Unofficial Partner Podcast
Unofficial Partner 566 episodes Nov 10, 2026
Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast dedicated to the business of sport. Each episode features conversations with influential figures from the international sports industry, covering the major topics and challenges facing the sector. The show offers insights into the commercial, media, and sponsorship sides of sport, as well as broader industry trends. It is aimed at professionals and enthusiasts interested in the behind-the-scenes workings of the sports world.
Episodes
UP581 PREM Rugby CEO: Paramount, Eddie Hearn and What R360 Got Wrong
PREM Rugby’s chief executive is preparing to take English club rugby to US investors. Richard Gillis asks him what the pitch is, and what it leaves out.Simon Massie-Taylor has run PREM Rugby since January 2022, after five years leading the RFU’s commercial and marketing work. He arrived just as Worcester, Wasps and London Irish were heading into administration. Since then the league has ended auto
UP580 Under Appreciated? It's Time to Celebrate the Craft of Short Form Content
Daniel Kirschner, co-founder of Greenfly, returns to talk about the craft of short-form sports content. The hook is the Short-Form Content Showcase, Greenfly’s joint project with SportsPro. We recorded after meeting at the SportsPro AI event at the London Stadium. We ask whether highlights have trained a generation to expect constant excitement, and what a career in digital content now looks like.
UP579 The Bundle - AI Capex vs The sports budget; Scotland vs 3pm; Relevent vs CAA
Richard Gillis is joined by regulars Murray Barnett, founder of 26 West Consulting, and Yannick Ramcke, general manager of OneFootball OTT, for the monthly look at the sports media market. Fresh from Sportel, they ask what a record $65.8bn rights market really tells us, the risk of the streamers and what happens to sports budgets when Big Tech has AI to pay for.In this episodeThe $65.8bn headlineS
UP578: What’s It Worth? Two Circles put a big number on fandom
Two Circles are saying sport and entertainment fandom generates nearly $2 trillion of economic activity a year. That makes it bigger than motor manufacturing and bigger than coal mining. If it were a country, it would be the 15th largest economy in the world.But remember the Unofficial Partner rule: the number’s always wrong. So this episode is about what lies underneath the headline. Joining R
UP577 Spin Class: The Premier League, Man City and the battle over the story
The Premier League has won the facts. Manchester City were found guilty of 114 of 115 charges, with £830m of revenue inflated through sham sponsorships. Now the fight is over the story, and everyone has a different audience.Dan Johnson, the Premier League’s former director of communications, and investigative journalist Nick Harris of Sporting Intelligence join Richard Gillis to pull apart the pla
UP576 World Rugby Chief on Private Equity, Disruptor Leagues and Following FIFA in to the US
Alan Gilpin is chief executive of World Rugby. He spent nine years at IMG negotiating the commercial rights to the 2003, 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups. So when he says next year’s tournament in Australia brings him full circle, he means it literally: he’s selling the same tournament from the other side of the table.The men’s quadrennial World Cup brings in around 85 to 90 per cent of World Rugby’
UP575 Chat_UP: 'That's So AI', Rogue Agents and Superintelligence
Gen Z has a new insult for anything that looks cheap: “that’s so AI”. Richard Gillis and Andy Shora of TFG Labs ask what that means for a sports industry selling AI to investors, sponsors and fans all at once. They cover who should own AI inside a club, what happens when the shirt sponsor is also your infrastructure, and why autonomous agents have changed the risk profile from bad copy to switched
UP574 Vibes vs Effectiveness: 'Cultural relevance is this generation's brand purpose'
A conversation about sponsorship effectiveness, creativity and the price of chasing vibes.Richard is joined by Mike Grumbridge and Peter Wilson of Sid Lee Sport to talk about Mike's recent Marketing Week piece: "Stop confusing vibes with sponsorship effectiveness" which took the Levi's Stadium ambush at this summer's FIFA World Cup as a starting point in to an argument abo
UP573 The Summer That Changed The Sports Business - Live
Recorded live in front of an invited audience of senior sports-industry figures at Teneo's London offices overlooking St Paul's Cathedral, this Unofficial Partner event asked a deliberately awkward question about the summer of 2026: not what happened, but what actually changed. Three set-pieces framed the conversation — the men's FIFA World Cup in the United States, the European Ath
UP572 Creators: What Are They Good For?
Wimbledon didn't ban influencers. It said it wouldn't create a creator accreditation category and would confiscate ring lights and selfie poles under existing rules. The headline ran anyway, and it tells us more about sport's gatekeepers than about creators. Richard Gillis is joined by two people who sit on opposite sides of the creator deal. Jo Tongue is CEO of Tongue Tied Manageme
UP571 The Bundle: Warning signs from the top of the market; IPL and NFL the same but different; DAZN's IPO; The Anti-Netflix
Unofficial Partner's regular series on the sports media and streaming marketplace. Host: Richard Gillis. Co-hosts:Murray Barnett, founder of 26 West Consulting (formerly F1, World Rugby, ESPN); Yannick Ramcke, general manager of OTT at OneFootball.The rights ceiling: NFL and IPL as warning signs on rights inflationExclusivity in question: co-exclusivity, mixed packages and "intelligent a
UP570 Spin Class: Here We Go! Premier League Transfer Window Special
Spin Class is our regular series with experts in sports communications, PR and reputation management. Football's transfer window is one of the definitive sports business stories. Its cast of characters include players, agents, managers, club owners and a small number of journalists cum influencers with massive social media followings and the power to impact the market via insider intel and go
UP569 Rushman's Rules: Deals, Woke and the Lost World of Langan's
Nigel Rushman is one of the most effective operators in the modern sports business — a fixer and dealmaker who spent four decades at the delivery end of major events, building a parallel international career brokering deals across governments and industry. After a start in restaurants — London, Paris, a Michelin three-star kitchen — he built a catering company, sold it, and moved into commercial e
UP568 Real Time Economics: When the Clip is the Product
Few people sit closer to the epicentre of the sports digital economy than Daniel Kirschner. As co-founder and CEO of Greenfly, he oversees the connective tissue running between rights holders, athletes and fans; the infrastructure that turns a moment on the pitch into content on your phone within seconds. Creator strategy and the platform deals. How rights holders selectively route content to favo
UP567 Spin Class: Infantino's fightback; Saudi post-LIV; AJ v Tyson, Hearn v White
Spin Class is Unofficial Partner's series on sports comms, PR, reputation and crisis management.Three stories:A FIFA president everyone's written off who isn't going anywhere. A billion-dollar golf breakaway running out of road. And a heavyweight fight that keeps getting made and unmade in public. What connects them? In every case the sport is almost beside the point — the real cont
UP566 Chat UP: I never want to hear the phrase 'Palantir for Sport' again
Chat UP is Unofficial Partner's series on AI in the sports business.Today's guest is Mike Bracken CBE. He built the UK's Government Digital Service, became the country's first Government Chief Data Officer, and now runs the consultancy Public Digital, advising governments and institutions worldwide. Richard sits him down to test a simple, uncomfortable idea: that most of sport&
UP565 The Buy Side: Unilever on FIFA, creator budgets and the new World Cup playbook
Ben Curtis is Global Brand Vice President of Sure/Rexona at Unilever, and is just back the US where he ran the brand's first-ever Men's World Cup as a FIFA official partner. He came on Unofficial Partner before the tournament to talk about what he was walking into; this is the debrief — what worked, what didn't, and what a global personal-care brand actually gets for the money, from
UP564 Other People's Money: Andrea Radrizzani and Alistair Brownlee OBE
A conversation recorded at the recent SportsPro Investment Summit, bringing together two very different investors: Andrea Radrizzani, media entrepreneur and former Leeds United owner, and Alistair Brownlee OBE, double Olympic triathlon champion turned investor. The through-line is what actually makes a sports asset worth owning — and where the value really resides.Leeds United and the weight of hi
UP563 Jude Inc: 'I don't suppose you've got any Bellingham?'
