At any sports business conference, there will be a moment when a strategy geek or rights owner will say they are pivoting to ‘more of a Champions League model’. So we asked one of the architects of the UEFA Champions League to explain why it’s not as straightforward as it sounds. Craig Thompson was a founding member of TEAM Marketing in the early 1990s, crea ... Show More
Yesterday
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 com ... Show More
45m 59s
Oct 20
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 tourna ... Show More
1h 1m
Oct 13
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 shir ... Show More
56m 53s