The Business of Sport - Anneliese Mesilati

Michael D'hulst is a man on a mission. Driven by a passion for triathlon, the Belgian entrepreneur and former Ironman World Championship athlete, is currently seeking funding to take his Supertri business to the next level. After helping Volkswagen set up a new plant in China, D'hulst turned his entrepreneurial skills to his love of Triathlon. Along with business partner and four-times Triathlon World Champion Chris McCormack and Russian Tech Investor Leonid Boguslavsky, D'hulst founded Supertri in 2016, with an ambition to transform Triathlon from a traditional, participant-led sport, into a dynamic spectator experience, delivering innovative race formats in a "made for TV and digital package", creating fandom with incredible destinations and corporate partners. Now, after delivering award-winning events and record-breaking view numbers, both the USA Olympic Triathlon team and Great Britain's famous triathlete Brownlee brothers are on board, alongside global broadcasting giant HBO, as Supertri powers towards the Olympic Games of 2028 in Los Angeles.

18 Juli 32min

Charlie spent the first decade of her career producing TV, radio and film for the biggest UK networks and companies, including the very popular radio show Fighting Talk. During this time, she worked closely with talent, where she witnessed their unfiltered, off-duty, human side and started to think about creating a world where fans could gain access to this too. Disenchanted by the unimaginative, boring, predictable events she attended, where talent was reduced to scripted conversations and stifled interactions, Charlie saw the need for something radically different. She envisioned a space where talent could show up as their authentic selves and connect with fans on a deeper, more meaningful level. Her passion for creating fresh, immersive, personality-driven experiences has pushed Underground Fan Club to break the mould of traditional fan experiences, attracting some of the biggest talent and brands to join her 'Underground' revolution.

27 Juni 31min

Formerly the Director of Leadership, Organizational Development, & Mental Wellness for the Texas Rangers, Baroody brings over 20 years experience in professional sports, having overseen leadership, mental wellness and organizational development programs for the Texas Rangers Baseball Operations Department. During his tenure with the Rangers, he spearheaded the revolutionary 'Rangers U Player Pathway' in partnership with ACU, creating bilingual, custom educational programs aimed at enriching players' personal development and advancing their careers. He also played an integral role in leadership programs for professional sports staff, such as the Rangers 'Leadership Academy' for players, coaches and front-office personnel. Baroody now leads the expansion and promotion of ACU's robust portfolio of sports-related academic and continuing education programmes.

20 Juni 33min

Josh is a digital media professional with a comprehensive understanding of the OTT ecosystem. He joined Simplestream in 2015 and has been a part of their commercial and business development team since then.  His primary responsibility is to create, launch, and manage OTT services for various broadcasters, rights holders, and publishers such as British Forces Broadcasting Service, GAAGO, PBS America, Telus, Racing UK, TVSN, and NewsCorp. Before joining Simplestream, he worked with digital rights experts at Perform Group which has since become Stats Perform and DAZN.

13 Feb 28min

Cedric VdB has been the Executive Director of AISTS, the International Academy of Sport Science and Technology, based in Lausanne, Switzerland since October 2023. Prior to that, Cedric was the head of Strategy and Education at AISTS, overseeing the development of world-leading sports and education programmes, including the Master (MAS) in Sport Administration and Technology, from which he graduated in 2009. An electronics and telecommunications engineer by training, Cedric has spent over a decade working for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on several strategic initiatives such as: - Olympic Agenda 2020 and 2020+5 - the strategic roadmaps for the Olympic movement. - The New Norm - the in depth review of the delivery model of the Olympic Games implemented for the first time in Paris in 2024 - the IOC' strategic brand management programme. Cedric has also headed the press and media operations for Athletissima, the Lausanne Diamond League meeting. A former 400m runner, he is now active in endurance sports including triathlon and Ironman and is also a keen surfer.

24 Jan 35min

Elite Performance Partners are a global business, focussed on taking the best principles of elite sport performance into the boardroom. Founded by the former Harlequins and Connacht Rugby Union full-back Dave Slemen in 2013, EPP provides recruitment, leadership and advice for professional sports, including football, rugby, cricket and tennis, as well as the GB and Australian Olympic and Paralympic teams. Managing Partner Anna Edwards brings a wealth of experience from a 12 year career with some of London's top advertising agencies, working with brands including Amazon, IKEA, Bacardi and Lego. Anna is also a leading head-hunter of talent across the media, sport and entertainment sectors.