Dan Jamieson secured exclusive rights for Jude Bellingham the week before the FIFA World Cup. The ICONS CEO takes us inside the complex world sporting memorabilia, where fame, fans and intellectual property collide. The Bellingham bet — talent-spotting as a business modelIcons approached Bellingham three years, eight months ago while he was still at Dortmund — long before the World Cup made him a
UP562 The Bundle: Hydration Economics; Sky's ITV portfolio; Survive to Survive; DAZN, NRL and Bundesliga
The Bundle with Yannick Ramcke of OneFootball and Murray Barnett of West26 Sport. Agenda:1. The Commercialisation of the Hydration Break2. Did the Ratings Success Change US Football Broadcasting?3. Sky's £1.6bn ITV Takeover: The Return of the Full-Funnel Broadcaster4. Is the Sports Doc Gold Rush Over?5. DAZN's A$5.3bn NRL Bet Cross-cutting threadsReach vs revenueCommercial innovation is
UP561 Is your name on the list? The winners and losers in Two Circles' $174bn sports IP revenue league table
The Two Circles Sports IP Revenue League 2026 is full of numbers. The headline is that sports IP is worth $174billion. But the story is more interesting and nuanced than that. Richard went to the agency's offices in Holborn to hold the report up to the light. Joining him is Gareth Balch, CEO of Two Circles, and Charlie Dewhurst, Chief Commercial Officer of SailGP — the race sailing property f
UP560 What is IMG now?
Today's guest Adam Kelly has been at IMG since 2001, connecting the business back almost to the McCormack era. Now President of IMG within TKO Group — which also owns UFC and WWE — he oversees IMG's media rights, production, digital, brand partnerships, and events businesses. This is his second appearance on Unofficial Partner; the first was in 2022, when he laid out a vision for reimagi
UP559 Revenue-maxxing: How FIFA Changed The Game
FIFA will make $13bn from the four-year cycle culminating in this summer's tournament — nearly $9bn of it landing this year alone. For comparison, the Paris 2024 Olympics, the other Greatest Show on Earth, generated $5.24bn. Total. For the whole Games.It wasn't always this lopsided. The World Cup actually trailed the Olympics financially until 2010, when South Africa's edition pulle
UP558 Chat_UP: What The Mythos Shutdown Means For AI in the Sports Business
Host: Richard Gillis (Unofficial Partner) Co-host/analyst: Andy Shora (TFG Labs)Three stories this episode:The Mythos/Fable shutdown — Anthropic ordered by the US government to disable its two most powerful models for all foreign nationals globally, with ninety minutes' notice. First-ever export control action against an AI model. Discussion covers the jailbreak vulnerability cited as justifi
UP557 Ed Smith: What Sport Got Wrong About Moneyball
AI commoditises knowledge production and throws judgment into scarcity. In this episode, Ed Smith asks what that means for sport, education and the people building careers in the business — and why the humanities might be the most undervalued edge in an age of machines.About the guestEd Smith is an unusual hybrid in today's sports world. An academic, he left Cambridge with a Double First in H
UP556 'Serviette Maths': Sky Sports Boss On The Premflix Threat
Jonathan Licht, Chief Sports Officer at Sky Sports, discusses Sky's dominant position in UK sports broadcasting, strategic partnerships, and the future of sports media.Key topics:Sky's portfolio dominance: 225 Premier League matches, 1,000+ EFL games, 118 WSL matches, Formula 1, cricket, golf, NFL, tennis, darts, netballThe growth paradox: How building sports audiences creates competitiv
UP555 The Lord's Question: What Does The MCC Brand Stand For?
