. Consultancy work for brand owners, amplification of sponsorship, events management and sponsorship sales
11. Bought Personality Management company, representing TV Presenters and inventory management for A-boards of English Football Club before the Premier League
12. Sold it again to Interpublic in 1999 – believe being part of a larger Advertising Group was the way to go to expand the business
13. Deal with Interpublic didn’t work out well personally, left company and set up a new company around British/UK Athletics (Fast Track later CSM – Chime Sports Marketing), early 2000
14. Ran CSM till he stepped down ten years ago (2013/14) – build up both API and CSM into top 3 agencies in the world
15. The partnership dilemma between Advertising agencies and Sports Marketing agencies
16. Lessons from buying other agencies worldwide - CSM buying Zak Browns agency – JMI
17. George Soros partnership with DC United, MLS team
18. At the time he left in 2014, 20 offices, 750 staff growing to 1,000 people around the world -  CSM recently acquired by Wasserman  
19. Management style over the decades and how to train people
20. Helping to win the London Olympic bid, insider stories (Seb Coe, Keith Mills, Buckingham Palace, etc)
21. Legacy of the London Olympics, no white Elephants around London, helped transform parts of the city
22. Wrapping up with what keeps him busy now, some consultancy work – Commonwealth Games, Moneycorp and final story

About

In 2014 Alan stepped down as President of the CSM Group, the Group he founded, now part of Chime Communications, having put in place the second generation of management to take CSM and its clients onto even greater heights, including Lord Coe who took over his role as Executive Chairman. Alan continues to work as a consultant, offering strategic support with his wealth of experience across the sports and events. CSM is the second world top 3 Sport’s & Events companies that Alan has built, whilst leading the creation of major events and programmes for sports, sponsors and television. Outside of sport he also devised, managed and promoted a medical programme that significantly improved the management of childhood asthma in the UK.

A 3-time Olympian, winning Olympic Silver, triple European Gold, and Commonwealth Gold, Silver & Bronze medals, represented the Commonwealth, Europe and was British Team Captain. Alan started organising and promoting international track and field athletics meetings which continually reset the standard worldwide, and attracted £100’s of millions from delighted sponsors and broadcasters. This led to the creation of world leading events in a variety of sports and activities including ice skating and the Paralympic World Cup, whilst devising successful programmes for sponsors and partners around the world.

Having sold his first Agency Group, API, to Interpublic (to form the founding company for Octogan), Alan formed Fast Track, which then formed the corner-stone to create CSM, which he Chaired and then became Founding President before stepping down to pursue his personal interests. CSM, recently acquired by the Wasserman Group is the 3rd largest Sports & Entertainment Marketing Groups in the world with 20 offices, in c. 13 countries from the US to Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Moscow, Shanghai, Rio & Tokyo. Their portfolio includes major involvements in Rugby, Cricket, F1, Basketball and Football etc.

Alan was a Trustee with Sported, currently a Trustee of the London Marathon Foundation, a Board Member & Director of London Marathon Events Ltd., and a Founder of Made by Sport. Alan was Vice-Chairman of London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games – ‘my proudest moment, as I knew how many lives it would positively impact’.

Alan is currently advising major brands, and Boards on strategy, and hopes to 'make a difference' in the area of the importance of exercise, especially for young people and children, as it relates to both general health, and specific medical conditions.

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Giampiero Rinaudo, a passionate Italian sports tech Entrepreneur, Founder & CEO of Deltatre. Being the CEO for the past 35 years, managing the growth over three decades with now a team of over 1,000 technologists, designers, and innovators across the world who are driven by a passion to change the way the world consumes content. 

Key Highlights

1. How it started, at the young age of 20 as a student, started to work part time in “timing support” with Olivetti – in Alpine Skiing and F1  
2. In 1986, Deltatre was born, with three partners – continuing to service Olivetti in result and timing systems (manual time spotting at F1) 
3. Olivetti starting to have financial problems, time to be a proper entrepreneur and start offering service to multiple clients 
4. In 1995, about 40 people, growth in second decade driven by growth in media rights fees, especially Football 
5. UEFA Champions League, big new client and opportunity, central results system operator 
6. Staying at the cutting edge, working with top clients who push company to new heights and working globally 
7. Internet and PC boom offering new opportunities, World Championship of Athletics, Gothenburg, 1995 – first real time results on the internet  
8. Building websites and portals for Federations – clear focus to be a service provider, not in competition with our clients 
9. In 2005 (second decade), 110 staff, two offices, heavily focused on 2-3 big clients, UEFA, FIFA, IAAF
10. His own Entrepreneurial journey and learning – software developer turned CEO.  Learning on the job 
11. Third decade, from 5 clients to 70 clients, streaming over the internet and social media, nearly 500 people 
12. First Olympic streaming website for NBC at the Beijing Olympics 2008 – great success 
13. London 2012 – first proper digital Olympics – again involved at a major level 
14. Starting to develop “Products” for broader range of clients with smaller budget (changing from Service to Product culture)
15. New Broadcasters clients, still focused on Europe and a few around the world 
16. Growth funded internally until 2008, looking for growth beyond organic, Italian investor came in and Deltatre saved them during the subsequent global crisis
17. 2016 Bruins Sports Capital (BSC), buys 75%, 25% still held by management – big growth in the US through BSC strong network 
18. First new client(s) in the US, NFL Game Pass, then MLB, MLS
19. OTT growth, now 50% of the business – broadcast clients 
20. Acquisition of Massive Interactive – combining their product culture with Deltatre service culture 
21. OTT – discussion about the evolution, the opportunities and challenge with monetization 
22. Partnerships with Rights Holders, example with DFL (Bundesliga) and Sportec Solutions
23. Beyond sports, a look at entertainment, Gaming & Esports
24. Deltatre and Covid – effects on company & “one company” system & the “new normal” office culture 
25. Look into the future of Deltatre – continued two digit growth, acquisition, etc 

About Giampiero Rinaudo

“When I was young, I wanted to be a timekeeper for alpine skiing,” says Deltatre’s Group CEO, Giampiero. Fascinated by sports, and growing up near Turin, Italy, within easy reach of mountains, it wouldn’t have been an unrealistic goal. But Giampiero, known as Gipi, would follow a related, but different, tact.

After completing his Computer Science studies at the University of Turin, he took his career dream as a starting point and supercharged it. Setting up Deltatre with two partners in 1986, he combined his interests in technology and sport to produce better fan experiences across the world – an ambition which began with creating ways to record times and other sports data more accurately. “I was a lover of computers and data and I loved sports, so I thought ‘what better than setting up Deltatre?’ Computers and sports were my passions,” he says.

When he set up the company aged just 27, Deltatre was unsurprisingly a very different place to today. An early project involved developing software to provide more accurate timekeeping for Formula 1, with the company installing transponders within cars to ensure lap times could be measured accurately – a tactic still used to this day.

Personal computers were in their infancy, meaning heavy equipment would often be carted to games. “They did the tasks we were doing at that time like record timings and inform about results,” he says. “Now we’ve moved in a completely different direction.”

Gipi could never have foreseen the incredible growth that Deltatre would encounter. From its humble beginnings as a team of just three, to more than 1,000 technologists, designers, and thought-leaders today in 19 offices across the globe. Now a silent partner powering many of the world’s most-watched events, including FIFA World Cups, UEFA Champions Leagues, ATP Tennis Tournaments, and NFL Super Bowls – to name just a few.

Disruption has remained constant over the past three decades – and Gipi and employees have evolved with it rather than fervently clung on to techniques of the past. With the recent acquisition of software company Massive Interactive, which specialises in the entertainment OTT space, this has never been more true. “When I look back every year, the company is never the same as the year before; it’s a constant transformation,” he says.

