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Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. Our guests are a who's who of the international sports industry talking about the big issues.
515 Episodes
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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. Since then, it has become the go-to case study for smart recruitment and data-driven approac...
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 white heat of digital transformation. His book Resurgent is an essential counter balance to the cli...
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 2025 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/homeground-london_checkshubman-gillshining-bright-in-the-activity-7376572600484782080-MxP2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=membe...
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 SUMMARY Broadcasting live from Sportel Monaco's opening session, this special episode captures the sports media industry at a pivotal moment. With Apple's Formula 1 deal breaking over the weekend, Relevent's U...
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 (Manchester United), Jan Vertonghen, Daley Blind, Luuk de Jong and John Stones (Manchester City). The ...
What Just Happened - Episode SummaryRugby League's Private Equity Play: Super League Seeks Investment The 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 concentrated in Northern England with passionate but limited fan base. The move raises questions about IMG's...
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 Charlotte Thomson, founder of The One10 Collective and formerly head of women's football at Copa90...
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 North American sports markets, where they encourage their clients to think about their relationship w...
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 "Uniting the Movement." Over the past three episodes, we've explored how sport can drive meaningful ...
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. Both are broader than sport and all the better for it. Plus: The "Taylor Swift Data F...
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 conversations, sentiment analysis, and AI-powered engagement tools. What happens next will tell us much ...
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 Cup in England next year, and the hundred, the impact of the new money flooding into the hundred on ...
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 global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us...
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 Go Leaders in Sport connects the most influential people and the most powerful ideas in global sport to catalyse discussion, and drive the industry forward. For the past 15 years, Leaders...
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 Week Leaders 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 consistent spaces to support and accelerate the growth of women’s sport – while champio...
SPORTEL Monaco takes place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco October 20th to 22nd. It's been the world's leading sports content media rights and technology convention for more than 30 years. This episode asks, what will people be talking about as they network and do deals that will shape the sports business in 2026? Joining Richard are: Imran Yusuf - Editor of Sport Business Media (attending his fifth Sportel) Ken Kerschbaumer - Editorial Director for Sports Video Group US and SVG E...
Richard is joined by David Cushnan and James Emmett of Leaders. Three stories from this week in the sports business. What happened, why do we care and where's it going? What does McLaren F1's valuation say about F1? Who is David 'Dave' Hopkinson and what's the job of Premier League CEO today? What's the role of the Ryder Cup in the LIV era? 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 t...
Today's guest Paul Caine is the President of On Location, the premium experiential hospitality division of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO). Under his leadership, OnLocation has become the global leader in sports and entertainment hospitality, managing premium experiences for over 150 rightsholders including the NFL, NCAA, UFC, IOC, FIFA, and PGA of America. Following TKO's recent $3.25 billion all share acquisition of IMG, PBR and On Location from Endeavor in February 2025, Caine is positioned...
Today we are talking Other People's Money, this is our regular series on sports finance with regular co-host Matt Rogan, who was of course one of the Co-Founders of Two Circles. Today's guest is a special one is Ed McBride, who is Managing Director of UK Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank, one of the City's most prolific and successful deal makers. So we talk about what sport looks like from the outside, and we run some of the regular themes around sport and finance. Things like...
As co-founder of Perform and DAZN, Simon Denyer has spent the last twenty years at the intersection of sport, media, and technology. Last week he brokered an innovative new relationship between La Liga and Disney+ via his new company PEAK Sports Media. This is a conversation about the big picture of sport's relationship with the major digital platforms, from YouTube and Netflix to Amazon and Apple. Unmissable. Sponsored by Leaders in Sport Leaders in Sport connects the most influe...
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