The £295million sale of London Spirit franchise was one of the big sports business stories of the last year. Some of Silicon Valley's most successful and famous leaders buying 49% of The Hundred's Lord's based franchise, in partnership with The MCC, one of the most storied names in cricket.So what is the MCC today, and how is that changing in one of the most important years in the g
UP554 The Bundle World Cup Special
Richard, Murray Barnett and Yannick Ramcke convene for a World Cup special, using the 2026 tournament as a lens on how sports broadcasting is shifting beneath the surface. The conversation moves from Qatar-to-2026 comparisons (more accelerated change, more fragmentation, but a still-basic mainstream default) through the "AI slop mountain" that the expanded tournament and unfriendly Europ
UP553 Live: The Business of Horse Racing
A first for Unofficial Partner: six years and 550+ episodes covering every sport going, we'd somehow never devoted an episode to the sport of horse racing. So we fixed that — live, in front of an audience at The Big Belly Comedy Club, London. We had as a starting point Spotlight Sports Group's new report, The Horse Racing Audience Opportunity. Compiled by the Racing Post's parent co
UP552 Chat_UP: Google's AI pivot and the end of the subsidised era
Chat_UP is Unofficial Partner's AI series created in collaboration with TFG Labs.The brief: cut through the AI firehose, work out what matters, and bring it back to the business of sport. Three stories this week.Story One — Google I/O 2026Google used its developer conference to reposition from "a search company that does AI" to an AI infrastructure company. Headlines: Gemini 3.5, Ge
UP551 Coke's Cole Palmer Problem: When the ambassador misses the party
On 22 April 2026, Coca-Cola unveiled Cole Palmer as its newest football brand ambassador, fronting Premier League and World Cup activations. A month later, Tuchel left him out of the England squad. We use the Palmer story as a way into a wider conversation with Ricardo Fort — former global head of sport at Coca-Cola, now advisor to brands betting billions on the World Cup — about how personal endo
UP550 Inside Edge: IPL Auctions and the Financialization of Everything
Richard Gillis, Mike Jakeman and invited guests dissect the business of cricket.The IPL auction has become one of the most watched events in world cricket — part financial instrument, part entertainment spectacle. This episode gets under the bonnet: how it actually works, what it means for players, why it's reshaping cricket's global talent economy, and whether any of it translates to th
UP549 Priced Out: FIFA’s Big Ticket Gamble
The news agenda around this summer's FIFA World Cup in North America has been dominated by the price of tickets. Why are they so expensive? What's it got to do with changes made by FIFA specifically for this tournament? Guests:Professor Rob Wilson, Dean of University Campus of Football Business (UCFB) and Shaun Stewart, vice president of StubHub, known as Viagogo in Europe.Unofficial Par
UP548 The Bundle: Gary Neville's Noise Strategy; What World Rugby sees in IMG; Amazon pitches for the Super Bowl
The Bundle is the original and much copied 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 Sport and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations wi
UP547 Picks and Shovels: The Ecosystem Investment Thesis
Picks and Shovels: The Sports Investment Thesis That Doesn't Need Media Rights to WorkAltman Solon's seventh annual Global Sports Survey lands with a central argument: sport is maturing into a full-stack asset class. But the more interesting story isn't at the top, it's in the layer underneath. Richard Gillis talks to David Dellea, Christophe Sommer and Matt Del Percio about wh
UP546 NBA Europe: It’s not about basketball
The NBA Europe franchise sale process has moved from speculation to live transaction. Franchise fees of $500m to $1bn. No broadcast deal. Governance terms that European investors have already pushed back on. And a city map — London, Paris, Madrid, Rome — that looks more like a premium real estate index than a list of places where people actually watch basketball.Lenz Balan is right in the middle o
UP545 'Normal Idiots': Reddit, Discord and the Value of 1000 True Fans
Louis Theroux's documentary about the manosphere didn't at first seem to have much to do with sports digital strategy?Until you get to the platforms: Kick. Rumble. A whole ecosystem of streaming channels that the sports business conversation barely mentions, yet where significant numbers of young men are spending serious time.So we brought in Dan Ayers, VP of Transformation Digital at IM
UP544 ChatUP: Craig Hepburn on how Agentic AI changes sports consultancy
Craig Hepburn sits at the intersection of enterprise technology and cultural institutions. He spent years as UEFA’s Chief Digital Transformation Officer, overseeing its digital ecosystem, OTT platform build, and Innovation Hub. He moved to Art Basel as CDO in 2023. He is now an independent AI strategist, Perplexity Fellow, and prolific writer on the structural implications of AI for organisations
UP543 Business Moment of the Year: Inside the 25th Sport Industry Award Judging Room
This week we go behind the curtain of the 25th Sport Industry Awards, ahead of the big night at Battersea Evolution on Thursday 30th April. With an illustrious group of people from across the industry, Richard and Sean went to EY’s London Bridge offices in London to discuss the shortlist for the Business Moment of the Year Award.The winner will be announced on the night. Seven groundbreaking mome
UP542 Wedge Issues Live: The Golf Business in 2026
A live podcast recorded at MSQ Sport and Entertainment HQ in London for the launch of Callaway Golf's new brand film 'At Last'. You can see the film by clicking this link. As the golfing world looks to Augusta for The Masters, the first major event of the golf calendar next week, it was a good time to take the temperature of the business of golf with four experts from across the gam
UP541 Addicted To Fake Fan Numbers: When Sport Met The Dead Internet
Digital advertising has a dirty secret: most of what you're paying for never reaches a human being. Dr. Augustine Fou is a world leading expert in digital ad fraud and has spent 20 years watching the internet fill up with bots, fake impressions, and dodgy metrics; and the advertisers funding it often know, but keep spending anyway. The incentives are too comfortable to disturb.Sound familiar?
