All in podcast
In 2023, one-day cricket enjoyed its 60th birthday.
David Tossell has written a book on the evolution of the format. He describes those early days as “nicely naïve”. But, at the same time, they were the foundation for every major innovation in cricket ever since.
These days, the 50-over game is under an existential threat due to the rise of T20. Can it survive, is it worth saving and what would be its legacy?
Ricardo Fort has led the sponsorship strategy for brands at World Cup and Olympics.
After a long, successful career with the likes of Coca-cola and Visa, he has set up his own consulting firm. In this podcast, Ricardo gives straight answers to key questions in sports sponsorship and outlines how content fits in. This is a sophisticated 101 for anyone interested in working in the commercial department at a major sports organisation.
Alex Phillips does not look or sound like a revolutionary but his ideas could shake up football.
He spent 15 years at Uefa, including a couple as Head of Compliance and Governance. He was seconded to the Asian Football Confederation for three years and now leads the World Football Remission Fund, a FIFA body administrating how money "stolen from the game" should be returned for its overall benefit.
In this podcast, we discuss good governance, the ramifications of the failed Super League project, educating owners and fans, setting examples and, of course, content.
The challenges facing netball are different to other sports. While we have seen growth in women's football, tennis and boxing in recent years, it has always occurred through the lens (or maybe in the shadow) of established male forebears. Netball does not have this baggage. Its product and message can be tailored specifically toward women and girls. Claire Nelson, CEO of Netball Scotland explains
In the next 10 years, cricket will try to cross its biggest and most important new frontier - the USA. They have been awarded co-hosting rights for the 2024 T20 World Cup and a buzz is building around the chances of inclusion in the Olympics in Los Angeles four years later.
Minor League Cricket started last season and its Major League big brother begins this year. Tom Dunmore is VP of Marketing for both tournaments. In this podcast, we discuss the story so far, the challenges they face and the vision for success.
Brian Jacks was a household in the UK in the 1980s. The pinnacle of the judo player’s sporting success came when he won a bronze medal at the Munich Olympics in 1972. But a few years later he would become much more famous as the UK and European champion in Superstars, a popular television programme that saw the best athletes of the day compete in events outside their niche. The show grew throughout the world to become perhaps the first modern example of how sporting heroes could cross into mainstream media, with all its financial benefits, through light entertainment television.
Now living in Thailand, Jacks talks about his motivations, how he leveraged his Superstars fame, his rivalry with Daley Thompson and why he’d love to be a grappling coach in UFC.
Podcast partner: Sports Tech Match - Simplifying Sports Tech Procurement
Motherwell FC have lifted only one trophy in the past 30 years. However, off the pitch, they beat off competition from Manchester United, Everton and Leicester to win the Best Digital/Social Media category at the Football Business Awards this year.
Grant Russell is the club’s Head of Brand, Digital and Communications. In this episode, he talks about the thinking, discipline and creativity that have gone into building a stand-out story for an otherwise overlooked Scottish team.
This is a deep dive into content strategy and, like me, Russell believes in cutting through clutter with a strict, realistic yet progressive vision for storytelling.
After a decade as chair of UK Athletics (including the 2017 World Championships in London) and a few years in his current role with GB Wheelchair rugby, Ed Warner is well-placed to comment on the stresses and strains of running a modern sport.
In this podcast, we discuss many of the key issues required to steer a sporting ship towards success: leadership styles, funding models, changing content strategies, marketing, elite sport v participation, bringing in private equity funding and his open application for the role of ECB chair.
Given its increasingly strategic importance within sports business, it is surprising how many rights-holders produce sub-standard apps.
To try and solve this issue, I spoke to George Crabb, Managing Director at The Other Media. This well-established digital agency have a rich history in working with rights-holders to create mobile applications of the highest quality.
How do you create a story about a team that has won the league seven seasons in a row (and an eighth is expected to follow soon)? Johor Darul Ta'zim (or JDT) were re-formed in 2013 under the guidance of the Crown Prince of Johor. They won their first title a year later and the AFC Cup 12 months after that. But their tone on social media has brought them as much attention as their success. Vijhay Vick, the Head of Content, is leading their strategy. In this podcast, he discusses his approach to JDT's unique position.
Alison Kervin is a pioneer in women's sports journalism. She was the first female editor of Rugby World and the first female sports editor of a UK national newspaper. Kervin's eight-year spell at the Mail on Sunday has just come to a close so he has started up a media agency for athletes. Oh, and she is a successful novelist too.
