UP208: Simon Bazalgette
11/09/21 • 48 min
Richard first met Simon Bazalgette when he was chief executive of The Jockey Club, the organisation that owns some of the UK’s biggest racecourses including Aintree, Epsom and Cheltenham.
But this isn’t really a conversation about horse-racing, because Bazalgette was very early to some of the big themes that we talk about on this podcast. things like media streaming services, data, betting, financial models and digital publishing. His career really took off in the music business, when he was one of the founders of Music Choice Europe, an early digital music platform and was one of the darlings of the first dotcom boom when it floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2000, boasting 14million subscribers and was a forerunner of today’s music streaming and digital radio industry.
Simon is a non-executive director of the EFL was a senior independent director of the World Athletics Championships in London in 2017 and is a member of the Sports Board of the NSPCC.
And if you don’t already get the weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter, you can join thousands of busy sports biz execs who receive it direct to their inbox every Thursday, 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.
Richard first met Simon Bazalgette when he was chief executive of The Jockey Club, the organisation that owns some of the UK’s biggest racecourses including Aintree, Epsom and Cheltenham.
But this isn’t really a conversation about horse-racing, because Bazalgette was very early to some of the big themes that we talk about on this podcast. things like media streaming services, data, betting, financial models and digital publishing. His career really took off in the music business, when he was one of the founders of Music Choice Europe, an early digital music platform and was one of the darlings of the first dotcom boom when it floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2000, boasting 14million subscribers and was a forerunner of today’s music streaming and digital radio industry.
Simon is a non-executive director of the EFL was a senior independent director of the World Athletics Championships in London in 2017 and is a member of the Sports Board of the NSPCC.
And if you don’t already get the weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter, you can join thousands of busy sports biz execs who receive it direct to their inbox every Thursday, 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.
Previous Episode
UP207: The Bundle 14
This is another episode of The Bundle, our regular look at the sports media and streaming market, with my co-host Yannick Ramcke. This week’s guests are Hannah Brown, the Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer at Formula E, who lists Sky, Relevent Sports, FuboTV and KPMG in her CV, and Murray Barnett, ex ESPN, World Rugby, F1 and now the D2C Sport consultancy.
We look in depth at the Premier League’s North American ambitions, UEFA’s agency RFP and ask, what do you get when you buy BT Sport, a question facing DAZN if recent media stories are right.
And if you don’t already get the weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter, you can join thousands of busy sports biz execs who receive it direct to their inbox every Thursday, 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.
Next Episode
UP209: Eni Aluko, Angel City and the business of football
This is another episode in our series Talking To Women About The Sports Business, with my regular co-host Laura Weston, the global PR consultant and trustee of the Women’s Sport Trust.
Earlier this year Eni Aluko was appointed sporting director of Angel City FC, the new expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) which begins playing in 2022. The Los Angeles based franchise has a majority female ownership group led by actor Natalie Portman, venture capitalist Kara Nortman and a host of other founder members including Serena Williams, Jennifer Garner and Mia Hamm.
Before moving in to management, Aluko played professional football for Chelsea and Juventus among others and made 102 appearances for the England national team from 2004–2016, competed at the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in China, 2009 UEFA Women's Euro, 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany, 2013 UEFA Women's Euro, and 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, she represented Great Britain.
A qualified lawyer, Aluko built a career as a TV pundit immediately combined with representing players and advising on contracts.
All of this makes her supremely well placed for a very wide ranging conversation about many aspects of football, from the boardroom to the playing field, the pressures and challenges of fame, the role of agents and the future of both Angel City and women’s football, in the UK, Europe and the US.
If you don’t already get the weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter, you can join thousands of busy sports biz execs who receive it direct to their inbox every Thursday, subscribe via unofficialpartner.com
Every episode of Unofficial Partner can be found by using the big podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via your favourite podcast app.
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.
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/unofficial-partner-podcast-191636/up208-simon-bazalgette-17849296"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to up208: simon bazalgette on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy