This is episode three of a four-part series created in collaboration with Redtorch called What's Sport Selling? It's a conversation with John Ridgeon, the chief executive of World Athletics. Previous episodes in the series: UP443 Big Sugar, Big Pharma...Where's the Big Sport Lobby? UP458 Fitness, Toxicity and the Importance of the ASICS Message Jon Ridgeon bio Athletic Career (1980s-1990s) Born : February 14, 1967, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk Key Achievement : Silver medal at the 1987 World Champi...
Jul 21, 2025•45 min
This is a live episode of Wedge Issues, our golf business series recorded at Callaway Clubhouse at The Open Championship this week at the Royal Portrush Golf Club. Niall Horan: One Direction star and co-founder of Modest Management Company is globally famous and deeply involved in the business of golf. Inci Mehmet: Former Ladies European Tour pro golfer, now a presenter of Sky Sports award winning golf coverage. Dan Rapaport: Golf journalist, broadcaster and content creator. Formerly Barstool Sp...
Jul 18, 2025•43 min
Arvind Iyengar is chair of Sportz Interactive and CEO of the Sportz Solutions, the global parent company. As such he now oversees a company with 700+ employees working across 40 sports worldwide, with marquee clients including UEFA, The Olympics, NBA, F1, Google, BCCI, Dream11 and multiple IPL franchises. The company is in an aggressive expansion phase, particularly in Europe. So Arvind is the perfect guest to talk AI, betting, fan engagement and how McKinsey teaches its alumni how to think, and...
Jul 15, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Inside Edge is Unofficial Partner's regular series on the business of cricket, co-hosted by Richard Gillis and Mike Jakeman. Freddie Wilde represents the new generation of cricket analytics professionals who have emerged to play a central role in team strategy. His journey from journalist to CricViz to England's white-ball analyst, combined with his recent role in RCB's maiden IPL title triumph, positions him as one of cricket's most influential data minds. Career Trajectory 2015-2017 : One of C...
Jul 08, 2025•1 hr
A special live episode of our sister publication, Expected Goals, hosted by Maggie Murphy and Matt Cutler. Sponsored by Evelyn Partners. Expected Goals Live - Investment in Women's Football Event Summary & Analysis This live podcast episode from Expected Goals captured a pivotal moment in women's football investment, featuring industry experts discussing the money flowing into the sector and entrepreneurs pitching their businesses. Chapter 1: The Investment Panel - Who's Writing the Cheques?...
Jul 04, 2025•45 min
Guest: Paul Morgan, Rugby World Editor and Premiership Rugby Comms Director Running List: The Business of Rugby Episode 1. British Lions Commercial Strategy Ticket pricing controversy: Struggling to sell out Dublin match at £163 per ticket Major commercial partnerships: Qatar Airways (title sponsor), Patron Saint whisky, Rhino, Oxford Landing, Charles Tyrwhitt, Howden, Canterbury, Fanatics Digital strategy: World Rugby/Lions collaboration on RugbyPass App for Australia tour Broadcasting: S4C sec...
Jul 01, 2025•57 min
Today's guests are Laura Randall, Creative Director, and Jack Kenney-Herbert, Director of Sponsorship at Sid Lee Sport, the agency declaring war on what they call "sponsorship tumbleweed." That's their term for the boring, forgettable activations plaguing sports marketing - endless skills challenges, carpool karaokes, and grey sofa interviews that cost millions but deliver little for the client. They've created a list of seven ideas they'll never pitch again. Join us as they dissect why sports m...
Jun 27, 2025•52 min
B2B is big business for sports rights holders. But why are business-to-business brands paying billions in sport sponsorship rights? From the IOC to Formula One, categories such as consulting, accountancy, logistics, financial services and tech are growing rapidly. In the IOC's programme, Deloitte and Allianz replaced Dow and GE as TOP Olympic sponsors. IBM's technology partnerships with Toronto sports teams, VMware's McLaren Formula One partnership, and Dell China's Chinese Olympics rowing team ...
Jun 24, 2025•47 min
Other People's Money is our series on sport and finance, with regular co-host Matt Rogan. Today's guest is Danny Menken, who many people in the industry will remember as the managing director of Eurosport Television. He was also chief exec of Infosrada Sports Group and held senior executive positions within Eleven Sports. More recently though, Danny co-founded Ve2.Ventures, a sports focused venture studio, There's also talk about a European sports investment fund. If the finance conversation is ...