The use of data in the analysis of sporting performance is well-known but not yet universally employed.
Poker has become viewed as a Petri-dish for strategic thinking based on probability which, if applied correctly, can provide long-term success.
Dan Weston is a former professional gambler and poker player. He was also one of the UK’s top slot-machine players in his young days.
Now, he is applying his shrewd statistical knowledge to cricket as recruitment analyst of Leicestershire CC and the Birmingham Phoenix.
Sarim Akhtar's face has become synonymous with anger but he is actually a very happy chap.
However, when the television cameras momentarily caught his expression at a cricket match two years ago, the Pakistan fan was furious after his team had dropped a catch. Within hours, the anonymous meme-makers had pounced on the picture and spread it around social media. He has been 'Insta-famous' ever since.
How should you react in this situation? Ignore it, embrace it or just make as much cash as you can?
Rob Moody runs a YouTube channel with over 900,000 subscribers and holds an important influence over the agenda in his sport but he has never made a penny.
If you are a cricket fan with access to the internet, it is highly likely you have seen one of his videos. Robelinda2 is the ‘go to’ channel for the rare, unusual or controversial moments in the game. His archive has received over a billion views in its 10-year existence by curating niche cricketing content that is appetising to fans and acceptable to rights-holders.
This is an unusual digisport success story. Yet, there are many lessons to be learned.
Like a great drummer, a sports content strategy should be tight and consistent but happy to improvise when required.
Many content leaders have been caught out by changes in Facebook's algorithms over the years and, in recent months, Google and Apple have introduced fundamental alterations that will have knock-on effects for almost everyone in the digital space, not just the sports industry.
Recently, a blog by Johan Junker entitled the Cookie Apocalypse caught my eye. He is a deep thinker on content, sports and the future. His company, Antourage are trying to solve some of the issues. But there are plenty more to discuss.
Fiona Green’s book, Winning with Data, was an important step in the development of CRM in Sports.
Now, three years later, she has updated it. Therefore it seemed a good time to discuss the way this area has developed in the intervening time.
How it has evolved? If the principles have not changed, are they emphasized in different ways? And, what is coming in the next three years?
NOTE: This podcast was recorded before the ESL plans were revealed
Sport in the UK is getting ready for the return of spectators.
The sticking plasters that have held their business models can start to be whipped off. The question is what will we find underneath?
Ben Wells has spent lockdown thinking deeply on these issues. The CCO of PTI Digital has wide experience from his time at Chelsea FC and Bath Rugby. He believes it WILL be different, behaviours WILL change and some aspects of sports will NEVER be the same again. However, there IS an opportunity to forge a different future. And, he believes, digital will be at its heart.
The Red Bull energy drink company took over teams in Salzburg, New York, Brazil, Ghana and, most controversially, Leipzig between 2005 and 2010. These acquisitions have been dismissed as a marketing exercise and labelled with one of the most damning words in the supporters’ lexicon - plastic.
Last year, Karan Tejwani published Wings of Change: How the World’s Biggest Energy Drink Manufacturer Made a Mark in Football. In this podcast, we discuss the business the meaning and the lessons behind Red Bull’s football story.
On Sports Content Strategy, I like to investigate those clubs, leagues and organisations which back their ambitious intentions with a clear, determined strategy. The J.League was formed as recently as 1992 but has developed into a tournament of world renown and, as discussed in episode 37, is looking to dominate its continent.
Ken Lambert works in the PR and digital department at Vissel Kobe. In this episode we discuss communication strategy, the differences between Europe and Japan, why the club are among the leaders on social media in the J.League, dealing with high-profile foreign players, Covid-19 and competing in the AFC Champions League.
The decline of UK speedway in the past 40 years is worthy of close examination. In the 1970s and early 1980s, it was billed as Britain's second most popular spectator sport. Now, bar a dwindling yet devoted hardcore, it seems to have entirely lost its mainstream appeal. Some believe it is as close to death as any professional sport could ever come in the UK.
The sports business world often discusses the possibility of a sport 'dying' if it fails to change and modernise. But why did this happen to speedway in particular? What lessons are there for modern sports? Was a media deal pivotal? What structural problems did the sport have? And, most importantly, does speedway's European success give hope for the future?
