Unofficial Partner Podcast
490 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago - ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsUnofficial 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.
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Episodes
E36: Vicky Gosling
December 12, 2019 08:51 - 39 minutes - 26.8 MBThis week we went to the BOA’s Headquarters in New Cavendish St to meet Vicky Gosling OBE, chief executive of GB Snowsport. Vicky had a highly successful 21 year career in the Royal Air Force, rising to the rank of Group Captain, serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, for which she was awarded the MBE in 2004. She left the forces to become CEO of the Invictus Games, the international multi sport event created by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex for injured servicemen and women.If you...
E35: Sports News Lobby
December 05, 2019 09:31 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBThis week we talk to two of the most influential sports news journalists working today. Martyn Ziegler is Chief Sports Reporter of The Times and Sunday Times newspapers and Martha Kelner has recently moved from a similar role at The Guardian to become Sports Correspondent of Sky News.The conversation took place at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge just before the annual sports news lobby Christmas drinks where journalists invite prominent people from across the sports business and ...
E34: The Football Business Episode
November 28, 2019 08:24 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MBThis week’s guests are Mark Catlin and Kevin Rye. Former Bury director and Spanish telecommunications business leader Mark Catlin is chief executive of Portsmouth football club, and a recent winner of the Football Business Awards CEO of the Year and a judge at this year’s event. We talk to Mark about who assisted fans in the saving the club from administration in 2012, the acquisition of the club by supporters and the consequent takeover by former Disney chief Michael Eisner in 2017. Our ...
E33: Oli Slipper
November 21, 2019 08:47 - 41 minutes - 28.8 MBThis week Richard and Sean head to Putney to talk to Oli Slipper about the expensive mistakes that await sport’s OTT boom; the secret of the Maradona documentary and commercial appeal of long form sports films; why DAZN sold Perform and what Len Blavatnik’s really like; Barry Hearn’s sweary advice and the challenges of selling football club websites in the days of dial up internet connections.The former pro cricketer is now Chair of Pitch International, the sports rights agency, so we talked ...
E21: Henry Chappell - Pitch Marketing Group
November 14, 2019 12:41 - 40.3 MBThis week we talk to Henry Chappell in Pitch Marketing Group's Soho office overlooking the NCP Car Park on Brewer Street, which is now above a posh boutique but used to be a really good vintage magazine shop. The conversation is wide ranging, running from his time at IMG and then Freuds, before he launched Pitch in 2002 with help from then shareholder Matthew Freud. What I wanted to know is what twenty years in the agency world has taught him about how sport works, now and in the future. And ...
E32: Henry Chappell - Pitch Marketing Group
November 14, 2019 12:41 - 43 minutes - 30.2 MBThis week we talk to Henry Chappell in Pitch Marketing Group's Soho office overlooking the NCP Car Park on Brewer Street, which is now above a posh boutique but used to be a really good vintage magazine shop.The conversation is wide ranging, running from his time at IMG and then Freuds, before he launched Pitch in 2002 with help from then shareholder Matthew Freud. What I wanted to know is what twenty years in the agency world has taught him about how sport works, now and in the future. And t...
E31: Sam Seddon - IBM
November 07, 2019 11:42 - 35 minutes - 24.1 MBThis week Richard and Sean go to IBM’s headquarters on the South Bank to talk to Sam Seddon who guides the company’s relationship with the sport sector, most notably their long time partnerships with Wimbledon and England Rugby via the RFU. As ever, we want to know who have been the big winners and losers in the last thirty years when it comes to sport and tech, and we ask Sam for the inside line on IBM’s view of how the next ten years is going to pan out.If you enjoy our podcasts, there’s be...
E30: Ellie Norman - F1
October 31, 2019 11:40 - 39 minutes - 27.3 MBEllie Norman was Head of Advertising and Sponsorship at Virgin Media when Sean Bratches asked her to become the first ever Head of Marketing for Formula One. That was 2017 and much has happened on her watch, so we went to F1’s Mayfair office to talk boring drivers, grid girls, perception versus reality and what she learnt about the power of dreams while working at Honda. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking convers...
E29: Richard Ayers’ Bellwether beard
October 23, 2019 19:59 - 44 minutes - 30.3 MBRichard Ayers has been selling the future for his whole career, since teaching John Humphreys to read out the BBC Today Programmes’ website address, to his current guise as a thought leader in sport’s great journey of digital transformation.We visit Richard at Seven League’s HQ deep in Islington, the epicentre of the north London metropolitan elite. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who o...
E28: David Bedford
October 17, 2019 08:35 - 43 minutes - 30.1 MBThis week Richard and Sean visit the Hampstead home of Dave Bedford, legendary runner and 10,000 metre world record holder who played a pivotal role in the London Marathon for over three decades. We talk about the breaking the 2 hour barrier, Nike’s new shoes are different than drugs when It comes to running faster, the role of tech in sport and visiting all 92 pubs on the London Marathon route.Dave is working with his son Tom Bedford on the AIR:RUN, a brand new music/running concept consisti...
E27: Mums In Sport
October 09, 2019 18:53 - 42 minutes - 29.1 MBThis week Richard and Sean meet Claire Parnell, Emma Newell and Laura Weston the organisers of a vital new business network called the Mums in Sport Community (Misc) - a positive, supportive community for women who work in sport, and who are also mums. This is a conversation that touches on some big themes that impact on every element of the industry. We talk about confidence, guilt, money and the ways in which companies can help mums return to work a more effective process.“You have a 7.30 a...
E26: Poachers Turned Gamekeepers
October 03, 2019 07:52 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBWhat’s it like moving from brand marketer to rights holder? We talk to Nathan Homer and Tim Ellerton, two high profile sports business execs who have made the jump and have tales to tell. Nathan was Global Sports Marketing and Olympics Director at Procter & Gamble and head of global partnerships at Barclays before moving over to the other side, as Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer of European Tour golf. (Breaking news: Nathan just got a new job as Director of Trading, Broadband and Spo...
E25: Is Paris now the centre of Europe's sports market?
September 26, 2019 10:54 - 41 minutes - 28.6 MBThis week's guest is Lucien Boyer who we interviewed at the private members club, Home House. Lucien is the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Global Sports Week, which launches in February 2020 in Paris. We talk about his time as global head of Havas Sport and Entertainment, the difference between the British and French sports markets and got in to the politics of the Olympic Games, comparing the role played by London 2012 to that expected of Paris 2024. Global Sports Week is backed by Presi...
E24: Martin Bayfield
September 19, 2019 08:14 - 46 minutes - 31.7 MBThis week’s guest is Martin Bayfield, the former England International rugby player who is now one of the busiest and most popular presenters and after dinner speakers. We talk about the upcoming Rugby World Cup, his hopes and fears for the sport he loved since his days balancing a playing career with being a police officer in the amateur era. It was at one speaking engagement that his career as film star began, when the man from Warner Brothers asked him if would become Hagrid’s body double...
E23: Jimmy Worrall - LEADERS IN SPORT
September 10, 2019 18:47 - 56 minutes - 38.8 MBThis week’s guest is Jimmy Worrall, founder and CEO of Leaders in Sport, the conference and event business which he created in 2006. We talk about his career in sport which has included successful stints at The English FA, Soccerex and ENIC. The interview took place at Leaders’ offices in Wimbledon. During our conversation, Jimmy referenced Toby Hester, the leading sport sponsorship executive who had sadly passed away the day before we spoke. We join Jimmy in sending our deepest sympathies t...
E22 Lynsey Hooper and The Offside Rule
September 05, 2019 11:20 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MBLynsey Hooper is a sports journalist and broadcaster who is one third of the Offside Rule podcast, with fellow Sky Sports reporters Hayley McQueen and Kait Borsay, which has been taking football to a majority female audience since 2012. The idea came from conversations the three had while working at Sky in the Andy Gray and Richard Keys era.If this is your first time with us, feel free to dive in to our archive via UnofficialPartner.com where you can hear our interviews with a wide range fo g...
