Unofficial Partner Podcast

Hosted by Unofficial Partner

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574

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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EN-GB

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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.

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60 recent

October 13, 202656 min

UP575 Chat_UP: 'That's So AI', Rogue Agents and Superintelligence

Gen Z has a new insult for anything that looks cheap: “that’s so AI”. Richard Gillis and Andy Shora of TFG Labs ask what that means for a sports industry selling AI to investors, sponsors and fans all at once. They cover who should own AI inside a club, what happens when the shirt sponsor is also your infrastructure, and why autonomous agents have changed the risk profile from bad copy to switched-off turnstiles. In this episode Why fans discount AI content, and why craft and effort still win attention. Trump’s “super intelligence” rebrand at the UN is the backdrop.[1] The funnel in UK sport: 81% of rights holders use AI, but only a third use it strategically.[2] Who owns AI inside a sports organisation: the chief AI officer, budget fiefdoms, and accountability when things go wrong. Microsoft’s “humanist AI” and the rest of the new prefixes, and how AI became a sponsorship category as gambling leaves Premier League shirts.[3][4] The painful divorce: what happens to a club’s tech stack when the AI shirt deal ends. The ROI question arrives. Hyperscaler capex passes $1tn, and clubs are now being asked what their AI spend has returned.[5][6] Anthony Gordon’s Spanish at Barcelona, and why translation by machine won’t buy you fans.[7] US unilateralism, Macron’s “vassal” warning, and the supply risk of a model that can be switched off by a government.[8][9] OpenAI agents escape a sandbox, and an agent breaches an Australian government site: what that means for match-day operations, scouting and the Champions League.[10][11] Going local: open-weight models and Jev, the decision model that does the job of an LLM for a fraction of the cost.[12] Sources Trump wants to rebrand AI as “super intelligence” (Axios) PTI Digital, The Sports Leadership Benchmark 2026 Microsoft drafts feel-good AI model guidelines (The Register) AI partnerships in the Premier League (Sportcal) Global AI investment forecast to exceed $1 trillion in 2026 (Goldman Sachs) AI demand and capex (J.P. Morgan Asset Management) Anthony Gordon speaks Spanish at his Barcelona unveiling (Goal) US rejects international AI oversight at the UN (NBC News via AOL) and Trump renames AI as leaders jostle over dangers (AFP via Yahoo) Anthropic on restoring access to Fable and Mythos Australia’s prime minister criticises OpenAI over government website breach (AP) OpenAI agent swarm exposes a blind spot in AI containment (CIO) and The Register TypeSafe AI, Jev and Arize’s review of Jev 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

October 6, 202647 min

UP574 Vibes vs Effectiveness: 'Cultural relevance is this generation's brand purpose'

A conversation about sponsorship effectiveness, creativity and the price of chasing vibes. Richard is joined by Mike Grumbridge and Peter Wilson of Sid Lee Sport to talk about Mike's recent Marketing Week piece: "Stop confusing vibes with sponsorship effectiveness" which took the Levi's Stadium ambush at this summer's FIFA World Cup as a starting point in to an argument about the value of official and unofficial sponsorship. From there the conversation widens: why sponsorship still can't prove impact the way advertising can, why media value remains such a slippery number, why "cultural relevance" has become this generation's brand purpose, what happens to a brand when you hand it over to creators, and why so much sports marketing now looks identical. Summary: The long and short of sponsor effectiveness, with a hat tip to Binet and Field. 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

September 29, 20261 hr 3 min

UP573 The Summer That Changed The Sports Business - Live

Recorded live in front of an invited audience of senior sports-industry figures at Teneo's London offices overlooking St Paul's Cathedral, this Unofficial Partner event asked a deliberately awkward question about the summer of 2026: not what happened, but what actually changed. Three set-pieces framed the conversation — the men's FIFA World Cup in the United States, the European Athletics Championships, the ICC Women's T20 World Cup and the Commonwealth Games — and the panel picked apart what worked, what didn't, and what will still matter next year. Beth Barrett Wild steps away from the ECB after running the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 and leading on the women's game, having help build the competition side of The Hundred since 2018. Jon Dutton OBE is chief executive of the British Olympic Association, formerly CEO of Rugby League World Cup 2021 and CEO at British Cycling. Miguel Delaney is chief football writer at The Independent and author of States of Play , the award-winning investigation into how state money and sportswashing reshaped modern football. Unofficial Partner is grateful to our friends at Teneo for hosting the event at its offices overlooking St Paul's in London, and to Neil Daugherty and his team for their hospitality and expertise. This episode is sponsored by Leaders in Sport Next week we're heading to Stamford Bridge with the global sports industry for Leaders Week London, and this is your final call to join us. Over two days you can hear directly from the leaders behind some of sport's biggest organisations, get in front of the people you've been chasing all year, and turn a few packed days in London into months' worth of business. It's a rare chance to have that much of the industry, and that much opportunity, under one roof. We're there every year, and we can vouch for the value of having the right people in the same place. Come and find us at Stamford Bridge and say hello. If you haven't secured your place yet, now's the time. Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information, and use code UP15 for 15% off your Summit pass. 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

