Unofficial Partner Podcast

Michel Masquelier entered IMG as an intern and left as chairman. The intervening 30 years saw a transformation in the sports economy, led by the boom in media rights values, an area in which Masquelier became a world expert as head of IMG Media, first under Mark McCormack, then Ted Forstmann and finally Ari Emanuel’s Endeavour.

We talk about private equity, bundles and betting, and his new book, Life Is Not A Dress Rehearsal, which charts the ups and downs of a career in sport.

The Unofficial Partner newsletter goes to thousands of people across the sports business, to join them sign up via 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, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner
We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Today’s guest is Tom Fox, the former chief executive of Premier League club Aston Villa during the ownership tenure of fellow American Randy Lerner. So this is a timely conversation about the economics of the Premier League, the power and limitations of the CEO’s job and the potential impact of government regulation following the Tracey Crouch review in to football governance.

Fox’s career has mixed high end football with brand marketing. Before Villa, Fox led Arsenal’s commercial team under CEO Ivan Gazidis following a marketing career at PepsiCo and Nike. Between 2017 and 2020 he was president of MLS franchise the San Jose Earthquakes and recently carried out a similar role at FaZe Clan, the esports franchise.

The weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter is read by thousands of people across the sports business every Thursday, to join them subscribe via 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, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner
We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Today’s podcast is a conversation about sports agencies: what they do, how the current shutdown is going to change that and the longer term opportunities and threats they face.CSM’s Jim Glover has been working agency side since he started at IMG’s golf client division in the 1980s before he set up Lighthouse Communications in 1994, for clients including Heineken, GlaxoSmithKline, and Land Rover. That business was sold to Fast Track in December 2005, which in turn was acquired by Chime Communications Plc in 2007. Jim was CEO of CSM Sport & Entertainment for 5 years before taking on the role of Deputy Chairman in 2015, overseeing a range of businesses that comprise CSM, such as Fast Track, Essentially, Iluka, the JMI motorsport business and the design agency Icon.The interview took place two weeks ago.

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 on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner
We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Welcome to All Models Are Wrong, the first in a new occasional series of Unofficial Partner conversations that focus specifically on digital strategy in sport. We first met Alex Balfour when he was chairman of Cricinfo, now part of ESPN in the early days of sports first Dotcom boom. He was one of a small group of people able to articulate the then future of sport’s relationship with technology.

It was no surprise then that he landed the key digital role at LOCOG, the organising committee for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Since then his career has included several landmark moments, he is currently CEO of Digital Brand Services and working on a digital strategy for the Commonwealth Games Federation, a Technology and Innovation Strategy for the Supreme Committee organising the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar and advising on digital commercial strategy for CAAELeven, UEFA’s commercial partner for the 2020 European Football Championship (Euro 2020). The day of recording he’d just left his most recent project working with TEAM Marketing, UEFA’s exclusive commercial partner for the UEFA Champions League, Europa and Super Cups.

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 on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner
We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Gareth Balch co-founded Two Circles in 2011 when he 28 years old, and the business has since become one of the most influential sports marketing agencies to emerge over the last decade. They came to be seen as the defacto data agency that works with many sports rights holders, from the NFL, the Premier League, Uefa, Formula One and Wimbledon, among others. We talk about what this really means, and the many interpretations and misconceptions people have both about digital transformation in sport and the company itself.In 2015 Two Circles was acquired by GroupM, WPP’s media investment management company, which was incorporated into what was a new global sport and entertainment agency brand called ESP. Just recently WPP sold its majority stake to Bruin Sports Capital, the New York based investment vehicle controlled by George Pyne, the former boss of iMG.The Unofficial Partner podcast is now published daily, and we're proud and grateful that our conversations are being listened to by thousands of people across the sports business every week of the year. If you'd like to enquiry about advertising, sponsorship or branded podcasts, please get in touch with Sean via email [email protected] or you can reach us via the website 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, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner
We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.