E21: What fans think about fan engagement
August 28, 2019 07:18 - 47 minutes - 32.6 MBFootball fans are rarely invited to talk about fan engagement. So we changed that. Very few football rivalries match the north London derby for intensity. In this week’s podcast we bring the supporters of Spurs and Arsenal together to talk about the role of fans in the business of football. Katrina Law is co-chair of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust, and Tim Payton plays a similar role for Arsenal’s official fan group. We talk Baku, Madrid, club ownership and why fans would welcome a...
E20: Inside The Athletic
August 20, 2019 20:01 - 25 minutes - 17.7 MBIn this week’s podcast, Richard and Sean take Harry The Talented Intern to visit the brand new London HQ of The Athletic, the sports publishing launch that has caught the attention of everyone in the sports media world. They sit down with editor in chief Alex Kay Jelski, one of the main architects of the new service and who was instrumental in the company’s rapid recruitment of some of the best writing talent in British football journalism. Alex was formerly sports editor of The Times and Th...
E19: Dame Heather Rabbatts
August 13, 2019 20:34 - 31 minutes - 21.7 MBThis week’s guest is Dame Heather Rabbatts Heather began her career as a Barrister at Law, before becoming a government advisor and chief executive of Lambeth Council, making her the youngest local authority CEO in the UK. She was a Governor of the BBC followed by an appointment as a senior executive at Channel 4 She has held many senior roles in football including Executive Chair of Millwall Football Club and in 2012 was The FA’s first female non-executive Director and Board member wher...
E18: Dugout and the clip economy
August 07, 2019 12:51 - 46 minutes - 32 MBElliot Richardson is co-founder and chair of Dugout, the football media company co-owned by some of the world’s biggest football clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. We talk about the changing media ecosystem around football, the economics of branded content and what the insurance industry knows about data. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who'...
E17: Faris Yakob
July 30, 2019 12:06 - 45 minutes - 31.2 MBFaris Yakob is an award winning advertising strategist, creative director, writer and public speaker. He was chief innovation officer at Naked Communications in the noughties and his book Paid Attention is a great primer on the way media and marketing are evolving. He’s also very good on Twitter. We talked to Faris at City and Islington College in London. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a w...
E16: Ed Smith
July 22, 2019 19:26 - 32 minutes - 22.3 MBEd Smith is the former test cricketer turned writer and TMS commentator who is now the chair of England cricket selectors and co-founder of the Institute for Sports Humanities. We spoke to Ed at the Mortimer Club in London before the recent Cricket World Cup, which England won in such dramatic fashion at Lord’s. We talk about leadership, the commercial history of sport and the role of luck in cricket and team selection. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A m...
E15: Why Steve Martin's moving to Australia
July 15, 2019 19:05 - 31 minutes - 21.7 MBThe M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment Global CEO is one of the industry’s highest profile figures, leading the agency from its inception to an unprecedented six Sport Industry Agency of the Year Awards.Now he’s moving to Sydney.His reasons for the change are an insight in to how the agency market is evolving in the UK and globally. 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 ...
E14: Jackie Fast: From ESA to The Apprentice
July 09, 2019 20:50 - 31 minutes - 21.8 MBJackie Fast was robbed! The sponsorship entrepreneur was the stand out star of Lord Sugar’s reality business show only to get the short stubby finger of fate in the boardroom. We talk about what it was like in the loser’s cafe, ask what happens in the Apprentice house and how the show helped build her brand. 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 com...
E13: Waiting for the FAANGs
July 01, 2019 16:03 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBTo understand Facebook’s relationship with live sport, it’s a good idea to talk to one of its key architects. Peter Hutton's move to the social media giant in 2018, set expectations of a new sports rights bonanza to fill the gap created by declining pay TV fees. But a year on, there’s little sign that Facebook want to play the rights game in the same way. ’I understand the desire for simple answers’ says Hutton in this exclusive interview at Facebook’s London HQ. The reality is more interest...
