Unofficial Partner Podcast
Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. Our guests are a who's who of the international sports industry talking about the big issues.
Episodes
541 episodes
UP541 Addicted To Fake Fan Numbers: When Sport Met The Dead Internet
Digital advertising has a dirty secret: most of what you're paying for never reaches a human being. Dr. Augustine Fou is a world leading expert in digital ad fraud and has spent 20 ye...
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44:56
UP540 The Bundle: Premier League plus points; Apple's Meh Bundle; FIFA's 10 minute YouTube hook
The latest dissection of the sports media and streaming marketplace from the ever popular, long running series featuring expert analysis from Yannick Ramcke and Murray Barnett. This episode goes deep in to:Why Premier Le...
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57:39
UP539 Spin Class: PR lessons from Kirsty Coventry, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Igor Tudor
Three highly experienced communications professionals join Richard to dissect some recent high profile PR gaffes.Guests:Henry Chappell, Founder and CEO of Pitch Marketing GroupNeil Daugherty, Senior Managing Director at Ten...
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1:08:54
UP538 Ted Knutson on Brentford, Betting and Benham. And how AI will change football data
Ted Knutson's career tracks a remarkable arc: professional gambler at Pinnacle, architect of Brentford's analytics-driven recruitment model, founder of StatsBomb — built from a blog written during cancer recovery into a global data company sold...
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53:05
UP537 The Buy Side: Inside Unilever's FIFA World Cup Strategy
Today, we are joined by Ben Curtis, Global Brand Vice President for Rexona—the brand known as Degree in the US, Sure in the UK, and Shield in South Africa. Ben oversees the global strategy for a brand that Unilever i...
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42:27
UP536 Other People's Money: Bex Smith's thesis for women's football multi club ownership
Bex Smith, is our guest today on Other People’s Money, Unofficial Partner’s sports finance series presented with regular cohost Matt Rogan. Bex Smith was captain of the New Zealand Women’s football team, appearing at World Cups, two...
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1:05:32
UP535 Inside Edge - T20's Product-Market fit is 'the biggest delta in global sport'
What T20 Cricket Teaches Every Sport About The Race For The Global Fan.Mike Jakeman joins Richard for Inside Edge, the business of cricket series. Guests: Finn Bradshaw, Head of Digital, ICCEdward Fitzgibbo...
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1:02:25
UP534 Barney Francis on Media Rights and Wrongs
Barney Francis offers an insider's view of the sports media economy, drawing on his huge experience as MD of Sky Sports in the UK and EVP, Studios at IMG, the company's production business. The conversation spans new sports formats, piracy, str...
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55:16
UP533 The Bundle: Super Bowl, cultural relevance v culture war; ITV's in-game ads; FIFA and TikTok
Richard is joined by regular Bundle co-hosts Yannick Ramcke and Murray Barnett. Yannick is General Manager of OTT at the streaming service OneFootball and Murray is founder of 26West Sport and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN.
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1:01:42
UP532 Inside Edge: County Cricket Beyond The Hundred
Pete Fitzboydon, former CEO of Sussex County Cricket Club, reveals the stark financial realities facing non-Test hosting counties. With only 7 out of 50-60 annual playing days generating profit, counties survive primarily on ECB funding - appro...
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59:09
UP531 Winter Olympic Special: Lottery funding, Medals, Rule 40 and Private Schools
Sally Munday is CEO of UK Sport, one of the most influential positions in the sports industry. On Friday the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games begins in Milan-Cortina. How many medal will Team GB win? How much will each medal...
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56:04
UP530 Spurs For Sale: Shirts, Gambling Bans and the Post-Levy Era
Ryan Norys is the Chief Revenue Officer at Tottenham Hotspur. This is a candid conversation about the commercial fortunes of the club as it brings the front of shirt sponsorship to market at a time of genuine uncertainty.Spurs finished 1...