UP540 The Bundle: Premier League plus points; Apple's Meh Bundle; FIFA's 10 minute YouTube hook
The latest dissection of the sports media and streaming marketplace from the ever popular, long running series featuring expert analysis from Yannick Ramcke and Murray Barnett. This episode goes deep in to:Why Premier League chose Singapore as the all important test market for its direct to consumer platform. What is Apple's sport strategy, is there such a thing? FIFA offers a 'ten minut
UP539 Spin Class: PR lessons from Kirsty Coventry, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Igor Tudor
Three highly experienced communications professionals join Richard to dissect some recent high profile PR gaffes.Guests:Henry Chappell, Founder and CEO of Pitch Marketing GroupNeil Daugherty, Senior Managing Director at TeneoJon Tibbs OBE, Founder and Chair of JTA Group.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations wi
UP538 Ted Knutson on Brentford, Betting and Benham. And how AI will change football data
Ted Knutson's career tracks a remarkable arc: professional gambler at Pinnacle, architect of Brentford's analytics-driven recruitment model, founder of StatsBomb — built from a blog written during cancer recovery into a global data company sold to Hudl in 2024 — and now Strategic Director of Football at Crux, Bex Smith's women's multi-club platform, while running The Transfer F
UP537 The Buy Side: Inside Unilever's FIFA World Cup Strategy
Today, we are joined by Ben Curtis, Global Brand Vice President for Rexona—the brand known as Degree in the US, Sure in the UK, and Shield in South Africa. Ben oversees the global strategy for a brand that Unilever identifies as the "cultural engine" of its Personal Care business group, making it the primary vehicle for activating their massive FIFA and UEFA partnerships.As the marketing
UP536 Other People's Money: Bex Smith's thesis for women's football multi club ownership
Bex Smith, is our guest today on Other People’s Money, Unofficial Partner’s sports finance series presented with regular cohost Matt Rogan. Bex Smith was captain of the New Zealand Women’s football team, appearing at World Cups, two Olympic Games, and enjoyed a stellar club career including winning German football’s triple. Crux Football is her investment vehicle for investing in to the women&apos
UP535 Inside Edge - T20's Product-Market fit is 'the biggest delta in global sport'
What T20 Cricket Teaches Every Sport About The Race For The Global Fan.Mike Jakeman joins Richard for Inside Edge, the business of cricket series. Guests: Finn Bradshaw, Head of Digital, ICCEdward Fitzgibbon, Managing Director, NYZ Consulting.Twenty20 cricket is one of the great product innovations in modern sport. Compact, volatile, accessible to anyone with three hours and a phone signal, it has
UP534 Barney Francis on Media Rights and Wrongs
Barney Francis offers an insider's view of the sports media economy, drawing on his huge experience as MD of Sky Sports in the UK and EVP, Studios at IMG, the company's production business. The conversation spans new sports formats, piracy, streaming disruption, rights economics, the creation of The Hundred, the Premier League's move to in-house production, and the structural challe
UP533 The Bundle: Super Bowl, cultural relevance v culture war; ITV's in-game ads; FIFA and TikTok
Richard is joined by regular Bundle co-hosts Yannick Ramcke and Murray Barnett. Yannick is General Manager of OTT at the streaming service OneFootball and Murray is founder of 26West Sport and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN.Subscribe to The Bundle Bulletin, via Unofficial Partner's Substack Newsletter. Today's topics:Advertising Renaissance: ITV’s Six Nations in-game advertising (w
UP532 Inside Edge: County Cricket Beyond The Hundred
Pete Fitzboydon, former CEO of Sussex County Cricket Club, reveals the stark financial realities facing non-Test hosting counties. With only 7 out of 50-60 annual playing days generating profit, counties survive primarily on ECB funding - approximately £3m of a £5-10m turnover. The conversation explores The Hundred's transformative impact, selling the longer game, and the future shape of Engl