E13: Waiting for the FAANGs
July 01, 2019 16:03 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBTo understand Facebook’s relationship with live sport, it’s a good idea to talk to one of its key architects. Peter Hutton's move to the social media giant in 2018, set expectations of a new sports rights bonanza to fill the gap created by declining pay TV fees. But a year on, there’s little sign that Facebook want to play the rights game in the same way. ’I understand the desire for simple answers’ says Hutton in this exclusive interview at Facebook’s London HQ. The reality is more interest...
E12: At home with Charlie Sale
June 25, 2019 16:36 - 44 minutes - 30.5 MBOver a thirty year career in sports news, Charlie Sale was the most read and feared diarist in the business, and his Sports Agenda column in the Daily Mail was scoured by everyone from the England football manager to the lowliest PR intern.When he retired at the end of last year, some of the biggest names in sport lined up to pay tribute to one of the hardest working journalists on Fleet Street.We went to see Charlie at his home in west London, to check on his health and see if his opinions o...
E11: "Google Stadia changes everything"
June 19, 2019 10:10 - 49 minutes - 34.3 MBThis week Richard and Sean delve deep in to esports following Google’s big launch at E3, the gaming expo in LA. We talk cloud based streaming platforms, find out how in-game programmatic media works, who will win the race to build a PPV esports channel and whether teams have a Galacticos problem. This week’s guests are Leo Matlock (RFRSH Entertainment), Rob Dagwell (BidStack) and Jack Stewart (the first esports reporter for a national newspaper). The podcast was recorded at the posh new s...
E10: Nick Keller
June 12, 2019 10:58 - 57 minutes - 39.7 MBIf you work in the sports business, you’ve probably heard of Nick Keller. He's the driving force behind Benchmark, the BT Sport Industry Awards, Beyond Sport and several other prominent sports biz ventures. But you won't have heard him talk in such an honest and candid way as he does in the latest Unofficial Partner podcast. It's an hour's conversation about life and career, from being one of the first player agents in rugby's professional era through to what the judging process of the Sp...
E9:: We Need To Talk About Rihanna: Inside the influence business
June 04, 2019 11:13 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MBAs Managing Director of Hearst UK’s Health and Lifestyle titles, Alun Williams sits at the centre of the multi-billion pound fitness and wellbeing market, with a direct line in to the trends shaping the lifestyle choices of men and women of all ages. The magazines in Hearst’s portfolio are among the biggest selling titles in the UK, offering direct feedback between the choice of cover star and sales.So, who are the most effective fitness influencers? Who can be relied on to shift product, and...
E9:: We Need To Talk About Rihanna: Inside the influence business
June 04, 2019 11:13 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MBAs Managing Director of Hearst UK’s Health and Lifestyle titles, Alun Williams sits at the centre of the multi-billion pound fitness and wellbeing market, with a direct line in to the trends shaping the lifestyle choices of men and women of all ages. The magazines in Hearst’s portfolio are among the biggest selling titles in the UK, offering direct feedback between the choice of cover star and sales.So, who are the most effective fitness influencers? Who can be relied on to shift product, and...
E8: Whatever Happened To The Golden Decade of Sport?
May 29, 2019 11:38 - 1 hour - 42.9 MBIn a famous speech in 2008, then Prime Minister Gordon Brown proclaimed London 2012 as the start of a ‘Golden decade of sport’ in Britain, which will leave a lasting legacy from ‘elite to grass roots’. This week’s podcast asks, was he right, and what was the commercial legacy of the last ten years? Which governing bodies, sponsors and agencies have prospered and which have seen their star wane? Who were the people whose careers were made during the last decade and those who suffered from bein...
