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
520 episodes
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
UP516 Smart Recruitment: The Brentford Model, in partnership with Indeed
The story of Brentford is one of the most interesting and quoted case studies in European football over the last decade. The west London club been transformed on and off the pitch, from being saved from extinction by its own fans to a new era u...
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54:17
UP515 Other People's Money @ EY: Why is Big Sport so hard to disrupt?
This is a special episode of Other People's Money is our regular series on sports investment which was recorded recently in front of an invited audience at the London headquarters of EY, the Big Four accounting and professional services group.&...
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1:08:01
UP514: Inside Edge x The Big Idea: Does the advertising industry understand cricket?
Nike, Drake and Beats have just released cricket themed campaigns.WTF? Is cricket cool?Richard asked Mike Jakeman and Simon Moore to list their best and worst cricket themed campaigns and the result is a conversation about cliches...
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59:39
UP513 The Bundle Live @ SPORTEL Monaco: F1 and Apple, Relevent's streamer pitch, D2C wtf?
We took The Bundle to Monaco and recorded a live podcast on stage at Sportel, the famous sports media and technology marketplace.Joining Richard and regular co-host Murray Barnett were Glen Killane (EBU Sport), Peter Bellamy (Deltatre) a...
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44:35
UP512 Other People's Money: APEX, the athlete investor trend, Red Bull Ventures, Baller and TGL
Joining Richard and Matt Rogan is António Caçorino, founder & CEO of APEX, the sports fund manager known for its roster of over 70 athletes across 15 sports and 30+ leagues. Famous names attached to the fund include Formula 1 drivers Lando ...
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55:39
UP511 What Just Happened: P/E for RFL; BBC, golf and Bill Murray; The Ashes of TNT
What Just Happened - Episode SummaryRugby League's Private Equity Play: Super League Seeks InvestmentThe Rugby Football League is in talks with private equity firms, including Lion Cap Global and Oakwell Sports Advisory, about s...
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55:35
UP510 Cause and Effect: The Sponsorship Effectiveness Revolution
We went to the London offices of Sid Lee Sport to host Cause and Effect: Why sponsorship needs an effectiveness revolution. A live recording featuring industry professionals from across the sport sponsorship marketplace, who came to...
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58:28
UP509 Gareth Balch on the State of the Sports Economy in 2025
Today's conversation was recorded at the Two Circles European Summit which took place a few weeks ago at the Institute of Engineering and Technology overlooking the Thames, next to the Savoy. Gareth Balch, founder and CEO of Two Circle...
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38:17
UP508 What's Sport Selling? Hollingsworth on the state of the nation's health, flags, needles, government and the free market
This is the fourth and final episode of our series What's Sport Selling? Created in collaboration with the Redtorch research and creative agency. Today's guest is Tim Hollingsworth, w...
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52:53
UP507 The YouTube Arguments
Guests Jen Topping and Jo Redfern critique the arguments around sport’s relationship with the creator economy, the control v chaos philosophy divide inherent in digital IP monetisation and audience building, and the PR battles being waged for p...
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1:12:44
UP506 Chat_UP: LiveScore, Grok and how AI will disrupt sports betting
Our guest is Sam Sadi, CEO of LiveScore Group, and a regular visitor on Unofficial Partner. Last week he announced a groundbreaking new partnership between the LiveScore sports content and betting platform and xAI, the Elon Musk own...
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54:20
UP505 Inside Edge - T20 Women's World Cup
This is Inside Edge, which is our cricket business podcast. Regular co-host Mike Jakeman is away this week, but our guests are Beth Barrett-Wild and Jen Vile from the ECB. Beth is the Tournament Director at ICC Women's...
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47:54
UP504 What Just Happened: Inside IMG's farmhouse; Peter Thiel's Enhanced Games; Jamie Redknapp's new agency
Three stories from a week in the sports business.James Emmett comes fresh from the IMG-Redbird Summit.David Cushnan on what and who lurks behind The Enhanced Games.Richard on Jamie Redknapp and Richard Thompson's new footba...
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1:00:45
UP503 The Bundle: New season, new YouTube strategy; UFC's PPV exit; Agency collusion; Ligue1's Opening weekend
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 Consulting and formerly of F...
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1:06:11
UP502 What Just Happened: The IOC and Trump's America; PayPal and CEO branded content; UEFA's global decision
The perfect weekend warm up. Richard is joined by Dave Cushnan and James Emmett from Leaders in Sport. Each picks a story of the week and asks, what just happened? Sponsored by:Women’s sport ...
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53:53
UP501 What happens at Sportel, stays at Sportel
SPORTEL Monaco takes place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco October 20th to 22nd. It's been the world's leading sports content media rights and technology convention for more than 30 years. This episode asks, what will people be talk...
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43:55
UP500 What Just Happened: McLaren's valuation; New Newcastle CEO; Ryder Cup future
Richard is joined by David Cushnan and James Emmett of Leaders. Three stories from this week in the sports business.What happened, why do we care and where's it going?What does McLaren F1's valuation say about F1?<...
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57:27
UP499 TKO, On Location and the World Cup hospitality market
Today's guest Paul Caine is the President of On Location, the premium experiential hospitality division of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO). Under his leadership, OnLocation has become the global leader in sports and entertainment hospitality, ma...
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56:59
UP498 Other People's Money: Does Debt have a Branding Problem?
Today we are talking Other People's Money, this is our regular series on sports finance with regular co-host Matt Rogan, who was of course one of the Co-Founders of Two Circles. Today's guest is a special one is Ed McBride, who is ...
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46:47
UP497 'Buy It or Build It': Simon Denyer on the Billion-Dollar Sports Media Playbook
As co-founder of Perform and DAZN, Simon Denyer has spent the last twenty years at the intersection of sport, media, and technology. Last week he brokered an innovative new relationship between La Liga and Disney+ via his new company PEAK Sport...
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1:14:47
Inside Edge - Peter Hutton on Cricket, India and the rights market
This is an episode of Inside Edge, our series on the cricket business with regular co-host Mike Jakeman. Today's guest is Peter Hutton, and nobody knows more about the relationship between television and cricket than Peter Hutton.Strap ...
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1:05:44