As well as the continued growth of the company, he believes one of his biggest achievements is the culture fostered at Deltatre. “It’s a very informal environment and my door is always open,” he says. And how does he want others in the company to view him? “Honest and loyal,” he says, “which I believe are also important sport values.” Outside of work, he enjoys alpine skiing, swimming, and hiking.

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Clive Bowen is a man truly shaped by his early career experiences; from his days at Rolls Royce to his years working with a large Saudi group before entering into the world of motor racing and him emerging as a world leader in building Racing Resorts around the world:

Key Highlights

1. Studying mechanical engineering and landing first job at Rolls Royce (Aerospace) 
2. Moving on to Wright Machinery (PPM). Amazing experience serving clients in Middle East – commencement of project management responsibility 
3. Middle East stories from late 80s. A territory which changed dramatically each year for 20 years. 
4. Great Lessons and stories from running Haldir Ltd., a division of a Saudi group for nine years. Commencement of the ‘always under promise and over deliver’ mantra
5. 1997, meeting Paul Berger in Dubai and various other motorsports luminaries. Entry into the motorsport industry, initially as a hobby, then as a profession
6. Pitching Dubai Autodrome for four years with Paul Berger. Cutting a deal with Union Properties, working with HOK Sports (now Populous). First design for a track and masterplan for a venue
7. West Surrey Racing days - six years in Touring cars with MG – even becoming ‘team principal’ of the Junior MG BTCC team that launched the career of Colin Turkington
8. Dubai Autodrome stories; how it evolved as a major property development 
9. Next Apex project in Iceland and how 2008/09 financial crisis killed it
10. Development of first "Race Resort", Hampton Downs Motorsports Park, New Zealand 
11. Various Karting design and construction projects in Middle East 
12. Herman Tilke, mutual respect - positioning Apex purposely below his F1 tracks 
13. Difference in company philosophy: Tilke ‘race circuit focus’ vs ‘venue with a race circuit inside’ focus for Apex 
14. Pragmatic approach to developing leads in the industry: 1 in 100 chance a lead turns into a construction project; Apex has had over 2000 inquiries, 200 project codes, turned into 20 construction projects. Typical five years lead time from enquiry to venue
15. Difference between a race drivers point of view vs a designer's on what constitutes a great track 
16. What makes an ultimate race track?
17. Race Resort Projects in China
18. Insights into the new Miami F1 track
19. Potential new Race Resort in South East Asia 

About Clive Bowen

I established Apex Circuit Design Ltd in 1997 and developed it to become a world-leader in the field of motor race circuit design, engineering and master planning. My team and I design cost-effective, relevant, multi revenue, multi-use motorsport based entertainment destinations. In 2009 we were appointed the FIA Institute Facilities Advisory Partner on a multi-year contract to support projects which are grant funded by the FIA Motor Sport Development Fund. Our service is to provide commercially and environmentally sustainable master plan designs for race destinations anywhere in the World. We pride ourselves on creating exciting, interesting and commercially viable race track designs and currently have projects on 5 continents. Our master planning services are accepted as among the World's finest. We are considered the de facto choice for commercial developers even in today's harsh economic climate. We aim to meet the future needs of environmentally sustainable developments whilst also supporting and nurturing motorsport from the grass roots to the highest levels Specialties: Race Circuit Design (Road course, street circuit, temporary circuit), Motor Sport Destination design, Entertainment Destination design, Master Planning services, Motor Sport event management, Motor Sport operational management, Motor Sport sustainability consultancy, Motor Sport environmental consultancy. Please review our website at www.apexcircuitdesign.com for further information.

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Joachim Hilke, is a German sports marketing Veteran with an colorful career across NFL Europe, UFA/Sportfive early growth story,  HSV (Hamburg Football Club) and now with Fanatics in Europe.  Lots of great stories on how the NFL started in Europe and the challenges around it, to an insider look into German Football Club thinking and off course a deep dive into Fanatics’ amazing online merchandise retail business globally.  Enjoy.

Key Highlights

1. From his College thesis to the first job at the NFL Europe with Rhein Fire - great stories how the League and team started (Americana in Duesseldorf)
2. Next stop, UFA/Sport 5 -
   • HSV (Hamburger Sport Verein – Bundesliga Club) great stories about selling their rights and sitting on the board of a major Club.
   • Naming rights of HSV Stadium – AOL Arena – focusing on sponsorship and marketing while the rest of the company is mostly selling TV rights
   • UEFA National Team deals – the good old days of maximizing 2nd & 3rd party rights both in TV and sponsorship (Double production – sell both sides of the pitch to different sponsors)
   • Front Runner of UEFA Qualifiers packages now managed by CAA Eleven
3. 2nd run at HSV – Chief Commercial officer & Board member again – dream job for a kid from Essen. At that time, team was a regular in European Football and amongst top teams in the Bundesliga  (Emirates Airlines on the Jersey)
4. Challenging six years on the pitch, legal structure of German Football clubs make it challenging with Fans having a large say and voting rights (Members Club) – lots of emotions which start influencing decisions
5. Current role at Fanatics – Managing Director Global Partnerships – massive online Merchandise and Licensing retailer, valued US$ 12.8 billion (up from 6b mid last year) – representing all major US rights holders
6. com – V-Commerce Model (vertical) – the ultimate online sports apparel and fan gear store (80% of revenue online)
   • Difference between official apparel of Kit supplier and other fan apparel merchandise
7. Demand for Fan products stayed strong during Pandemic, especially after Leagues started playing again - Fandom is still alive and well
8. International roll out – differences in Europe to US model with Leagues – in Europe deals are done with Clubs and not Leagues
9. Some big names signed up in Europe, German and English FA, PSG (Paris St Germain) and Bayern Munich
10. With large volume but thin margins in merchandise, wondering why European Football Leagues don’t bundle merchandise like the American Leagues?
11. Opportunity to take global IP to Asia and other parts of the world. Hillhouse Capital (PE Fund), JV partner for China market launch. Office in Tokyo, dealing with Japanese Baseball and US Sports
12. Counterfeit products not a major focus or concern -  focus heavily on Football/Soccer for now

About

2017 – today, Fanatics International, MD Global Partnerships

2011 – 2017, Hamburger SV (HSV Fußball AG), CCO

1998 – 2010, Sportfive, CEO International

1994 – 1997, NFL International, MD Rhein Fire

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Ricardo Fort spent his incredible career on the "brand side" of the business, deploying hundreds of millions of sponsorship and advertising dollars for the likes of Coca-Cola and VISA to name a few.

Great deep discussion about his views on sports as a platform from the perspective of a true "Advertising Man" who has worked with some of the biggest sports sponsors in the world. 