Jun 17, 2025•44 min
The story of Cricinfo is the history of sport's relationship with the internet and digital culture. It remains central to the experience of millions of cricket fans. But what does it tell us about how the internet changed what we define as sporting fandom? Alex Balfour co-founded the site and sold it to ESPN in the noughties and he is a global expert on sports relationship with the internet and digital channels. He was head of digital for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, his company...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Is there a market for a women-only golf talent agency? Suzann Pettersen is about to find out. Pettersen is one of the most recognized players in the women's game, a two-time Major winner, 15 time LPGA Tour winner and Solheim Cup winning captain. Now she's launched VOXA, a talent management group in conjunction with 54. It's asking questions about what the market wants from women players today. The balance between performance and the creator market, and attempting to reproduce a team ethos among ...
Jun 09, 2025•56 min
Welcome to The Bundle, our regular series on the sports media and streaming marketplace with co-hosts Yannick Ramcke, General Manager of OTT at the streaming service OneFootball and Murray Barnett, founder of 26West Consulting and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN International. What are the stories the sports media industry is talking about and what do they mean? Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations wit...
Jun 04, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Norway's greatest export Jan Age Fjortoft and his son and former player Marcus Fjortoft, together host The Fussball Channel on YouTube, covering German football in English. This gives them the ideal platform to compare the myths and realities surrounding Bundesliga and the Premier League, globalism and competitive balance, fan culture and the realities of the famous 50+1 Rule in German football. This episode of Unofficial Partner is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport. Sid Lee Sport is a new breed o...
Jun 03, 2025•56 min
We are jumping into the maze that is artificial intelligence for the first in a series of conversations with decision makers from across the sports business. Our guest today is Sam Sadi, chief executive of Live Score, the scores and betting app. There are more questions than answers, but it's exciting and it's scary and it's what everyone is talking about. So it's perfect Unofficial Partner material. This episode of the Unofficial Partner podcast is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport. Sid Lee Sport...
May 27, 2025•57 min
This is an episode of Wedge Issues where we focus on the business of golf, with regular co-host, Jasmine Sanders, The Jazzy Golfer. Today we've got Luke Davies and Jojo Regan, founders of Manors Golf, the challenger brand that's rewriting the sport's marketing rule book. This episode of Unofficial Partner is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport . Sid Lee Sport is a new breed of agency that combines world class creativity with deep sponsorship expertise, flawless operational delivery. And a culture of...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 2 min
A live recording of the Unofficial Podcast, on stage at the Olympic Museum for The SPOT conference. Guests Jo Redfern, Futrhood Damjan Rudež, Former NBA player & Sunset Sports Media Festival Program Director Michael D'hulst, founder and CEO of SuperTri Matt Wilkinson, Creative Director of Entertainment at Whisper Featuring Ana Jelusic Black, who in addition to being the organiser of the event, is herself a three time Olympian and World Cup alpine ski champion. Unofficial Partner is the leadi...
May 16, 2025•1 hr
The inside gossip from the sports media and streaming business, with co-hosts Yannick Ramcke, the general manager of OTT streaming service OneFootball. And Murray Barnett, founder of 26 West Consulting, formerly of Formula One, World Rugby and ESPN Disney. This episode is sponsored by Sid Lee Sport. Sid Lee Sport is a new breed of agency that combines world class creativity with deep sponsorship expertise, flawless operational delivery. And a culture of marketing effectiveness. We've got to know...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Intellectual Property is the basis of the sports business. Two Circles have mapped the global market to create a Sports IP Revenue List. Founder and CEO Gareth Balch has analysed what it says about the business of sport. Some headlines: The big get bigger : in the last decade, the % value share of the Top 20 Sports IP Owners of total revenue has grown from 35% to 44% Market concentration : The Top 25 make 50% of the revenue Top 100 make 70% of revenue 65% of the Top 20 grew revenue faster than t...
May 09, 2025•56 min
Inside Edge is where we overthink the business of cricket, with co-host Mike Jakeman. Today's guest is Lawrence Booth, Editor of the Wisden Almanack, the conscience of the game. Released last week, Booth pulled no punches in his editor's notes: "2024 was the year cricket gave up any claim to being properly administered, with checks, balances, and governance for the many, not the few. India already had the monopoly: now they had hotels on Park Lane and Mayfair." Is he right? Closer to home, how w...
May 06, 2025•1 hr 14 min
We met Jasmine Sanders aka The Jazzy Golfer when we held our roundtable event at European Tour HQ at Wentworth during the BMW PGA Championship in 2024. Now she's come on board as a co-host for Wedge Issues where we overthink the business of golf. Jasmine is one of the leading golf creators, host of CNN's Living Golf and founder of the Women's Golf Community, where she campaigns for greater inclusion for women and children in to the great game of golf. Listener questions can be submitted to Jasmi...
