Sports Loft Podcast

Building an athlete's personal brand

Athletes are at the heart of everything that happens in professional sport. The best players deliver the biggest moments which in turn drive the audiences, the media rights and the highlight views on YouTube. The fans want to know everything about their lives, what they do and what they think. Many players now have bigger followings than the teams they play for. 

Technology, and social media in particular, is enabling the athletes to by-pass the traditional media and engage directly with their fans. This provides a huge opportunity to get their point of view across and to define themselves beyond what happens on the pitch, but it also comes with risks. What they choose to share, and how they manage what they post, has become hugely important.

In the latest of the Sports Loft podcasts, we are joined by KIN Partners MD and Founder, Simon Oliveira who manages a roster of talent including David Beckham and Neymar Jnr, and Greenfly’s co-founder and CEO Daniel Kirschner whose clients include NBA, MLB, Real Madrid and PSG. They discuss how athletes can build their brands and whether it is reasonable to expect the athletes to be role models, how both teams and players can benefit from an athlete’s increased profile and what David Beckham’s Instagram numbers would have been if he was playing today.

Finding product market fit

Achieving “product-market-fit” is one of those terms that you frequently hear in the startup-world. Sought-after by founders and eulogised by investors, it has become an almost idealistic concept of that moment when all that hard work comes to fruition and it just clicks – the product sells itself. But what does it actually mean? And when do you know if you’ve “found it”?

 
In this episode, host Yanni Andreopolous is joined by Get Metrix Co-founder and CEO Andrew Hall and FEVO’s EVP & GM of Partner Development, Colin Casey. Andrew and Colin share their first-hand experiences at their respective companies - a B2C company that is about to release its first product and a B2B social commerce platform that is more mature - as they work towards  product market fit. The discussion reflects on the importance of being able to react quickly, how to work out which customer insights to prioritise and whether a “Minimum Lovable Product” is more helpful than a “Minimum Viable Product”.

Hiring and building great teams

Hiring and finding great people is without doubt one of the biggest priorities for any high-growth tech CEO, and the companies at Sports Loft are no exception. Whether it’s working out whether to hire for talent & aptitude or for a defined role, how to profile potential employees who are ready for a start-up environment, how to build a great on-boarding process and where to look for the best people, getting hiring right is hard but important.   

In our latest podcast, we are joined by Satisfi Co-founder and CEO Donny White and Slate Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer Will Brooke. They share their first-hand experiences of hiring at a startup and what they have learnt about the best ways to build teams for their respective companies.

Sports Loft Member Series: an interview with Tagboard President Nathan Peterson

Tagboard's President Nathan Peterson joins Yanni Andreopoulos from Sports Loft to talk about Tagboard’s growth as social media has become critical to the production landscape. Tagboard now powers broadcasts across US news and sports and was used for NFL Media’s production of the NFL Draft, is used by teams in every major league in the US and they recently signed a 4 year deal with Major League Baseball.  

Nathan and Yanni explore the impact of COVID and how the sudden shift to remote production has helped Tagboard, the value of keeping the product as simple to use as possible and the importance of client feedback in the product development process. Our favourite bit - how Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey suggested that Apple Music’s Creative Director, Larry Jackson, should use Tagboard for the Apple Verzuz livestreams!

How is the value sports teams get from social media changing?

How is the value sports teams get from social media changing?  What role does social media play for teams and how has this changed? We talk to Eric Stark, founder of Sports Loft member company Slate and Minnesota Timberwolves’ Director of Digital Content Shahbaz Khan about the increased importance of social media in sport and the demand for innovation and adaptability for digital content within sports teams, specifically the NBA. 

Shahbaz talked about the importance and purpose of social media and how it can add value to teams. He mentioned how “there’s never a time which we’re posting for posting sake.” Therefore, in terms of using social to drive value, he abides by several ‘pillars’ which include “ensuring that we are engaging current fans at the highest level possible, potentially gaining new fans and monetizing content in a way that continues to engage with fans.” All of which contribute to the importance placed upon social media. Shahbaz said “it’s the most front-facing part of an organisation.”

Eric mentioned the increased emphasis on social and digital content now more than ever. He touched on how in today’s climate, teams are having to rely on social content for engagement and revenue. He explained “we’ve seen a lot more creative ways to incorporate sponsors this year than ever,” and how “all of a sudden teams are turning to the digital and social team as this is our most valuable asset.”