Key Highlights

1. 1. From studying Civil Engineering to realising that marketing was his calling at Unilever.
   2. FMCG space, great place to learn marketing, brands spending big dollars
   3. His dream (which was also mine) working for Coca Cola coming true. The Coke TV commercial that triggered it (featuring Zico). Third time lucky 🍀. 
   4. Starting at Sprite brand before moving to Coca Cola brand. Brazil the 3rd biggest market for the brand. 
   5. First involvements with FIFA World Cups, starting in 2002 Japan/Korea.
   6. Working across FIFA, UEFA and teams. 
   7. HQ roles, developing global frame work vs local team execution and leveraging the property 
   8. After the 2006 World Cup, back to Brazil before a stopover in India. These countries are a "mess", challenging new role. Fans are similar in their passion for their respective sports (⚽ & 🏏) 
   9. Short sting at Danone. Global Marketing Director based in Paris. Not the best match. 
   10. Next stop Visa in San Francisco. More similarities than difference in approach by Coke & Visa to sponsorship. 
   11. Beginning preparations for Brazil World Cup 2014 and Rio Olympics 2016 My Sao Paulo and Brazil World Cup experiences 🇧🇷 🇩🇪 🏆
   12. Inside look on how Visa leverages and measures these mega events, very focused on the customer (mainly Banks at the time, now much broader). Develop specific promotions. 
   13. Being a big "Sponsor" - about the relationships with the Rights holders, not about the money 🤔? Ricardo explains. 
   14. Back at Coke - homecoming as VP Global Sports & Entertainment Partnerships
   15. Coke's massive global marketing and sponsorship budget, where and how to invest it. Being seen as the go to guy for the industry. Seeing 25 proposals per week. 
   16. Everything starts with a "Problem". How can a sponsorship help fix the problem. THE KEY MESSAGE (if you learn nothing else from our discussion). 
   17. Start with public filings by companies and look at what problems they have. Look for the challenges and how you can help.
   18. Beyond sports - global entertainment, movies, music and gaming & Esports
   19. Gaming - huge visibility, distribution, eye balls. Connecting with Gamers via Publishers. 
   20. Reaching hardcore Gamers, thru Influencers & Esports
   21. Coke in Gaming since 2002 with EA's Fifa, 2007/08 early days in Asia. Sensitivity to certain type of Games. 
   22. Being authentic as a brand is key - fans can smell fake from far 
   23. His thoughts on the "Sugar drink" issue 
   24. Coke vs Pepsi discussion 
   25. Sport by Fort Consulting - his brand new agency - going Entrepreneurial route 
   26. Helping other companies/brands with his 25 years experience in sponsorship 
   27. Current Project examples:
       • Working with brands who are looking at global events 
       • Sport tech start-ups 
       • Marketing plan for a Footballer, build a brand 
       • Higher education project 
       • Investors and Football club owners
   28. His final thoughts on Crypto & NFTs and brands

About Ricardo Fort

After 25 years working for some of the best companies in the world and almost a decade successfully leading the Global Sponsorship teams of Visa and The Coca-Cola Company, Ricardo launched Sport by Fort Consulting to help sponsors, leagues, investors and athletes successfully invest in sports.

An excellent track record dealing with major global and local sporting organizations and the savvy of having negotiated over a billion dollars in sponsorship contracts, position Ricardo as an expert with unique skills to help investors evaluate, decide and negotiate partnerships.

At Coca-Cola (Atlanta, GA – USA), Ricardo led the Company’s global portfolio of sports and entertainment sponsorships, partnerships and events, including the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, UEFA, the Special Olympics, athletes, McLaren F1 team, record labels, movie studios, the gaming industry and other worldwide sports and entertainment properties.

Prior to this role, Ricardo was the SVP of Global Brand, Product & Sponsorship Marketing at Visa (San Francisco, CA – USA), where he was responsible for all global consumer marketing initiatives including branding, advertising, digital, design and sponsorships.

Ricardo led the Visa team, one of the most active sponsors in the world, in the end-to-end initiatives related to the International Olympics Committee, FIFA, the International Paralympic Committee, UEFA, the NFL, dozens of Football, Baseball and Basketball teams in the USA and hundreds of Olympic athletes.

Before Visa, Ricardo was the Global Marketing Director for the dairy category at the Group Danone (Paris – France), and held several other Marketing roles at Coca-Cola in Brazil, USA and India, and multiple roles at Kellogg’s and Unilever.

Ricardo obtained a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree from Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo and has a Specialization in Business Administration from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, both in Brazil. He is married and the father of two teenage girls.

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Mark Pannes is a highly accomplished US sports executive with an incredible career across the US and Europe, from his early days at the New York Knicks, to leading a large European Football Club (AS Roma) on behalf of a US Owner and learning the inside workings of one of the largest Banks in the world (HSBC Private Bank).  Mark has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and his views are well heard (through his own Podcast/Clubhouse talks) and respected in the industry. With the European Super League “fiasco” just over when we spoke, we off course took a good stab at the topic as well.  As always, lots of learning and great insights throughout the discussion. Enjoy.  

Key Highlights

1. How it all started, a High School dream to have a career in professional sports, leads to studying sports at UT in Austin and a summer internship with the New York Knicks
2. First job on the operational side at Madison Square Garden (MSG), 19 different trade groups (Unions) working in the building, etc
3. 10 years with the Knicks -  Patrick Ewing and Pat Reilly days – MSG a vertically integrated company, the venue owns the teams and broadcast network – sales force is media let - Knicks the bait to sell other content at the venue (bundling)
4. Starting to sell Knicks as a stand alone property, non-media related – drove US$ 4 mil of new revenue (total team revenue over US$ 120 mil at the time)
5. Brand driven vs sales driven approach,  digital and CRM starting to kick off
6. Ground breaking deal with American Express, co-branded card for the first time
7. First Entrepreneurial experience – Skilo Brand agency – range of clients and projects  
8. First overseas sting, overseeing acquisition and then managing a Parisian Basketball Club (Tony Parker, French NBA player was part of the investor group)
9. After cleaning up the club in phase 1, spending most of the time on ways to finance the “underfunded” Club and connected with HSBC
10. Next stop HSBC Private Bank, London, banking athletes and IP owners, borrowing against assets
11. IP owners and athletes, asset & wealth management, borrow against revenue.  COI (contractually obligated income) as security
12. Insider look during the global Financial Crisis (2008-09) – HSBC’s approach
13. Next Raptor Accelerator, Jim Pallotta, US billionaire Family office – invested in AS Roma – new role as CEO of the club
14. The numbers in the AS Roma deal – total US$ 160 million investment (according to reports)
15. Learnings from his AS Roma days, running a Listed company, every club is a “selling club” – ability to sell players is important
16. New Stadium plans, great project, big plans, the process to get it started (unfortunately till today it hasn’t come to fruition) (Roman politics or what happened?)
17. European Super League (ESL) discussion – 48 hours of madness – his view as an American Sports Executive with European Football experience
18. Mismatch and disconnect between team owners, there was no “executive team” in place to represent the group (it appeared), no apparent media partners, rushed announcements, etc
19. BCG , JP Morgan and many of the big Clubs got their fingers burned it appears in hindsight – surprisingly many rookie mistakes across the groups   
20. The underlying challenges between the big clubs and the “others” haven’t gone away – the issue will come again at some point in the future – even the big clubs have little leverage with UEFA, so they need to come up with these threats to push their agenda
21. Union Sports – private consulting companies, advising on media and other long-term revenue streams
22. Vancouver Whitecaps FC , turn around, clean up – just when the pandemic hit six months into it
23. Inner Market Media – consulting and content creation for sports IP owners – focus on transatlantic view – “OTT Sports Speakeasy” (weekly on Clubhouse, Thu, 5pm UK time) and OTT Sports Podcast together with partner Michael Broughton
24. Last thoughts on the growth opportunities in sports in current climate – expansion period for sports – new money coming in with lots of changes along the way in the process

About Mark Pannes

Mark is the Managing Partner of Inner Market Media. A 30 year sports and media industry veteran he has managed sports, media, entertainment, and licensing businesses in North America, the UK, Europe, and Canada.

He has served as CMO of the New York Knicks (NBA), CEO for AS Roma (Serie A), CEO for the Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS), and founding director of the global sports practice at HSBC Private Bank, based in London.

He currently also serves as a teaching fellow and advisory board chair for the Center for Sports Communication & Media at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is based.

Mark is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Fordham School of Law.

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Paul Berger is a true Middle East insider, having been based in Dubai, UAE for nearly three decades and done it all from advertising, motorsports, helping to build the Dubai Autodrome to now running EMEA for the Arena Group, one of the leading temporary event structures groups in the world for sports, music, exhibitions to cultural events.   