UP531 Winter Olympic Special: Lottery funding, Medals, Rule 40 and Private Schools
Sally Munday is CEO of UK Sport, one of the most influential positions in the sports industry. On Friday the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games begins in Milan-Cortina. How many medal will Team GB win? How much will each medal cost? And why does that matter?UK Sport distributors around £100 million annually in public funds from the National Lottery and the Exchequer, supporting high-performa
UP530 Spurs For Sale: Shirts, Gambling Bans and the Post-Levy Era
Ryan Norys is the Chief Revenue Officer at Tottenham Hotspur. This is a candid conversation about the commercial fortunes of the club as it brings the front of shirt sponsorship to market at a time of genuine uncertainty.Spurs finished 17th last season. Commercial revenue grew 40% in three years. That tension runs through the entire discussion.Norys' journey to Spurs was via City Football Gro
UP529 ChatUP Live Pt2 - The Billion Dollar AI Race: 'Once you give away that level of knowledge, it's gone'
THE BILLION DOLLAR RACE: WHO WINS SPORTS AI?There's a race on. Bloomberg Terminal for sport. Sports Business GPT. The industry's operating system. Who builds it first?THE LAST FRONTIER"Once you give away that level of knowledge, it's gone. This is the last frontier before all your intelligence is gone." — Craig HepburnLive from Fuse UK, featuring Craig Hepburn (ex-UEFA), R
UP528 Chat_UP Live - The Race to Build SportsbizGPT Pt1
What if we could fix the conference panel? You know the format—interesting people, good intentions, and about ninety percent of it forgotten by the time you reach the bar.Chat_UP Live was held at FUSE headquarters in London. Rather than just another AI panel, we ran an experiment. Working with the team at TFG Labs, we built a custom AI co-pilot that captured the onstage conversation in real time,
UP527 The Bundle 2026 Preview: NFL, WBD, DAZN, F1, UEFA...WTAF?
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 Sport and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN.This episode of the Unofficial Partner podcast is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport.Sid Lee Sport is the fame-making creative and sponsorsh
UP526 Nikki Doucet has the most interesting job in British sport
Nikki Doucet has the most interesting job in British sport and one of the most difficult. Certainly, everyone in the sports business has an opinion on what the CEO of WSL Football should do to capitalise on the potential of women's professional football in England. The role wrestles with many of the conflicts and trade offs currently at play across the sports business - open vs closed leagues
UP525 What Just Happened in 2025: The Story, Event and Person of the Sports Business Year
David Cushnan and James Emmett of Leaders in Sport join Richard on the final podcast of the year to review the people, stories and events that mattered in 2025.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsle
UP524 Sleepwalking to Irrelevance: Content and fandom in the age of the For You algorithm
Richard Gillis is joined by Damian Browarnik from WSC Sports, the content and data platform working with over 650 clients including the NBA, NFL and La Liga, and Rich Johnson, sports marketing strategist and cofounder of End Product, formerly of Man Utd, New Balance and Social Chain. The conversation explores how algorithms now dictate sports content discovery, why millennials remain the commerci
UP523 The Bundle: Paramount's Relevent entry; Sky's UEFA return; Apple's MLS exit; Netflix, TNT, WTF?
The Bundle is our long running 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 Sport and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN.This episode of the Unofficial Partner podcast is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport.Sid Lee Sport is the fame-making creative and sponsorship a
UP522 Signed by Messi: What's the most valuable shirt in world football?