September 25, 202656 min

UP572 Creators: What Are They Good For?

Wimbledon didn't ban influencers. It said it wouldn't create a creator accreditation category and would confiscate ring lights and selfie poles under existing rules. The headline ran anyway, and it tells us more about sport's gatekeepers than about creators. Richard Gillis is joined by two people who sit on opposite sides of the creator deal. Jo Tongue is CEO of Tongue Tied Management, representing athletes, broadcasters and content creators. A former BBC sports reporter, she edited 5 Live's 606 for a decade and is a director of Women in Football. Lisa Parfitt is co-founder of The Space Between, the sports marketing agency for challenger brands whose work includes the ECB's women's cricket campaigns and FIFA's Women's Champions Cup launch. She previously co-founded Engine Sport. They discuss who is responsible when creators misbehave, why rights holder channels are underdelivering for sponsors, and what sport now demands of its elite athletes. Key discussion points 02:30 The US Open ring lights and the "Wimbledon bans creators" headline: what actually happened 04:00 Jo argues the blame lies with whoever invited the creators, not the creators themselves 06:45 Lisa on snobbery, gatekeeping, and why influencers didn't invent annoying tennis crowds 10:00 Unilever shifting 50–70% of activation budgets to creators 11:30 How agents match talent to the outcome a brand actually wants 16:00 Lisa's research showing rights holder channels reach about 27% of a sport's fans 20:00 Creators versus journalists, and paid versus earned 23:30 Who controls creator behaviour: rights holders, sponsors, or hosts 29:30 Brand risk after Callaway and Good Good, and the cost of heavy approvals 34:30 Jazmin Sawyers and the pressure on athletes to become creators 41:00 Rehab programmes, insurance and tunnel selfies: which rules actually matter 45:30 Women's sport and whether there are enough women's football creators 48:00 Women's T20 World Cup: a 70/30 split between sport and lifestyle 52:30 Taking first-timers to Lord's, and the value of the outsider's question 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

September 22, 20261 hr 4 min

UP571 The Bundle: Warning signs from the top of the market; IPL and NFL the same but different; DAZN's IPO; The Anti-Netflix

Unofficial Partner's regular series on the sports media and streaming marketplace. Host: Richard Gillis. Co-hosts: Murray Barnett, founder of 26 West Consulting (formerly F1, World Rugby, ESPN); Yannick Ramcke, general manager of OTT at OneFootball. The rights ceiling: NFL and IPL as warning signs on rights inflation Exclusivity in question: co-exclusivity, mixed packages and "intelligent auctions" India: JioStar's monopoly, monetisability, and football's stalled growth DAZN's EverPass deal and the pivot to sport's "operating system" DAZN and the road to a 2027 IPO BBC cuts: Ski Sunday, the Women's Football Show, and the death of the magazine show What free-to-air and public-service broadcasting is for now FIBA Women's World Cup on TNT: laddering rights across platforms Fox and IndyCar: broadcaster enthusiasm as a value driver Local vs global: why sport resists the Netflix model This episode is sponsored by Leaders Week London 2 Weeks To Go Leaders Week London is now just two weeks away. On 7 and 8 October, Stamford Bridge will become the meeting place for the global sports industry, bringing together senior leaders from across teams, leagues, brands, broadcasters, investors and more. With three stages of insight, dedicated forums, masterclasses and plenty happening beyond the stages, it's two days built around the conversations, connections and opportunities that are much harder to create from behind a desk. We'll be there, and if Leaders Week London is still on your radar, now's the time to make it happen. Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information and use UP15 for 15% off your Summit pass. 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