Key Highlights

1. Paul’s early days in Advertising in the UK and his route to Dubai. BBDO took him to Dubai. 
2. From Advertising to Karting – setting up his first business (Leisure Karting) in Dubai – great stories (races in Oman, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi)
3. Dubai Autodrome & Business Park -  how it all started and where it is now (www.dubaiautodrome.ae)
   1. Clive Bowen of Apex Circuit Design, designed the track (www.apexcircuitdesign.com)
   2. What worked and didn’t work and what is happening on the track now
4. Next Entrepreneurial venture – Sports Marketing Global – focused on motorsports & brands from the Middle East  (partnered with Chris Akers – who was managing F1 Driver, Robert Kubica at the time)
5. Working with McLaren (Ekrem Sami), first deal with Emirates in motorsports (and how amazing visuals did the trick)
6. Abu Dhabi NDA & F1 story -  how the deal came about and contract was signed 
7. Harlequin Marquees – brother in law business – new challenge – bringing it together with Arena Group, UK (a company with 260 year history – started in 1761)
8. Arena’s first acquisition outside the UK, big growth since then through acquisition and Public Listing in the UK
9. Paul’s role as CEO across EMEA – expansion across the region – 350 staff across Asia/Middle East, offices in Malaysia, Korea, Hong Kong, etc
10. Arena America, Europe/UK, Middle East/Asia key regions– his region became the biggest and most profitable division (pre-Covid 2019) – hugely successful year (Anthony Joshua fight in Saudi) 
11. The Arena Business – temporary Event Architecture – from tents to modular buildings, interiors, hospitality, etc 
12. And then Covid happened and how that effected the Business and how Arena reacted to it – pivot business away from events, where could the equipment be used (temporary hospitals, etc)
13. Saudi family was keen to invest, raised money to make it through Covid – prior to that he was in the process of taking the company private again with US PE group (management buy-out)
14. Looking into the future, when is the event business coming back – his views on 2021 (transitional year) and 2022-23 – two year process to come back to 2019 numbers
15. Sports in the Middle East – big growth over the last few decades and where is the growth in the future – Dubai was the initial driver, Abu Dhabi the last decade, last few years Saudi Arabia 
16. Mostly driven by large scale events, from Boxing, F1, UFC, WWE, Tennis, Golf, etc – some top Venues now like Coca-Cola Arena (20k seater) in Dubai
17. How to operate in the region – need to have a presence on the ground in the key markets, have local experts and strategic partners

About Paul Berger

Paul Berger has been working in the Middle East and Asia since 1993. He started his career in Dubai with the OMNICOM Group, as a lead Account Director on Emirates Airline, Pepsi Cola and General Motors. In 1997, Paul moved into the sports event management sector, by launching the first leisure motor sport tracks in the region. Indoor Karting, Outdoor Karting, the Dubai Autodrome FIA Circuit and local motor racing championships.

In 2009, he became CEO of Harlequin and subsequently sold the company to the Arena Group. In 2010, he became CEO of the Middle East and Asia Division for the Arena Group, launching the company in Singapore and Malaysia. Paul has subsequently expanded the division to Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Korea and now Japan. Paul is also the President of the International Live Events Association in the Middle East.

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Hrish Lotlikar is a living example of a successful digital nomad Entrepreneur. A former Investment Banker turned VC, turned Tech, Blockchain and Crypto Entrepreneur. Besides covering Hrish's amazing career we take a very close look at his latest venture "Superworld", the relevance to sports and the connection to NFTs, the currently hottest trend in the Crypto and sports, music, arts IP (Intellectual Property) world. 

Key Highlights

1. From High school to Navy Reserved Officer and Surgical Technician removing eyes 
2. Pursuing Triple Degree (MBA, MPH, MD) in graduate school then taking him into Management Consulting and Investment Banking and his first Entrepreneurial exploit creating "The Wall Street Program", teaching how to get a Wall Street job.
3. Next stop Venture Capital (VC), bio-tech and other tech companies with "world changing ideas" 
4. From New York City (after the crash in 2008/09), traveling across Eastern Europe for 1.5 yrs. Great story on how to start a seed stage VC Fund in Ukraine with Victor Pinchuk (Ukrainian Billionaire) and tech accelerator in Belarus. 
5. Early employee, Senior Business Developer/Global Evangelist of Toptal, Andreessen Horowitz backed venture
6. Rogue Initiative Studios, LA based entertainment studio leveraging the latest in tech, VR, AR with Hollywood IP and partnered with Hollywood director Michael Bay
7. Superworldapp.com - virtual world in augmented reality mapped onto the real world, with 64 billion virtual real estate blocks (NFTs) on Blockchain which can be purchased
8. Superworld is Pokémon Go meets Foursquare meet Monopoly
9. Connecting Superworlds to the Sports & Entertainment space, from Venues to activities in the virtual world 
10. Still a few steps required to buy a block right now, thru your Ether wallet. Getting easier soon. 
11. NFT market place coming soon, platform to create NFT for any IP, sports, music, art, etc linked to augmented reality to showcase the NFT 
12. Exploring Online to offline (O2O) opportunities. Real Estate developers are exploring this space. 
13. Bringing Sports IP into the virtual world. 
14. NFT (Non Fungible Token) - basics explained
15. NBA Top Shots (not Hot Shots 😂) discussion and how it connects to Superworld's NFT market place. Creating digital assets out of content, experiences, unique moments 
16. NFT Salon vertically integrated into Superworld, music, art, architecture - Mars House example 
17. Long tail of NFT content to put these NFTs into the "virtual world" of Superworld 
18. Working across other platforms like Open Sea 
19. Contact Innerworld@superworldapp.com for on boarding and other questions 
20. ERC721 is the standard for NFTs, on the Ethereum Blockchain 
21. Digital Assets (NFTs) can be programed to create earnings for artists in perpetuity (on future sales transactional and value creation). A whole new way of monetization for IP.
22. Launch of Superworlds NFT Salon in early April: Contact Innercircle@superworldapp.comfor IP owners.  Collectorscorner@superworldapp.com for NFT Collectors 

About Hrish Lotlikar

Hrish Lotlikar is a Co-founder and CEO at SuperWorld. Previously, he co-founded Rogue Initiative Studios, a Hollywood film, TV, gaming, and immersive entertainment studio. He was also the founding Managing Partner of Eastlabs, an early-stage VC fund based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Previously, Hrish was a Senior Business Developer and Global Evangelist at Toptal (backed by Andreessen Horowitz, the Rockefellers & the co-founders of Facebook and Zynga), a venture capital investor at Spencer Trask Ventures, and an investment banker at both UBS Investment Bank and HSBCSecurities, where he specialized in public finance, corporate finance and M&A. He also was an Associate in the Global Business Development Group at management consulting firm Hewitt Associates.

Hrish was born in India and grew up in the United States. He also has spent many years living around the world in Europe, Asia and South America. He has a close connection to the people and cultures in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Spain, France, Vietnam, China, Colombia, Bali and Thailand.

Hrish holds a BA in Political Science from Rice University and both an MBA and MPH from University of Illinois at Chicago. In his free time he enjoys working out, fashion photography and traveling the world.

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Sophie Goldschmidt, has been recognized as one of the most influential/powerful Women in sports by multiple publications/organizations from Forbes, Adweek, Leaders in Sport, Sports Business, etc, working across the globe in leadership and senior positions from the WTA, NBA, England Rugby to the World Surf League.  All very different sports, with different opportunities and challenges along the way.  Great stories and learning from her exciting career over the past 20 years.