E7: Sport’s Missing Billions
May 22, 2019 04:00 - 40 minutes - 28.1 MBSport’s missing billions Global brand spend on sports sponsorship will grow four per cent this year to £35 billion (US$46 billion), according to recent findings from Two Circles. But the report made the controversial claim that sports properties are missing out on an extra £14 billion due to unsold inventory, unreported engagement and outdated rights packaging. We ask the report’s author Phil Stephan where he got his numbers from and what he thinks rights holders can do to plug the gap. It...
E6: What Rory Sutherland thinks about when he thinks about sport
May 16, 2019 08:09 - 46 minutes - 31.7 MBRory is Vice Chairman at advertising agency Ogilvy in the UK and author of a new book: Alchemy, The surprising Power of Ideas which don't make Sense. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of Judges at Cannes, and his TED Global talks have been downloaded seven million times. He writes regular columns for The Spectator and is married to a vicar. Our interview took place in a cupboard at the Rosewood Hotel in London. Unofficial Partner is a sports business publishing consultancy. ...
E5: The Business of Cricket: From Packer to The Hundred
May 09, 2019 14:59 - 42 minutes - 29.5 MBThis week’s guests are sports biz guru Tim Crow and Derek Pringle, the former England test cricketer turned journalist and author. We explore the links between the original breakaway ‘cricket circus’ of World Series Cricket in the late 1970s and later innovations including the emergence of Twenty20 in the noughties, the IPL and the ill fated Stanford debacle through to the ECB’s new brainchild, The Hundred which launches in 2020. We also discussed Derek's new book, Pushing The Boundaries. ...
E5: The Business of Cricket: From Packer to The Hundred
May 09, 2019 14:59 - 42 minutes - 29.5 MBThis week’s guests are sports biz guru Tim Crow and Derek Pringle, the former England test cricketer turned journalist and author. We explore the links between the original breakaway ‘cricket circus’ of World Series Cricket in the late 1970s and later innovations including the emergence of Twenty20 in the noughties, the IPL and the ill fated Stanford debacle through to the ECB’s new brainchild, The Hundred which launches in 2020. We also discussed Derek's new book, Pushing The Boundaries. ...
E4: Alison Kervin - Mail On Sunday - Anatomy of A Campaign
May 09, 2019 13:28 - 32 minutes - 22.6 MBGroundbreaking sports editor Alison Kervin talks about The Mail on Sunday’s award winning concussion campaign, from the early resistance of sports governing bodies to the role of the media and sponsors in pushing important issues to the top of the news agenda. www.unofficialpartner.com 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, si...
E3: Brand Tiger Special
April 25, 2019 14:49 - 51 minutes - 35.5 MBThe Three Ages of Brand TigerRichard Gillis is joined by the sports marketing world’s Tim Crow and token millennial @eoinfconnolly, editor at large of SportsPro. They start out with a plan to discuss three moments that shaped the Tiger Woods story, asking questions such as why didn’t Accenture know? Did Tiger really cause a boom in golf media rights? And, how did Tim Crow get a car park space at the Ryder Cup?Nike's first Tiger TV ad is also discussed.www.unofficialpartner.com Unofficial Part...
E2: James Brown - Four Four Two
April 23, 2019 15:45 - 45 minutes - 31.1 MBAs founder and editor of Loaded magazine in the 1990s, James Brown (@jamesjamesbrown) was the architect of Lad culture, the influence of which pervades the football media landscape today. A lifelong Leeds Utd fan, he’s now back in the world of magazine publishing at the helm of FourFourTwo. We talk about his plans for world domination, whether The Damned United was any good, what makes a great magazine and wonder if the current generation of football fans are missing something. www.unoffici...
E1: Paul Hawksbee - TALKSPORT
April 10, 2019 19:54 - 34 minutes - 23.4 MBThere's a bit in the podcast with Paul Hawksbee when he talks about how much previous knowledge you have to assume in the reader for a joke to work. This is a point that many people get wrong and it ruins everything. Hawksbee's mantra came from his days in magazines, when he created 90 Minutes, back in the days before Italia '90. There were jokes and cultural references in the mag that talked directly to the small group of people who read them and go them. Once you water these down, go fo...