Today's guest is Dan Jamieson, who is chief executive and co-owner of ICONS, the world's biggest signed football memorabilia company. ICONS was founded in 1999, originally starting as an editorial website for footballers to connect directly with fans. The business successfully pivoted to focus on signed memorabilia, a niche subset of the broader merchandise market, valued at hundreds of
UP521: Inside Edge - 'American money is IPL curious'
Inside Edge is our cricket business series with co-host Mike Jakeman. Today's guest is Venkat Ananth on the money circling the IPL franchises. Check out Venkat's newsletter and blog, State of Play. This episode of the Unofficial Partner podcast is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport.Sid Lee Sport is the fame-making creative and sponsorship agency for brands in sport. Through exceptional crea
UP520: Olympic Provocateur: Michael Payne on Sport Politics, from Dassler to Trump
Olympic marketing pioneer Michael Payne discusses his book Fast Tracks and Dark Deals, exploring how sport became business through the lens of legendary figures like Horst Dassler, Bernie Ecclestone and Mark McCormack. He challenges federations on governance, examines whether the Olympics inhibits innovation, and addresses future issues including AI, implanted technology, and the Enhanced Games de
UP519 Live at Sportradar Connect: Soccer Edition, featuring Jamie Carragher
This episode was recorded at the recent Sportradar Connect: Soccer Edition event at the London Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The podcast divides is in two parts. First is an onstage conversation on the evolution of football data analytics and AI featuring Jamie Carragher, Erik Durm and Nicolo D’Ercole. Jamie Carragher played 737 times for Liverpool and 38 times for England, in career t
UP518 Inside Edge: Harry Brook, George Pyne and the cricket agent business
Inside Edge is our series on the business of cricket, presented with co-host Mike Jakeman. Our guest is Phil Weston, head of cricket at TGI Sport, the agency owned jointly by George Pyne's Bruin Sports Capital and Quadrant Private Equity. England star Harry Brook is one of an impressive roster of talent across both the male and female games, including Kieron Pollard, Rashid Khan, Jofra Archer
UP517 The Mark Oliver Heatmap: Global sport's investment hotspots
Mark Oliver was the BBC's first head of strategy before creating Oliver and Ohlbaum in 1995, which remains one of the most influential media advisory boutiques in the market, with clients ranging from sports leagues and federations to media companies, tech platforms, venture capital firms and private equity groups.In this episode, Mark identifies the rationale that sits behind some of sport&a
UP516 Smart Recruitment: The Brentford Model, in partnership with Indeed
The story of Brentford is one of the most interesting and quoted case studies in European football over the last decade. The west London club been transformed on and off the pitch, from being saved from extinction by its own fans to a new era under the ownership of entrepreneur Matthew Benham. The club was promoted to the Premier League in 2021, marking a return to the top flight after 74 years. S
UP515 Other People's Money @ EY: Why is Big Sport so hard to disrupt?
This is a special episode of Other People's Money is our regular series on sports investment which was recorded recently in front of an invited audience at the London headquarters of EY, the Big Four accounting and professional services group. Joining Richard and regular OPM co-host Matt Rogan were John Fallon and Vikram Banerjee.John Fallon was CEO of publishing giant Pearson during the whit
UP514: Inside Edge x The Big Idea: Does the advertising industry understand cricket?
Nike, Drake and Beats have just released cricket themed campaigns.WTF? Is cricket cool?Richard asked Mike Jakeman and Simon Moore to list their best and worst cricket themed campaigns and the result is a conversation about cliches, tropes and cultural relevance.The following ads are referenced in the podcast. Beats by Dre 2025https://www.linkedin.com/posts/homeground-london_checkshubman-gillshinin
UP513 The Bundle Live @ SPORTEL Monaco: F1 and Apple, Relevent's streamer pitch, D2C wtf?