Key Highlights

1. Journey from Baylor University playing NCAA tennis and landing at Adidas USA in Portland
2. Working in the Adidas Tennis division, Indian Wells, Roland Garros, dealing with top players from Hingis to Kournikova,  Henman, Safin, etc
3. Moving to WTA during the time the William sisters, Sharapova all becoming big stars, working with Larry Scott in the commercial and marketing space
   1. 1. Sony Ericsson WTA Tour – US$ 88 million  (5-6 year deal) – breakthrough deal
      2. Porsche, Lotto, Wilson and Eurosport deal
      3. Moved WTA Year end final from LA to Madrid – new commercial deals
4. Next stop, the NBA in NYC – David Stern and Adam Silver, tennis fans too - made connection through tennis and then moving into this new sport 
5. Moved back to London as Managing Director EMEA, establishing NBA operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa – more decentralized operations, opening offices in Moscow, Milan, Istanbul, Jo-burg, etc
6. Over 70 players from Europe in the League already at that time, NBA League Pass (OTT), finding new local marketing partners (sponsors), 
7. “Basketball without Borders” across South Africa and other countries, grassroots development, something the NBA is very good at – Leading up to potential NBA League in Africa
8. Long terms view,  “one kid at a time” convert from kicking to bouncing a ball  (David Stern)
9. Opportunity to join England Rugby (RFU) as Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer – passion for the sport from her dad – opportunity for the sport following the very successful London Olympics and leading up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in the UK
10. First female board member at the RFU (also became the first female board member of the PGA European Tour during that time), evolved the brand and more progressive approach to sponsors, driving commercial and engagement with fans 
11. CVC new investment into Rugby and her thoughts on it – new resources and more independent strategic thinking for the sport
12. Joined the agency world at CSM – getting a look into the agency world
13. Moving back to the US with the World Surf League as CEO – sport accepted into the Olympics, new wave technology with Kelly Slater Wave Company, etc
14. Turning the challenge of the unpredictability of the weather (waves) into an opportunity, streaming vs linear TV, early digital adoption, less focus on live, lifestyle brand 
15. Elevator pitch – as many surfers than golfers (over 400 million) in the world, beautiful location and people doing amazing things, highly engaged audience (sponsors from Corona to Airbnb)
16. Big educational process, understanding and interest depending on the markets, Brazil is huge 
17. Sophie continues on the WSL Advisory Board, in addition to new roles now as an Advisor in sports, media, tech, health & fitness including; as a business partner to the new connected Home Health & Fitness Platform (Tersa), LOVB volleyball, MIXhalo, Egoli, Racquet Publishing, Pamos and as Board Governor for the International Tennis Hall of Fame

About Sophie Goldschmidt

Sophie is a dynamic, senior, global leader with broad and deep proven experience in sports, entertainment, media and technology. Throughout her career she has been at the forefront of globalizing and innovating sports and entertainment properties.

Most recently she was CEO of the World Surf League (WSL) and previously in leadership, commercial and marketing roles at the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the PGA European Tour, Adidas and the global sports marketing & entertainment agency CSM.

Sophie is a member of the WSL Advisory Board and business partner for Tersa. She also currently advises Egoli, LOVB, MIXhalo, Racquet Publishing, Pamos, round21, West 10th, Sportable and McKinsey, is a mentor for Techstars and a Member of the Board of Governors for the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

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Frederico Pena, better known as Fred is a "Jerry Maguire" inspired Brazilian Sports agent, working across Brazilian Football for 20 years, including many years with the leading Agency, Traffic. Great inside look into Brazilian and South American Football, the rise and demise of Traffic and how we worked together in Asia. 

Key Highlights

1. How the movie "Jerry Maguire" and Brazil winning the 1994 World Cup in the US inspired his career path
2. The Mueller Sports Group and Jeff Slack saved him from a boring Banking job
3. Working on due diligence for Mueller Sports Group and Hicks & Muse buying Traffic
4. Traffic deal. Mr Hawilla, the owner, amazing deal maker, sold 49% for USD 125 mil and then bought it back for a fraction when Hicks/Muse ran out of cash during Dotcom crash. TNT - Traffic & Torneos partnership holding key rights. 
5. First role in Traffic, exploring Internet concepts as we all did during that time in 2000.
6. Moving into TV sales - working with TSA in Asia as agent
7. The challenges of selling South American Football in early 2000 and what we (Traffic & TSA) had to do to build the confidence with broadcasters. Selling it as a stand alone product
8. Next step in his career to get closer to becoming an agent. Representing players just for sponsorship deals. 2002, deal w Brazil's Ronaldo, the best player in the world at that time
9. Copa America 2004 in Peru - LG Electronics sponsorship deal. Tag team with TSA to broker deal
10. Finally becoming an agent, starting his own agency at 29. Support from Hawilla. Being an Entrepreneur, not an easy start, 15 months before the first deal
11. Trading Brazilian players to Europe. His Jerry Maguire moments
12. How tough it is to become a Pro Footballer, lots of competition in Brazil
13. Coming back into Traffic - TPO model (Third party player ownership) - player fund, youth academy. Not allowed anymore
14. Selling controlling stake to Traffic of his agency - turned into Traffic Telantos - buying/selling players. Big deals, with top European and Chinese clubs
15. Traffic's demise and the link to the Fifa scandal (started in 2013). Hawilla was brokering the deals with Federations himself
16. Hawilla was a witness cooperating with the Department of Justice in the US. Hawilla being the Villan or Victim? 
17. Traffic Sports business, rights, clubs, etc sold to pay for fines
18. Management buy out of the Agency part for Round 2 as an Entrepreneur
19. Now focus on young players. Dynamics between the small and big agents in Brazil 
20. Biggest transfer in Brazil football - Vini Jr, now at Real Madrid - transferred at age of 17
21. Brazilian Football industry and Covid - bullish on players, less on Clubs and Football structure -lots of sports politics - little long term focus 
22. Red Bull entering Brazilian Football with a Club recently. 
23. The flawed logic of bringing all top Brazilian players back and final thoughts on the Brazilian players ecosystem

About Frederico Pena

Education background in finance and economics having graduated from the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business (The Wharton School/CAS), the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. Over 20 years of experience in the football industry, both in South America (Brazil in special) and Europe.

Fluent in 4 languages (Portuguese, English, Spanish and French), having lived in 5 different countries (Brazil, United States, France, Canada and England). Professional experience in football includes: player representation, player fund creation and management (third party ownership), consultancy in club acquisition, club management (in both Portugal and Brazil), marketing of sponsorship and TV rights (buying and selling).

Extensive international experience having travelled to over 30 countries in the world to do business with key industry stakeholders such as federations (Fifa, Conmebol, etc), clubs (Real Madrid, Barcelona, etc), sportswear brands (Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc), agencies (Dentsu, Sportfive, etc), sponsors (Coca-Cola, Hyundai, LG, etc) and TV companies (Globo, Fox, etc).

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Andreas Heyden, is a German web/digital native, learning from the tough times of the dotcom boom/bust days and the 2008/09 global financial crisis and now leading Digital Innovations at the Bundesliga (DFL - German Football League).  Great insides into the Digital innovations and projects of one of the leading Football Leagues in the world, which also aims to be the most innovative Football League in the world.  Plenty to learn for anyone in this space. Listen closely.

