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
421 episodes since 2021
UP421 Conversations About Women's Health That Men Avoid Having
Earlier this year, The Football Association has became the first national governing body to mandate training on female health, with Women’s Super League and Championship clubs benefitting from a new league-wide support plan covering pregnancy, ...
September 17, 2024
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45:02
UP420 The 3: The Big Swinging Dick Episode
The journey to creating a ten minute podcast is not a linear one. That's fancy talk for saying that rather than cut last week's half hour episode, this one went one for 45 minutes. Three stories:James Emmett reports from IMG's brea...
September 13, 2024
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44:04
UP419 Warming Up: The Planet Can't Afford Sport's Big Event Growth Plan
Madeleine Orr is a leading sport ecologist and professor at the University of Toronto. A Forbes 30 under 30 inductee, she is the founder and co-director of The Sport Ecology Group, who consult on international climate issues for sports organiza...
September 10, 2024
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43:47
UP418 Introducing The 3: The Difficult First Episode
We tried to make a short form ten minute podcast and failed. It's supposed to be three stories in ten minutes. Think of this as a work-in-progress. UP's Richard Gillis is joined by James Emmett and David Cushnan from ...
September 06, 2024
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32:41
UP417 Wedge Issues - Rick Shiels Exclusive
For millions of people, Rick Shiels' YouTube channel is how we watch golf in 2024.Shiels is our very special guest today. He started by uploading golf tips to YouTube 12 years ago to attract people to the Trafford Golf Centre in Manches...
September 03, 2024
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57:01
UP416 Other People's Money: Minority Stakes, Gary Neville and American v Arab Investor Cliches
Other People's Money is our regular series on sports investment, with regular co-host Matt Rogan, co-founder of Two Circles. Our guests today are Jonathan Lenson and Sam Johnson, CEO and head of sport respectively at Milltown Partners,...
August 27, 2024
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1:04:11
UP415 The Bundle - Do you know your ENPs from your LMRs?
NBA v TNT – Exclusive Negotiating Periods and Last Matching Rights are central to the big row over NBA rights. But how they work and why does everyone hate them?Click here to re...
August 23, 2024
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1:07:21
UP414 Wedge Issues: Callaway boss on Xander, YouTubers and why the LIV split dilutes golf’s product
Ben Sharpe, one of the most influential people in the golf business, as Managing Director & President of Callaway Golf across Europe, Middle East and Asia. Callaway is the largest manufacturer of golf equipment in the world and as such is a...
August 20, 2024
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47:58
UP413 Paris 2024 Digital Debrief - Which brands popped, and why?
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are over, the medals have been won and lost.And now the sports business conversation shifts to who won the other game, played between some of the biggest companies in the world, each seeking to stand out in the ...
August 16, 2024
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39:34
UP412 Racists, riots and sport's Twitter exodus
“As soon as the Southport murders happened, the way Muslims specifically were targeted has made you question again whether we do belong, whether deep down in the end, we're always having to justify our existence,” says Azeem Rafiq, the former p...
August 13, 2024
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49:51
UP411 UP US: The North American Sports Business in 3 Stories
We go deep in to the North American market today with Daniel Kaplan, one of the very best reporters covering the US sports business beat. I’ve known Daniel for over twenty years, first when he covered tennis and the NFL for SportsBusiness Journ...
August 09, 2024
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45:28
UP410 Ed Smith: 'The Olympics are a civilising force'
We’re in the middle of the Olympic Games in Paris so it’s a good time to ask some bigger questions as to the future of the Olympics and mega sports events more generally, with regular contributor Ed Smith, founder of the Institute of Sports Hum...
August 06, 2024
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50:16
UP409 Last Orders: Is Football's Love Affair with the Pub Over?
A documentary special - UP Productions' Matt Cutler explores the changing relationship between two cultural institutions in the UK: football and the pub.The pub has an important place in both professional and grassroots foo...
July 30, 2024
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1:30:31
UP408 What Just Happened? How the opening up of the US betting market explains the NBA's $75billion rights bonanza
Why has the value of the NBA's media rights tripled, from $25billion to $75billion this week?"Purely because of gambling,' says Sam Sadi, CEO of LiveScore Group, the media and gambling platform, referencing the opening up of the US gamb...
July 26, 2024
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1:01:30
UP407 What We Talk About When We Talk About Gareth Southgate
Leadership is one of the most important and yet misunderstood topics in sport. This summer, it has dominated the headlines. Performances of the England football team have mainly been analysed via the lens of its manager. So wh...
July 23, 2024
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46:48
UP406 The Buy Side: What Does PepsiCo Want?
The Buy Side is our regular series talking with brand side marketers about sport and sponsorship. This week’s guest is Mark Kirkham, the SVP & Chief Marketing Officer of PepsiCo, one of the biggest spenders in the sports industr...
July 16, 2024
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47:11
UP405 Wedge Issues: The Creation of Brand Bryson, and What It Means for Golf
Bryson Dechambeau heads to next week’s Open Championship at Troon as the reigning US Open champion, having beaten Rory McIlroy down the straight at Winged Foot in New York three weeks ago, confirming the American’s position as one of the very b...
July 12, 2024
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48:34
UP404 What is FIFA+? Netflix for Football or Infantino's White Elephant?
FIFA+ is the global football governing bodies own media platform, created in 2020 and launched two years later. It’s one of sports biggest and most ambitious and expensive direct-to-consumer projects, and so brings together many of the threads ...
July 09, 2024
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52:21
UP403 The Bundle: The Sports Media and Streaming Market
Welcome to The Bundle, our deep dive in to the sports media rights economy with regular co-hosts Murray Barnett and Yannick Ramcke. Today’s list of topics include trying to decipher FIFA’s media strategy around FIFA+ and the Club Wo...
July 05, 2024
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1:09:14
UP402 Next Level Storytelling: How biometric data changed the game
Performance data has long played a role in the way sport is presented on television. From football to formula one, we’re familiar with commentators referencing statistics to help explain what we’re watching. But increasingly, the m...
July 02, 2024
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50:41
UP401 How To Win A Cannes Lions for Sport in 2024: Inside the Jury Room
Sport was a big presence in the annual Cannes Lions Festival last week. The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity ...
June 28, 2024
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1:03:37
UP400 Other People's Money - What happens when P/E owns you?
This is the second episode of Other People’s Money, our regular deep dive in to the world sports investment, with my regular co-host Matt Rogan, one of the co-founders of Two Circles and a serial adviser to sports organisations. Tod...
June 24, 2024
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52:55
UP399 What Castore Did Next
Tom Beahon created the Castore sportswear brand with his brother Phil in 2016. Today, their shareholding in the firm is valued at around £500million following a recent capital round, led by US merchant bank and investor The Raine Group, which...
June 16, 2024
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1:00:24
UP398 Steve Martin: "Our ambition is to create a super group"
Steve Martin and Jamie Wynne-Morgan created and developed the award-winning M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment agency over a 20-year period. Six months ago they resigned, and there's been speculation ever since as to what they'll do next...
June 11, 2024
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42:26
UP397 Other People's Money: The sports investment podcast
What does sport look like from the money side of the equation? What’s the investment rationale behind buying a football team, cricket franchise, the new sports tech thing or a sports agency? What are assumptions about how the market...
June 04, 2024
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43:39