We took The Bundle to Monaco and recorded a live podcast on stage at Sportel, the famous sports media and technology marketplace.Joining Richard and regular co-host Murray Barnett were Glen Killane (EBU Sport), Peter Bellamy (Deltatre) and Louisa Clark (Queensberry Promotions).EPISODE SUMMARYBroadcasting live from Sportel Monaco's opening session, this special episode captures the sports medi
UP512 Other People's Money: APEX, the athlete investor trend, Red Bull Ventures, Baller and TGL
Joining Richard and Matt Rogan is António Caçorino, founder & CEO of APEX, the sports fund manager known for its roster of over 70 athletes across 15 sports and 30+ leagues. Famous names attached to the fund include Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris (McLaren), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Valtteri Bottas, footballers Raphaël Varane (Manchester United/France), Christian Eriksen and Mason Mount (Manc
UP511 What Just Happened: P/E for RFL; BBC, golf and Bill Murray; The Ashes of TNT
What Just Happened - Episode SummaryRugby League's Private Equity Play: Super League Seeks InvestmentThe Rugby Football League is in talks with private equity firms, including Lion Cap Global and Oakwell Sports Advisory, about selling a stake in Super League. This comes 30 years after Super League's formation with Sky backing, yet the sport remains in a similar position—geographically co
UP510 Cause and Effect: The Sponsorship Effectiveness Revolution
We went to the London offices of Sid Lee Sport to host Cause and Effect: Why sponsorship needs an effectiveness revolution. A live recording featuring industry professionals from across the sport sponsorship marketplace, who came together in front of an invited VIP audience to ask some big questions as sport's role as a marketing platform for brands.Taking part were:Hosting the event was Char
UP509 Gareth Balch on the State of the Sports Economy in 2025
Today's conversation was recorded at the Two Circles European Summit which took place a few weeks ago at the Institute of Engineering and Technology overlooking the Thames, next to the Savoy. Gareth Balch, founder and CEO of Two Circles is our guest, and as ever with Gareth, nothing was off limits, and its useful to periodically check in on what he's seeing right across the European and
UP508 What's Sport Selling? Hollingsworth on the state of the nation's health, flags, needles, government and the free market
This is the fourth and final episode of our series What's Sport Selling? Created in collaboration with the Redtorch research and creative agency. Today's guest is Tim Hollingsworth, who led Sport England for eight years, managing the £300m annual budget derived from government and national lottery funding. His tenure spanned COVID, energy crisis, and fundamental strategy reset via "
UP507 The YouTube Arguments
Guests Jen Topping and Jo Redfern critique the arguments around sport’s relationship with the creator economy, the control v chaos philosophy divide inherent in digital IP monetisation and audience building, and the PR battles being waged for premium advertising among the big platforms. Plus, the Beano. Jen Topping’s Business of TV Substack newsletter is great, as is Jo’s Kids Media Club podcast.
UP506 Chat_UP: LiveScore, Grok and how AI will disrupt sports betting
Our guest is Sam Sadi, CEO of LiveScore Group, and a regular visitor on Unofficial Partner. Last week he announced a groundbreaking new partnership between the LiveScore sports content and betting platform and xAI, the Elon Musk owned social media platform's artificial intelligence company.This gives LiveScore access to X's data/content APIs and xAI's technology for real-time sports
UP505 Inside Edge - T20 Women's World Cup
This is Inside Edge, which is our cricket business podcast. Regular co-host Mike Jakeman is away this week, but our guests are Beth Barrett-Wild and Jen Vile from the ECB. Beth is the Tournament Director at ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 & Director of Women's Professional Game at ECB, and Jen Vile is Marketing Director at (ECB)So we are talking women's cricket, the T20 World C
UP504 What Just Happened: Inside IMG's farmhouse; Peter Thiel's Enhanced Games; Jamie Redknapp's new agency
Three stories from a week in the sports business.James Emmett comes fresh from the IMG-Redbird Summit.David Cushnan on what and who lurks behind The Enhanced Games.Richard on Jamie Redknapp and Richard Thompson's new football agency. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the globa
UP503 The Bundle: New season, new YouTube strategy; UFC's PPV exit; Agency collusion; Ligue1's Opening weekend
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.Leaders Summit: 2 Weeks To GoLeaders in Sport connects the most influential people and the most powerful ideas in glob
UP502 What Just Happened: The IOC and Trump's America; PayPal and CEO branded content; UEFA's global decision
The perfect weekend warm up. Richard is joined by Dave Cushnan and James Emmett from Leaders in Sport. Each picks a story of the week and asks, what just happened? Sponsored by:Women’s sport at Leaders WeekLeaders in Sport connects the most influential people and the most powerful ideas in global sport to catalyse discussion, and drive the industry forward.For over a decade, Leaders has created co