Key Highlights

1. Early days in Andreas’ career and how that leads to his roles in the digital space and the learning of cycles across the past 20 years
2. Crisis leaves clues and creates new opportunities Web 2.0 came after the dotcom crash,  Social Media boom after the 2008 financial crisis, what will come after Covid?
3. RTL Interactive (part of RTL Bertelsmann, one of the biggest Broadcasting Groups in Europe) – video on demand, taking a traditional broadcaster into Web 2.0 world after the dotcom crash
4. “I am a customer guy first, focus on the fan and customer”
5. Sevenload – German version of YouTube – joining just before the 2008 crisis – tough road ahead in a start-up environment
6. ProSiebenSat 1 Games – (another Giant of German Broadcasting)  & Maxdome– entering the Gaming world  
7. His start as CEO of DFL Digital Sports (Bundesliga) – German Football League – his roles
8. How to create new revenue opportunities with content and data – three initiatives he is leading (using AI and machine learning)
   1. Local relevance – providing customized content
   2. Bundesliga Match Facts (Data driven stats) & Club data portal
   3. Smart media archive – 150,000 hours of media footage digitized  
9. Treat “AI” like a colleague – create customized content for different clients and customers
10. AWS (Amazon Web Services) partnership and evolution of it – best in class in cloud services to integrated business partner now
11. Deltatre partnership – JV in Football data, VR, etc
12. Sports Innovation Trade Fair – every two years, setting up a real live environment(actual matches) to showcase new technology – next Spring 2022
13. DFL Digital innovations during Covid -  on-screen innovation, augmented reality, additional match facts, new camera positions
14. Glass to Glass strategy – from the camera Lens to the screen – DFL owns the parts of the entire value chain
15. Betting space – DFL digital role – provide data to betting operators
16. NBA Shots – NFT discussion – real collectables vs digital versions – exploring, difference in market dynamics
17. OTT ready anytime if its needed – difficult question when will the switch to D2C happen vs the existing model
18. Bundesliga looking at PE partnerships and the process internally

About Andreas Heyden

Since June 2015, Andreas Heyden is serving as CEO of the DFL digital sports GmbH being responsible for digital platforms & production and distribution of national and international media content. Before Andreas was the Managing Director of Maxdome GmbH since July 1st, 2013. Previously, Andreas was COO as part the management of ProSiebenSat.1 Game GmbH from December 2011 on.

Before this Andreas was a managing director of the startup Sevenload, where his responsibilities included cooperation with content and distribution partners as well as internationalization of the portal. Before joining Sevenload, Heyden was head of the innovation and production unit at RTL Interactive, where he established new internet business models in the games industry and other segments.

Heyden began his career at Metronet AG in 1996, where he worked in the Subscriber Marketing Department. In 1997, Heyden became a key account manager for I-D Media AG. Following his professional work in Singapore in 1999, he began working with Microsoft GmbH as part of the Product Marketing team for MSN.de.

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Paul Barber, OBE, the CEO of Brighton & Hove Albion FC – from a childhood dream of being a pro-player to a highly successful career across Football from the FA of England, Tottenham (his childhood club) to becoming the CEO of the Year in the Premier League, driving Brighton to new heights (including European Football action) in the most competitive Football League in the world.  

Key Highlights

1. Football his first love from age of 7, dream to be a pro player but didn’t have the talent.  Love being involved in the game
2. From working with blue chip financial organizations (Barclays) to the world of Football with the FA as Director of Marketing in 2000
3. Great time to be in the FA, first director of marketing, David Beckham era and other major changes – 2002 Japan/Korea World Cup new team marketing
   1. Large portfolio of companies and sponsors, taking England team on the road across the country
4. Applied for CEO of FA, didn’t happen at the time and moved to Ogilvy & Mather as CEO of Europe/Middle East for a short sting
5. Next Football stop, Tottenham Hotspurs as Executive Director – childhood dream working with the club he grew up supporting
   1. Owner Daniel Levy and working with him
   2. One of the first teams signing a big Betting company as Jersey sponsor and how to deal with the sensitivity
   3. Peace Cup in Korea
6. Next stop, CEO of Vancouver Whitecaps FC – two years in the MLS – great learnings
7. Taking the role of CEO at Brighton, when they were still in the Championship in 2012 – a hundred year old “start up”
   1. Vision of Tony Bloom convinced him to join
   2. Missed out on Premier League promotion before finally making it up to the top division
   3. Big American Express deal as Venue sponsor
8. Overnight success, 7-8 years in the making – the journey and stories along the way
   1. All starts with a great owner – clear vision, value
   2. Best infrastructure, top training facilities, stadium
   3. Make changes and upgrade along the way, including people
   4. A bit of luck important too
   5. Ignore the “noise” by media/fans and stay focused on vision/mission
9. How do you compete with the huge foreign capital other big clubs have at their disposal – 8-10 clubs now pushing to play in Europe in the Premier League
10. Competing in European Football (UEFA Europa League) and keeping sight of top half in League – constant learning – competing in four competitions
11. Tony Bloom – Moneyball in Football -  data driven recruitment (resources and data from David’s core analytics business)
    1. Also creating opportunities to sell players with good margins
    2. Very engaged Non-Executive Chairman, stability is key
12. Target to be a top 10 club in Premier league and top 4 team in Women’s Super League -  still work in progress
    1. Keep improving and not standing still
13. Women’s Team discussion – development of women’s football – investment in the game for long-run and the changes a club needs to make to cater the players and fans

About

Paul Barber joined the board of Brighton & Hove Albion FC as chief executive in June 2012. In his first season with Brighton, the club secured its highest league position for over 30 years, made the Championship play-offs, enjoyed the highest average attendances in its division, and signed its largest-ever shirt sponsorship agreement, a multi-year deal with American Express.

Paul was named Overall CEO of the Year for England and Scotland, as well as Championship CEO of the Year, at the Football Industry Awards 2013, and won the Sports Executive of the Year at the 2016 International Stadium Business Awards.

Having taken part in three EFL Championship play-offs in four seasons, Brighton narrowly missed out on automatic promotion to the Premier League, by virtue of goal difference, in 2016. A year later, the club achieved automatic promotion to the Premier League and subsequently finished 15th in its first season.

Paul’s career in professional football has spanned close to 25 years, during which time he has held senior positions at Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC, and The Football Association.

Paul has served on various committees for the Premier League, The EFL, The FA, UEFA and FIFA, including The EFL’s board and The FA’s Professional Game Board. Most recently, Paul was elected by clubs to be a Premier League representatives on The FA Council. Paul also currently serves as one of The FA’s international ambassadors.

In November 2018, Barber was appointed as the club's deputy chairman following unanimous approval from the board and also became the Premier League's representative to the Professional Game Board, replacing the outgoing Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis.

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Jeff Slack, the new Managing Director of the Aston Martin Cognizant F1 team is a highly respected American Sports Executive with a truly global CV, having worked at Pro Serve & FAME in the US, Wassermann Media and IMG in the UK,  Inter Milan in Italy and a few others in between besides running his own agency the last few years out of London. His unique experiences are bar none across the globe and he is excited over the new chapter and challenge in F1.  Listen carefully and learn.   

Key Highlights

1. Early days at Pro-Serve (Donald Dell's Agency) in Washington.  Experience working with Donald Dell and David Falk and the learning as a young man.
2. Working with/for Michael Jordan (at David Falk’s FAME) – extraordinary experience
3. Joining the Mueller Sports Group in New York,  launching PSN.com in South America partnering with Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst – and what went wrong
4. Next stop CEO of Inter Milan as an American executive -  bringing US best practises to Italian Football and the reasons for it and stories behind it  
5. The “Juve” scandal and the “wrongs’ of Italian Football at the time,  Inter had an amazing team and should have won a few Scudettos (Italian Championships)
6. The next decade in the Agency world -  first Wassermann Media in the UK, building the Football Agency Division (working with Casey Wassermann)
7. Next IMG Football in London -  Teddy Forstmann days as the owner of IMG – JV partnerships in Asia, with CCTV in China and Reliance Group (Mukesh Ambani) in India
8. Launch of Indian Super League and work on the Chinese Super League marketing (both Football)
9. CCTV stamp of approval of IMG and the doors it opened
10. China Super League and two different opinions of its future   
11. India Super League and TSA’s competitive bid partnering with CAA against IMG at the time and the challenges of the League since then
12. IMG is sold to Endeavor Silverlake and this opens up an opportunity to set up his own agency
13. JS3 projects – FIBA Basketball Champions League, working with startups, etc
14. The Aston Martin Cognizant F1 story
15. Lawrence Stroll, world class entrepreneur, passionate motorsports enthusiast, buying Force India F1 team & turning it into Racing Point F1 and purchasing a stake in Aston Martin separately
16. Jeff’s role is focused on the commercial side and creating enterprise value for the team, building a community, etc  
17. Great history of the team from Jordan F1 days and of course Aston Martin’s last time in F1, 60 years ago
18. Positioning of the team and the sport in general and the amazing response and interest from sponsors and partners – testament to the Aston Martin brand
19. Cognizant – who is the “mysterious” Fortune 200 company most people never heard of and how both sides work together to make the car go faster (smart partnership)
20. Sebastian Vettel – an engineer racing a car – statement of intend
21. New car launched on March 3rd – featuring the iconic green
22. F1 2021 season and what to expect and how to prepare, from bubbles to testing, strict protocols
23. Vision to be a top 3 team this year

About Jeff Slack

Jeff Slack joins the Aston Martin Cognizant F1 team after a 30-year career across the sports industry. The American sports executive has extensive experience at the highest commercial level of sports.

His career began managing Michael Jordan's marketing activities before moving into sports private equity with Hicks, Muse.

In 2000, Slack became the first American CEO of a top European football club, Inter Milan. He also has a wide range of agency experience, with leadership positions at Wasserman and IMG.

More recently, Slack has been a commercial adviser to FIBA and Dorna, as well as undertaking a number of personal investments in businesses across the sports industry.

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Enjoy our deep dive into the world of ESPN the "worldwide leader in Sports" through Bernard Stewart's eyes and stories. 

Bernard has had an illustrious career at ESPN for 30 years, from the early days of the truly first Sports Network in the world to overseeing its expansions globally and many other roles. Learn how ESPN started, expanded, the challenges and growth stories told by a true insider.

Key Highlights

1. Coming out of College and Air Force teaching Film and starting independent projects in TV & Movie Production
2. Start working at a Capital City company, WTNH TV New Haven – first break and being taught the world of “Broadcast Politics”. Created Program called “First Edition”
3. ESPN – the start of the first Sports Network (1979) - father and son founding team (Bill and Scott Rasmussen) -  RCA’s first Satellite helps to distribute the channel across the US, start-up funding from Getty Oil (US$ 10 million) 
4. ESPN = Entertainment Sports Programming Network, original programming from Tractor pulling to Softball (only 6 hours a day), major sports still at the big traditional broadcasters 
5. ESPN Sports Center – iconic show, first time stories beyond the action and beyond the 3 min News highlights on traditional TV
6. John Malone (Liberty Media), true leader in Cable growth and expansion and support of ESPN (the content piece)  – meeting with ESPN and Malone group, game changer in revenue share model
7. Getting into the big League sports, MLB and NFL – didn’t come cheap – ability to pay purely because of large and growing cable fees (affiliate fees)
8. A reflection on market reported numbers - ESPN in 2020,  US$ 11 billion Revenue, US$ 8.6 billion in Affiliate fees versus US$ 2.3b in advertising (only) – game changer 
9. His producer Role – creating “stories” and working around broadcast embargos, etc -  1984 Olympics in LA and Sarajevo 
10. 1983 America’s Cup – first time the US teams loses the Cup in 132 years – Bernard had a crew at event from the start to capture the drama while its unfolding, big success 
11. Short sting at WBZ TV Boston before Round 2 at ESPN as Director Program Planning – it’s a monster to plan (war room to map out two year worth of programming), together with Program Acquisition team 
12. Shaping the sports world through smart programming and connecting different parts of the industry 
13. First overseas action – Australian group showed up, trailer in Parking Lot, recording content and shipping tapes to Australia  - syndication by tapes at that time 
14. TV Conferences and Conventions – big part of the push for ESPN going global - new Sandbox to play in – develop international division (syndicating US content globally)
15. Sportel history - Monte Carlo, Monaco early days – reminiscing on how it all started and ESPN’s – “the worldwide leader in Sports” role to shape the industry  
16. Moving to Hong Kong as VP & GM of ESPN Asia Pacific – the opportunities and challenges to take the brand globally – understand, listen and being sensitive to local differences, get a seat on the table first - Disney buying ESPN in mid 90s and leaving it mostly alone 
17. ESPN/Star Sports (ESS) world – ESPN & Murdoch JV in Asia – his view as a Board Member – how it started (my view) and his inside stories   
18. The challenges of how to make it work and Marcus recent discussion with a Senior executive in the new ESPN/Disney lead Fox Sports Asia – Bernard’s career in a nutshell, creating opportunities - History of Cricket program example 
19. Look at the current world of Sports Media Rights and Cable industry vs OTT dynamics – reverse world – shrinking Cable subscriptions
    1. Disney+,  ESPN+,  Netflix and big growth of OTT      
20. ESPN+ USD 5.99 in the US -  cannibalization of business model? Is the House on fire or not discussion?
21. Value for money philosophy ingrained in Disney and how that shapes their decision making – price vs value – and change with the times
22. Disney & ESPN doubling down by purchasing FOX Sports channels globally (over US$ 70 billion transaction) -  his view, it’s about repositioning by Murdoch 
23. SPACs – 60-70 launched over the past 12 months, new directions and new opportunities for the big players 
24. Wrapping up with Bernard’s current roles and projects, back at writing scripts and film making, working with family offices raising funds for slate of films (AJE3 Studios – www.aje3studios.com)
25. E-Zero – Ecological Zero idea

About

Bernard Stewart was a member of the original creative team that started SportsCenter and ESPN. During his extended career with ESPN, Bernard's senior executive roles included the development and management of long-term strategies for ESPN’s International family of networks. He was the company's most senior executive for all of Asia including India; Oceania (Australia, NZ); the Pacific (Japan), and the Caribbean. After a lengthy career with the Walt Disney Company/ESPN, Bernard founded an entertainment, lifestyle, and production company. AJE3 Studios has a very active list of projects that include Family Office advisory, Film and Television, digital platform development, website design, and Branding Marketing. Bernard's content development and acquisition experiences include directed high profile rights negotiations for premier world events including The FIFA World Cup, The Olympics, and The UEFA Champions League. He was a program executive involved in the development of the ESPY's; launched international versions of SportsCenter and an Emmy nominated producer, and have created or developed over 30 original series and multi-platform program concepts for network, digital, and syndication distribution. Bernard is recognized as a featured international industry speaker with appearances that include Renmin University, The Peoples Republic of China; International Trade Specialist for the United States at The Bahamas Copyright Stakeholder Summit; the Jamaica Sports Business Summit on Global Brand building, and a featured speaker and Advisor to the Jamacia International Fim Festival. Author of the business management and life coaching book, “Fifty50 - A Guide to a Successful Work-Life Balance”.

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John Gleasure has been on the forefront of sports media distribution from his early days in BskyB to the dotcom boom days of Sportal to launching 3G applications for Hutchison Whampoa. And then starting Inform with a group of fellow sports executives 15 years ago which turned into PERFORM and now DAZN (the leading Sports OTT platform globally). Incredible journey and learning along the way. 