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53:30
UP529 ChatUP Live Pt2 - The Billion Dollar AI Race: 'Once you give away that level of knowledge, it's gone'
THE BILLION DOLLAR RACE: WHO WINS SPORTS AI?There's a race on. Bloomberg Terminal for sport. Sports Business GPT. The industry's operating system. Who builds it first?THE LAST FRONTIER"Once you give away that ...
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1:05:20
UP528 Chat_UP Live - The Race to Build SportsbizGPT Pt1
What if we could fix the conference panel? You know the format—interesting people, good intentions, and about ninety percent of it forgotten by the time you reach the bar.Chat_UP Live was held at FUSE headquarters in London. Rathe...
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47:24
UP527 The Bundle 2026 Preview: NFL, WBD, DAZN, F1, UEFA...WTAF?
Welcome to The Bundle, our regular series on the sports media and streaming marketplace with co-hosts Yannick Ramcke, General Manager of OTT at the streaming service OneFootball and Murray Barnett, founder of 26West Sport and formerly of F1, Wo...
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1:04:07
UP526 Nikki Doucet has the most interesting job in British sport
Nikki Doucet has the most interesting job in British sport and one of the most difficult. Certainly, everyone in the sports business has an opinion on what the CEO of WSL Football should do to capitalise on the potential of women's professional...
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54:35
UP525 What Just Happened in 2025: The Story, Event and Person of the Sports Business Year
David Cushnan and James Emmett of Leaders in Sport join Richard on the final podcast of the year to review the people, stories and events that mattered in 2025.
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1:07:46
UP524 Sleepwalking to Irrelevance: Content and fandom in the age of the For You algorithm
Richard Gillis is joined by Damian Browarnik from WSC Sports, the content and data platform working with over 650 clients including the NBA, NFL and La Liga, and Rich Johnson, sports marketing strategist and cofounder of End Product, form...
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46:27
UP523 The Bundle: Paramount's Relevent entry; Sky's UEFA return; Apple's MLS exit; Netflix, TNT, WTF?
The Bundle is our long running series on the sports media and streaming marketplace with co-hosts Yannick Ramcke, General Manager of OTT at the streaming service OneFootball and Murray Barnett, founder of 26West Sport and formerly of F1, World ...
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56:41
UP522 Signed by Messi: What's the most valuable shirt in world football?
Today's guest is Dan Jamieson, who is chief executive and co-owner of ICONS, the world's biggest signed football memorabilia company. ICONS was founded in 1999, originally starting as an editorial website for footballers to connect ...
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43:36
UP521: Inside Edge - 'American money is IPL curious'
Inside Edge is our cricket business series with co-host Mike Jakeman. Today's guest is Venkat Ananth on the money circling the IPL franchises. Check out Venkat's newsletter and blog, State of Play. This episode of the Unoffic...
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53:37
UP520: Olympic Provocateur: Michael Payne on Sport Politics, from Dassler to Trump
Olympic marketing pioneer Michael Payne discusses his book Fast Tracks and Dark Deals, exploring how sport became business through the lens of legendary figures like Horst Dassler, Bernie Ecclestone and Mark McCormack. He challenges fe...
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47:12
UP519 Live at Sportradar Connect: Soccer Edition, featuring Jamie Carragher
This episode was recorded at the recent Sportradar Connect: Soccer Edition event at the London Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The podcast divides is in two parts. First is an onstage conversation on the evolut...
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46:14
UP518 Inside Edge: Harry Brook, George Pyne and the cricket agent business
Inside Edge is our series on the business of cricket, presented with co-host Mike Jakeman. Our guest is Phil Weston, head of cricket at TGI Sport, the agency owned jointly by George Pyne's Bruin Sports Capital and Quadrant Private E...
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53:04
UP517 The Mark Oliver Heatmap: Global sport's investment hotspots
Mark Oliver was the BBC's first head of strategy before creating Oliver and Ohlbaum in 1995, which remains one of the most influential media advisory boutiques in the market, with clients ranging from sports leagues and federations to media com...
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45:27