September 15, 202648 min

UP570 Spin Class: Here We Go! Premier League Transfer Window Special

Spin Class is our regular series with experts in sports communications, PR and reputation management. Football's transfer window is one of the definitive sports business stories. Its cast of characters include players, agents, managers, club owners and a small number of journalists cum influencers with massive social media followings and the power to impact the market via insider intel and gossip. At the centre of all this is the clubs' PR teams seeking to control the narrative. Context: This summer's transfer window saw Premier League clubs break their all-time summer transfer record with spending reaching £3.49bn, compared to £1.13bn spent by clubs five years ago. A total of £506.5m was spent on deadline day itself, up from £391m last year. The total amount spent during the window considerably dwarfs the and underlines the power top English clubs have to attract talent, according to figures provided to BBC Sport by Paul Macdonald, founder of FootballTransfers.com. Three of the 10 most expensive signings in the history of football have happened this summer – with all of them being Premier League signings. In fact, this summer window featured four of the top flight's five most expensive ever deals. Kate Miller — Chief Communications Officer, Tottenham Hotspur Dan Johnson - former Premier League communications director Neil Daugherty — Senior Managing Director and UK Sports Sector Lead, Teneo This episode is sponsored by Leaders in Sport Women's Sport at Leaders Week Women's sport isn't short on momentum; the bigger question now is what the industry does with it. At Leaders Week London this October, that's where the conversation will go next: how to turn growing audiences, investment and attention into lasting commercial growth. Across the main agenda, the Women in Sport Breakfast and Women's Sport Lounge, you'll hear from the people building what comes next, and get closer to the ideas, partnerships and decisions shaping the market. If women's sport is part of your business, Leaders Week London 2026 is one you'll want to make time for. Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information and use UP15 for 15% off your Summit pass. Leaders Week London tickets are available on this link. 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

September 8, 202654 min

UP569 Rushman's Rules: Deals, Woke and the Lost World of Langan's

Nigel Rushman is one of the most effective operators in the modern sports business — a fixer and dealmaker who spent four decades at the delivery end of major events, building a parallel international career brokering deals across governments and industry. After a start in restaurants — London, Paris, a Michelin three-star kitchen — he built a catering company, sold it, and moved into commercial events and then crisis-management PR. His breakthrough sporting client was Peter de Savary's 1992 America's Cup challenge, and de Savary went on to take a 20 per cent stake in the business. In 1991, Rushman's company won the media-management and accreditation brief for the Rugby World Cup across five nations — a complex, pre-internet logistics operation that, for a good few years, almost nobody else could deliver. That became Rushmans: accreditation, media services, security consultancy and event delivery for major tournaments, later including the 2007 Cricket World Cup across nine Caribbean countries, where he was Event Director. In the mid-1990s he bought a two-page photocopied newsletter called Sport Business from its founder, installed Kevin Roberts as editor, modelled it on PR Week , and later swapped it out of his business in a share deal — a transaction from which, by his own account, he made £7 million. The title went on to become the sector's best-known trade brand. Rushman also served as a strategic adviser on Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup, and did significant business in Cuba, selling the country's baseball rights. He now lives between Monaco and Dubai and runs Rushmans Decision Intelligence , an AI-assisted advisory platform he pitches as faster, cheaper and sharper than the big management consultancies. This conversation ranges across his career, the vanished world of the sports-rights "pirates and bandits", the financialisation of football, diversity and inclusion, the future of clips and betting, and what he is building now. The recording took place in Soho at the offices of Spectacle Partners, thanks to Scott and Richard for their help. This episode is sponsored by Leaders Week London There's a new home, a new set-up and plenty more to get excited about at Leaders Week London 2026. The move brings The Summit into central London, with a new campus-style experience designed to make it easier to move between the people you want to meet, the conversations you want to hear and the business you're there to do. There'll be all-new agenda formats, three stages of insight, and more ways to connect throughout the day. When day one finishes, Leaders After Dark takes the networking into the evening across Stamford Bridge. It's a proper evolution of Leaders Week, and one we're looking forward to this October. Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information, and use UP15 for 15% off your Summit pass. 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