Key Highlights

1. Playing some decent football can get you a good job, ask John.  His early days at EMI Music 
2. BskyB, learning the ropes in the cable industry, Marketing Manager for Sky Sports, Sky Digital, his true University in business and sports 
3. Dotcom days, Sportal – interviewed by Andrew Croker, incredible team of people, launching various websites (portals) for sports properties, wild ride – dotcom crash
4. Leading to role at Hutchison Whampoa, Head of Sports – 3G rollout, video clips, etc – learning, it takes a lot longer than you expect for technology and consumers to pick it up (as example, the company didn’t use the Premier League rights for 1.5 years because they were not ready to deploy it)
5. Inform Group – ventured into Entrepreneurship together with Simon Denyer, Stefano D’Anna and Mike Ingram   
6. First business model didn’t work and then stumbled into the Live streaming for Betting websites space, started to work with Premium TV (Oli Slipper)
7. Business started to take off and grow, merger with Premium TV to create Perform Group – mutually beneficial for both sides, bringing in Access Industries (Ukraine born, UK/US Billionaire, Sir Len Blavatnik)
8. Lots of opportunities to grow internationally for a mostly UK based business at the time 
9. Took role as MD APAC and moved to Asia – acquisition of content, driving new digital revenues which were not there before for rights holders, building partnerships 
10. Key to Performs success was ingesting huge volume of content at the right cost and driving new revenue streams from it – betting revenue, PPV, other subscription services (first look at OTT)
11. IPO in 2011, raised GBP 168 million in process, looking for growth – buying Goal.com, Opta, Livesport services, etc 
12. Going from B2B to B2C business model and the challenges along the way 
13. De-listing in 2013 (GBP 700 mil valuation), market didn’t appreciate all the new business areas the management was exploring, including OTT – safer to be private 
14. The start of the DAZN idea, in 2014 – OTT is much more than streaming on the web – radical change of business model 
15. Two distinct businesses, Perform B2B and DAZN B2C – clear focus on growing DAZN and Perform needed its own home to continue its growth 
16. Divested out of Perform, Goal.com, etc – kept equity stakes – New partnership now known as "Perform Stats"
17. How the DAZN launch markets were picked, DACH (German-speaking region) and Japan – similarities in PayTV markets and opportunities to buy strong content for a reasonable price
18. Launching across multiple platforms from native Apps (Android & IOS), web, smart TV, consoles, Pay TV boxes, etc – find DAZN everywhere, anytime 
19. OTT and beyond – 60-75% watch DAZN on TV in Germany – certain events over 1 million streams – watching through traditional TV still the largest viewership (surprising for me) 
20. OTT goes way beyond traditional linear TV coverage in terms of fan engagement and user interactivity
21. But the “old” arbitrage model is still there and pure subscription model is tough to make work, advertising still plays an important role and other revenue streams  
22. DAZN’s global boxing offerings – US$ 1.99 per month (test price) – purchased big rights globally 
23. Multi-sport focused, different offerings across the world. Scale is a big differentiator, better rates, etc
24. F1 in Spain, Bundesliga and Champions League in Germany – lots of new rights coming on stream and new management firepower 
25. Partnership model vs straight forward rights sales model – current tough times might help in a positive way if we all learn from it

About

John Gleasure is DAZN Group Executive Vice Chairman. In this role, he works on the company’s long-term strategy and focuses on key priorities including key global business partnerships, new ventures and diversity and inclusion. John is a member of the DAZN Group executive committee management team and is a founder of DAZN and Perform Group. With more than 25 years of experience within international media, rights, marketing and distribution, John previously held leadership roles at Sky Sports, EMI Records, Hutchison Whampoa and Sony Pictures.

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Lucien Boyer, a rock star with a French accent in the world of Sports marketing, with an amazing career and stories to back it up.  Enjoy our journey through Lucien’s career across France, Australia and the UK, from the America’s Cup to FIFA World Cup and Coca-Cola to Louis Vuitton.  Lucien has leveraged the power of major global competitions and major commercial partners throughout his career. Enjoy the stories and the learning.  Plenty of it.

Key Highlights

1. As a student getting involved in raising money for the French Challenger’s Boat for the America’s Cup, which takes him to Australia
2. Eyes opened to the power of sports and combining his passion of sports with interest in marketing
3. From Saatchi & Saatchi to Larousse Lamborghini Formula One  - driving revenue from 20 mil to 120 mil French France (pre EURO)
4. Learning activation, telling stories for sponsors, branded content and content marketing
5. Lifestyle Marketing Group (LMG), his first startup incubated by Saatchi & Saatchi – brand consulting in the lifestyle space
6. Two Olympic Games coming to Europe, 1992, both Winter & Summer Olympics in the same year, Albertville (France) & Barcelona (Spain) – won pitch to promote the European Union
7. Big Global Events have been his big breakthrough, next up 1998, FIFA World Cup in France
8. Sold LMG to Havas to have access to a bigger global network. Rocky start to the new partnership, ISL part of the story
9. Took over the whole sports business in Havas and started a global expansion drive after a new owner of the group came in
10. At the peak 600 people, operating across 30 countries – over six years, including acquisitions – clear process and strategy in opening new offices, Coca-Cola a key client globally
11. Acquisition of Ignition – ran Torch Relay for Coke and FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour
12. 2002 FIFA World Cup, first EA FIFA Esports competition  
13. Havas Sports & Entertainment (HSE), activation and execution of sponsorships (representing the client side) & creating new ideas and strategies for rights holders (Louis Vuitton Trophy Case)
14. Olympic Bids for France, involved in many tough losses – realization that France will never win unless France has a bigger influence in global sports – moved to London  
15. Winning agency of record for Barclays as title sponsor of the Premier League
16. Moving up into the Vivendi Group as Chief Marketing Officer for the whole group (almost 50,000 employees)
17. Creating new synergies across the group – used “Anglo -Saxon” Paddington Bear IP acquisition as proof of concept, new concepts in Music, Movie, Gaming, Licensing, etc across the group
18. Vivendi integral partner in helping Paris win the bid for the 2024 Olympics & the key differences winning it this time around in his view
19. Global Sports Week – the idea behind it. Shake, Shape & Share the future of Sport -  Next one coming up Feb 1-5th, 2021 – check out www.globalsportsweek.com
    • Connecting six other future Olympic cities to Paris virtually
    • Top speakers from Gerard Pique, Romain Grosjean, Justine Henin, Sebastian Coe, etc
20. Inspiring Sport Capital – PE fund to support sports industry and new digital transformation – six major investments worth over EURO 75 million
21. From Online Bridge to club management system to Yachting to Golf equipment – diverse portfolio – focus on growth capital, no restrictions on time and form of exit
22. Fnatic Chairman – latest role to learn first hand the world of Gaming/Esports
23. Helping the team grow and deal with challenges ahead – digital relationship started during Covid

About

Lucien Boyer is the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Global Sports Week. He is also Founding and Managing Partner of Inspiring Sport Capital, and he has now joined Fnatic as Chairman. Lucien is also serving as board non-executive Director of Groupe Le Five. He was previously Chief Marketing Officer at Vivendi, the leading integrated media, content and communications group. Lucien has been an industry pioneer in sponsorship activation, branded content, experiential marketing, fan engagement and social entertainment.

Beyond his management role, Lucien is recognized as one of today’s leading experts in sports and entertainment marketing. He was awarded his first Gold at Cannes Lions in 2006, before serving as a member of the jury of the Branded Content & Entertainment category in 2014. He initiated the creation of the Global Sports Forum, of which he was the General Commissioner, a global debate platform around the sports industry’s future challenges. He also is the Co-Chair of the Digital Transformation & Innovation Forum at the French Chamber of Great Britain.

Lucien is a frequent speaker at many international conferences such as the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Advertising Week Europe and New-York, CMO Summit, Sporsora’s annual congress and the Ivy Sports Symposium. He has also been featured in many influential media including Bloomberg TV, The Guardian and Le Figaro as well as industry journals such as SportsPro, SportBusiness and SportCal.

A graduate from ESSEC Business School, Lucien Boyer is 56 years old. He is married, has three sons and after 6 years in London, he now lives in Paris. Lucien Boyer is passionate about sailing, skiing, the Olympics and music. 

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