17 Dec 202439min

Leah Davis joined the SailGP ranks in 2023 as the league's Chief Marketing Officer and is responsible for driving the league's global marketing strategy, focusing on brand development, fan engagement, and communications & PR, working closely with each of the SailGP teams in twelve international markets. Prior to SailGP, Davis led the brand transformation and marketing strategy for Team GB through the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic cycles which resulted in a 98% brand awareness in the UK. She also established a successful consulting business in 2020 with a number of high-profile retained sporting clients. Davis has also previously led the Media and Communication for Laureus World Sports Awards (+32% global audience and x7 social engagement YoY). Davis holds a degree in Business, Masters in Marketing Strategy and recently completed a Sustainable Business Strategy course at Harvard Business School, driven from a key interest in how sustainability can deliver both purpose and profit in today's world. In this episode we cover: ⛵The Evolution of SailGP: Exploring how this groundbreaking league has grown and transformed. 🌱 Sustainability in Sport: Why it matters and how SailGP is leading the charge for a greener future. 👩‍🦰 Championing Female Representation: SailGP's ambitious goals and strategies to create more opportunities for women in the sport. 🤝 Mentorship & Networking: The vital role of a good mentor and building strong connections in shaping a successful career. 💡 Career Lessons with Leah: Insightful takeaways from her journey and experiences in the industry so far.

13 Dec 202432min

Hannah Brown is the co-CEO of Women's Sport for DAZN. With over 20 years of experience in finance, sports media, pay TV, corporate venture and business transformation, Hannah now has the task of developing DAZN's investment in women's football rights globally, into a significant business opportunity. Together with Esmeralda Negron, she founded ata football, a streaming platform and community for women's football fans. ata football was acquired by DAZN in 2023 and the pair now share joint CEO status of Women's Sport at DAZN. Hannah on DAZN: "DAZN is a really interesting platform because it has grown, solely in a digital environment. So when we think about how DAZN has got it's products to market, it has done that through really one delivery system, it's not had to worry about legacy technology or distribution platforms. It is wholly a digital business, which allows us to do a number of things. It allows us to turn up in all markets around the world simultaneously. There are big streaming challenges in order to do that, which DAZN has tested and met as an 8 year-old business. What "digital solely" platforms allow you to do, is, yes, turn up in lots of markets at the same time, but it also gives you lots of flexibility when you think about the business models. We want to be the global home of sport. We are doing that vertical by vertical. If you ask football fans outside the UK, we are already the home of football for them." Hannah on the DAZN FanZone: "We run Fan Zone on a multitude of our properties, not just women's football and we are getting pretty decent engagement rates, around 20 to 30% of fans on premium sports events. But when we put it on women's football, that average goes up to 40% and when Barcelona played at Manchester City in the UWCL recently, that FanZone engagement went up to 60%. It was really encouraging to see big match-ups, big story-telling moments. A similar thing happened when Arsenal played Juventus and when big team take part, fans have got a lot to say. The fans are very positive about that experience too because they are coming into an environment which is not aggressive, they are allowed to say what they want and negative chat in those groups is basically non-existent. There's a lot of fun in the FanZone with quizzes and polls, but we integrated that into the broadcast environment in a really serious way, with commentators talking about what the fans are saying, getting their feedback, voting for Player of the Match. So its really nice to be able to say you can get involved and have fun, but we are also going to take your views and perspectives seriously from a broadcast perspective. We have seen a lot of success with FanZone and I think we have only just got started." Hannah on the future of Women's Sport: I think from a sponsorship perspective, the uniqueness of women's sport is definitely valuable. How do you get to an audience with a unique message and positioning. I was a biologist back in the day at University and my analogy is that when men's football put it's head out of the ecological pond from a commercial perspective in the 90's, the content landscape was not cluttered and it was coming out as a big and strong fish. It had a big fandom and lots of people cared deeply about it and came out with a strategy to grow and prosper in the environment it found. Women's football put it's head out of the ecological pond into a concrete landscape of content and competition, and that's not just from men's football, its from everything that people want to do with their weekends. The ease with which content is made available is so different now. So how does women's football lean into what makes it unique and allows it to go and compete at the product level? Because I think the challenge you have is that if you are a music artist, you are either good or you're not. People don't buy a ticket for Ariana Grande or Taylor Swift, thinking they will be good in three years time….they buy because they are good now. So, Women's Football can't ask for forgiveness on fandom for a long time, it's got to create a unique position in the market which then becomes valuable to a sponsor, with kit apparel or broadcast rights. For football, scale is critical. Running teams and rosters isn't a cheap business and therefore everyone pushing that bar as high is possible is critical, because mediocrity is not going to win."

4 Dec 202436min