September 1, 202656 min

UP568 Real Time Economics: When the Clip is the Product

Few people sit closer to the epicentre of the sports digital economy than Daniel Kirschner. As co-founder and CEO of Greenfly, he oversees the connective tissue running between rights holders, athletes and fans; the infrastructure that turns a moment on the pitch into content on your phone within seconds. Creator strategy and the platform deals. How rights holders selectively route content to favoured creators (Goldbridge as proxy) and to TikTok/YouTube. Richard presses the FIFA-TikTok/YouTube deals as a "tax" to stop leakage; Kirschner reframes winning as getting the highest-quality version out first. Clips as crown jewel vs top of funnel. The central tension. Richard argues clips are now the product, not the trailer; Kirschner holds that short-form is top-of-funnel for fandom and complements rather than cannibalises live—but concedes it should be a meaningful revenue pillar, not something dumped on social. Who pays. If not the broadcaster, then who? Discussion of separate short-form rights deals (NFL–Bleacher Report), YouTube revenue-sharing, and sponsors/brands paying to attach to viral moments (the Messi Smartwater example) with earned-media-value tracking. US vs Europe market structure. Centralised US leagues vs fragmented European clubs with promotion/relegation instability; more friction means more need for the technology. College sports as the closest US analogue to the European model. Athlete economics and authenticity. Athletes get content free, aren't paid, yet treat access as a favour. Editorial-versus-commercial distinction, and the authenticity question when agencies get involved. Measurement, impressions and AI slop. Richard's scepticism about impression numbers and the YouTube view-counting change; Kirschner on transparency of measurement, the coming flood of AI slop, and live sport's authenticity as the hedge against it (Kushner/Lakers). How the platforms see sport. Whether an eyeball is just an eyeball—Kirschner argues sports content is undervalued because of its emotional resonance and, distinctively, its joy: fans relive wins, not losses, which makes the content more valuable to advertisers. The SportsPro short-form showcase. Closing plug for the awards recognising ~40 short-form producers, and the broader argument that the craft has shifted from throwaway to a properly valued discipline attracting serious marketing budgets (Unilever's 80% shift toward short-form creators). This episode is sponsored by Leaders in Sport The 2026 Leaders Week London agenda is live, and there’s already plenty we’ve got our eye on. Across three stages at Stamford Bridge, Leaders in Sport will bring together senior figures from across the industry to get into the questions, challenges and opportunities shaping where the business of sport goes next. From leadership and commercial growth to creativity and technology, there’s a lot packed into the two days and no shortage of sessions worth making time for. We are looking forward to hearing Gary Lineker talk about The Art of the Story: Pitches, Publishing and Podcasts. We’ll be there on 7 and 8 October, hopefully we’ll see you there too. Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information and use UP15 for 15% off your Summit pass. 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

August 25, 20261 hr 0 min

UP567 Spin Class: Infantino's fightback; Saudi post-LIV; AJ v Tyson, Hearn v White

Spin Class is Unofficial Partner's series on sports comms, PR, reputation and crisis management. Three stories: A FIFA president everyone's written off who isn't going anywhere. A billion-dollar golf breakaway running out of road. And a heavyweight fight that keeps getting made and unmade in public. What connects them? In every case the sport is almost beside the point — the real contest is the spin. This week's guests: Jon Tibbs OBE, JTA and Henry Chappell, Pitch Marketing. This episode is sponsored by Leaders Week London Leaders Week London returns this October with a new home for The Summit: Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. On 7 and 8 October, Leaders in Sport will bring together senior figures from across the global sports industry to exchange ideas, build relationships and tackle the biggest opportunities shaping the business of sport. With the 2026 agenda now live, you can get a first look at the speakers, sessions and themes shaping this year’s Summit. We’ll be there, and you should join us. Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information and use UP15 for 15% off your Summit pass. 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

August 18, 202653 min

UP566 Chat UP: I never want to hear the phrase 'Palantir for Sport' again

Chat UP is Unofficial Partner's series on AI in the sports business. Today's guest is Mike Bracken CBE. He built the UK's Government Digital Service, became the country's first Government Chief Data Officer, and now runs the consultancy Public Digital, advising governments and institutions worldwide. Richard sits him down to test a simple, uncomfortable idea: that most of sport's "AI problem" isn't about AI, isn't even about data, and can't be bought from a vendor. What follows is a masterclass in why change management fails, who really holds the power, and where the genuine prize for sport is hiding. The two questions that come before any tech decision "Why are you asking the question about AI?" The standards argument: airports, not algorithms The Palantir for Sport question It's about power, not technology Open v closed, and the wall of money Why the single customer view is "a marketeer's wet dream" CRM v VRM: the extractive trap The bogus-metrics problem The trick sport is missing Chat UP is made in collaboration with TFG Labs. ⁠⁠TFG Labs is the centre of innovation within the Twenty First Group and is truly the testing ground for groundbreaking sports intelligence. Their team of dedicated AI engineers are using the power of emerging technologies to deliver powerful changes to organisations across the whole sports ecosystem. 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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here . Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.