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.

Mark Oliver was the BBC’s first head of strategy before creating Oliver and Ohlbaum Associates, one of the leading sport and entertainment strategy boutiques helping investors, media owners, tech companies, policy makers and sports bodies understand and respond to the emerging digital revolution.

Mark has advised on every Premier League rights negotiation since 1995 and the agency’s clients include CVC, Google, Serie A, Formula E, Spotfiy and the BBC among others.

Our conversation is framed by two pieces Mark wrote for Sportcal, which I thought best articulated the challenge sport now faces. The first was written in 2018 and describes the first and second wave of disruption hitting the sports sector. The second, written a few weeks ago, looks at how the current covid shutdown will accelerate this process. Here are the links to the Sportcal articles:

https://www.sportcal.com/Insight/opinion/118138

https://www.sportcal.com/Insight/Opinion/131327

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.

Today we talk to Brett Gosper the chief executive of World Rugby about how his career in advertising frames what sees as the role of a governing body.As a player in the 1980s, Gosper was a talented centre who had the misfortune to play in the era of the Ella brothers, who dominated the back line of the Australia teams at that time. We talk about Gosper’s decision to move to Paris to play for the Racing 92 club, a period in which his career in advertising was launched at Ogilvy and Mather. We talk about the influence of David Ogilvy not just on Gosper but on the advertising industry generally. Gosper left Ogilvy in 1989 and began what was a very successful career leading some of the agency sector’s biggest names, including EuroRSCG, which is now Havas, McCann Erickson in New York and TBWA.Gosper became head of the IRB in 2012 and changed the name to World Rugby and has since overseen the sport’s return to the Olympic Games in Rio and two commercially successful World Cups in 2015 and 2019 in Japan.

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.