Personalisation in sport

Alexandra Wilis of Wimbledon and Nick Pinks of Covatic chatted about what personalisation means for sport. 

Alex talked about how Wimbledon wants to remain relevant for as many people as possible, whatever their engagement with the tournament and tennis. She discussed the importance of both the technical side to personalisation, efficiency and how it needs to match up to the emotional, delivered through giving sport meaning and relevance. She touched on how Wimbledon is “making it easy to follow players” so fans can feel ”more immersed in that players’ success or failure and tap into that celeb feeling.” This “helps players become more famous and create more personal connections with the sport”. Personalisation can extend to helping those fans find new players to follow all year round.

 

Nick Pinks, CEO of Covatic, told us “you need to build a positive relationship between a user and the platform they’re using” to be allowed to personalise their experience. HE pointed out the danger of building segments and models from your most engaged fans as they’re often the wrong traits if you want to build a bigger audience, who are most likely to be composed of people who are not as avid as your top fans. Nick spoke about the importance of protecting user privacy and of how important that is to buy consumer trust and allow brands the right to take things further.

How technology is changing sports broadcasting

Technology is changing sports broadcasting. We discuss how with two leaders who are shaping innovation in that area. World Rugby's Ronan Donagher, who has overseen the implementation of video refereeing and the growth of rugby broadcast to new nations. He is joined by Ben Reynolds, CEO of Spalk, a technology that powers remote commentary and production of sports events globally.

They discuss how remote production has enabled rugby and other sports to reach new markets, how technology can help engage fans and reach new audiences. 

Ronan tells us what's next for World Rugby, looking ahead to the Olympics the women's world cup and the next men's, France 2023.

Ben outlines his ambitions to be the technology powering broadcasts across global events.

Athletes as content creators

How are athletes becoming such great content creators? How are leagues and rights holders helping them to do this? We talk to social content tool Greenfly's CEO Daniel Kirschner and SailGP's CMO Tim Godfrey about how they're doing this. Our founder Charlie Greenwood outlines why he’s excited to work with Greenfly, part of the Sports Loft family. 

Daniel recalls how he founded the company with his cousin, ex-Mets player Shawn Green, to connect players, leagues and fans through content. We chat to SailGP’s Tim Godfrey about how he’s helped launch a new sport in 2019, that’s now broadcast to millions. The annual competition has attempted to “redefine sailing” and has attracted a younger audience on social media through “personality led” content. 

Giving athletes access to immediate content at their fingertips has ensured authenticity and enabled SailGP to work with their sponsors to create campaigns that are relevant to both parties and fans. Daniel highlights how producing content frequently is important to maintain engagement and then explains how rights holders are monetizing content and using that to expand sponsorship contracts.

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Data & elite sports performance with Jesus Perez & Tal Brown of Zone7

Data plays an increasing role in elite sports performance management. We chatted to Jesus Perez, assistant manager to Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur for five years, and Zone7’s Tal Brown about data informed decision making.

Both set out that context is king. Someone needs to analyse the data. Coaches, like Perez and Pochettino, are the point at which data sets merge and decisions are needed. If done well, clubs can save money because their players are not picking up wages while injured, estimated at £35m a year in the Premier League. They discuss how managers have to be held accountable for players getting injured if the data said they needed a rest. 

Tal said: “when I'm asked by investors in Silicon Valley ‘why are you in sports, it's not a very big market? There are no sports teams in the Fortune 500.’ My answer is that if you want to create technology for human performance, you need data about it and going back 2, 3, 4 years, the only the only industry that had this kind of data at scale consistently is sports.” 

Jesus discusses how he has used data to understand players and gives examples from his time at some of the biggest clubs in England and Spain.

Sports Loft Member Series: an interview with PumpJack Dataworks CEO Nick Goggans

Our host Yanni Andreopoulos talks to the CEO of PumpJack Dataworks, Nick Goggans. They discuss the founding of the company, why data is valuable for sports teams and how they are helping the industry to glean more value from it. They chat through how measurement and marketing are merging and how sports teams could become subscription businesses, meaning that the value of the data they own could become a vital part of the balance sheet.