May 02, 2025•35 min
There's a new award category at this year's FEVO Sport Industry Awards - Business Moment of the Year. And for the first time, the judging process is revealed, as we chair the conversation ahead of the big reveal on the night of May 15th at Battersea Evolution in London. Our illustrious judging panel is Richard Scudamore, Lucy Wray, Allan Noble and Nick Keller himself, the founder of the FEVO Sport Industry Awards. The award shortlist can be found here. Click here to buy a table for the awards. A...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 15 min
Today we're talking about swimming and so we went to the London Aquatics Center in Stratford, located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Obviously the venue for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic games, but also the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, which were on while we were there. It was an opportunity to talk about the sport in detail from lots of different angles with Aquatics GB's Chief Executive Drew Barrand and Simon Rowe, whose role is Senior Vice President at Pentland Brands, ...
Apr 25, 2025•48 min
Guests: Mark Oliver, Oliver and Ohlbaum Amy Lee, TV2 Denmark, EBU Member Tomos Grace - YouTube Context: A live podcast recorded at the European Broadcast Union's Annual Assembly in Bratislava. DAZN has paid $1billion for the rights to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. FIFA has sold the rights to DAZN for $1billion. DAZN is sub-licensing the rights, with a brief to build as big an audience as possible. Many people in the room are the targets, as DAZN seeks to recoup some of their billion dollar outla...
Apr 22, 2025•48 min
Other People's Money is our regular series on sports investment, with Matt Rogan, co-founder of Two Circles. The Women’s Rugby World Cup kicks off in August, hosted in here in England. The tournament is a critical moment in the game's development. But what is the financial state of women’s professional club rugby in this country. We talk to Genevieve Shore, herself a former England World Cup winner in 1994, who is now the Executive Chair of Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR), the league that is par...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr 6 min
This is the first episode in a new series in which we take the Unofficial Partner sports business conversation and point it at cricket. Richard is joined by co-host Mike Jakeman, who writes about sport for The Economist and worked within The Economist Intelligence Unit, and has written for titles such as The New York Times, Wired magazine and the Times Literary Supplement, and wrote a very good book on the future of cricket, called Saving the Test. You can keep in touch with Inside Edge via the ...
Apr 08, 2025•59 min
Today's guest is Miguel Delaney, Chief Football Writer for The Independent who talks about his book States of Play: How Sports Washing Took Over Football . It's described as a scorching account of how football's very popularity threatens to destroy it, a brave forensic and utterly gripping book' by Tom Holland (The Rest Is History host, not Spider Man). This episode of the Unofficial Partner podcast is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport ; a new breed of agency that combines world class creativity w...
Apr 04, 2025•49 min
Sonny Vaccaro was the pivotal figure behind Michael Jordan's groundbreaking deal with Nike, which remains one of the most storied contracts in sports business history. So good they made a movie about it, "Air", in which Vaccaro was played by Matt Damon, with Ben Affleck in the Phil Knight role. Vaccaro's book Legends & Soles: Business, Creativity and Basketball – A Memoir of an Improbable Life is the long-awaited memoir from one of the great American sports business insiders, telling the rea...
Apr 01, 2025•37 min
The commercial growth of women’s sport is dependent on the audience question: Who is watching? To help frame the answer, we been given an exclusive preview of major new research in to women's sport fandom by Sky Sports which is due to be published in the coming weeks. Sky’s rights portfolio of women’s only sport is unmatched in the media industry, running across football, rugby, cricket, golf, tennis, netball and more. And as you'll hear in the conversation, the new findings run against some of ...
Mar 25, 2025•1 hr 10 min
Welcome to The Bundle, our regular series on the sports media and streaming marketplace with co-hosts Yannick Ramcke, General Manager of OTT at the streaming service OneFootball and Murray Barnett, founder of 26West Consulting and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN International. Quiz What is UC3, and what significance does Relevent Sports taking over global commercial rights from Team Marketing hold for this entity? According to the discussion, what were some potential reasons behind UEFA and...
Mar 18, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Other People's Money is our regular series on sports investment, with co-host Matt Rogan, co-founder of Two Circles. Our guest today is Gabbie Swycher, Principal at Redrice Ventures, a venture capital firm that provides capital, advice and connections to early stage businesses including several in the sports sector, most notably they were an early backer of Castore. They describe themselves as ‘a high conviction, anti-hype investor, seeking companies with a sustainable differentiation. We initia...
Mar 14, 2025•48 min
