The Digital Sport Insider

James joined World Rugby to head up the content side of the international federation in January this year after a 4 year stint at Sunset+Vine where he helped launch BT Sport in 2013. He's had a career that has really encompassed the way digital has affected the broadcast industry. With a standout moment without doubt being his role in the Red Bull Stratos world record in 2012. We also get to find out his thoughts on the role of social media within sports broadcast, his preparations for the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and much much more. Enjoy the show and any thoughts/feedback get in touch at @danielmclaren or @DigitalSportUK

13th September saw the first #DSLondon monthly get together at the London Sporting Club. During the night we hosted a panel looking at the topic of 'The Future of Sports Broadcasting' (a small area to look at!). The speakers were; - Joel Seymour-Hyde (SVP Octagon) *moderator - Alexandra Willis (Head of Comms, Content & Digital at Wimbledon) - David Gibbs (Digital Director at SkySports) - Sarah Beattie (Head of PR & Social Media at DAZN) Joel made sure none of the speakers got off lightly as he dissected many of the key topics the industry is facing. Having a mix of 'traditional' broadcaster, OTT platform and rights holder provided a great mix of views and issues. The events run every month and details of them can be found on http://digitalsport.co/events/category/digital-sport-london or keep an eye on @DigitalSportUK

At the start of September I headed to Soccerex for it's last time in Manchester before the event moves to Doha from 2018. During it I hosted two panel sessions, and this is the first one of them. The title was "The Future of Fan Generated Content" and I had a star studded line up to help put this into some context and chat about their thoughts and experiences. They were; - James Kirkham, CEO of Copa90 - Mike Norrish, Head of Digital at BT Sport - Paul Rayner, Publisher at SportBIBLE - Robbie Lyle, ArsenalFanTV

In this bonus edition, I caught up with SportsPro's Eoin Connolly SportsPro ahead of The Brand Conference (TBC) on 28th September which will see speakers from Formula 1, Tough Mudder, British & Irish Lions and many more. In our sit down we covered a number of topics that will be touched upon during the event, and some that won't. Hope you enjoy and let me know if you'll be there on the 28th! - Sports broadcasting - how Copa90 are setting a new bar. - Where it is going with likes of Amazon coming into the fold as they spend £10m on ATP rights. - How clubs battle with being a club and becoming a brand. How do you strike that balance? - Player becoming brands and fans following them rather than the clubs, especially in this digital age. - How brands can tap into fan loyalty that sport uniquely has - Esports and how it fits into sport as we know it, and how sports pro cover it editorially - How much thinking about sports is looking at it from the wrong viewpoint - The biggest areas that have impac

Jerry has been working in sport since 1998 and ended up at Facebook via The FA and 8 years at Chelsea. We met at Soccerex where he was just about give a 1-2-1 talk with Tom Chick about his role. You can listen to that talk here: https://audioboom.com/posts/6267564-facebook-on-football In this chat you can expect to hear us cover; - Landing his role at Facebook, and what it is he does. - Roma's tongue-in-cheek approach to social media and how it helps them stand out from the crowd. - How he sees Facebook complementing and not competing with sports broadcasters. - Keeping up with the constant product changes at Facebook and Instagram. - Using different styles and types of content between the two main platforms. - Examples of Instagram Stories such as Chelsea's take over by John Terry as he talked about his match in goal for the side. - Augmented Reality and how Instagram is leading us into this new way of interacting, at the moment, with our phones. - The launch of 'Watch' with Real Madrid's documentary serie

Mark Coyle was at the BBC for almost 20 years as journalist and then editor, where he helped launch BBC News online, Democracy Live and ended his time there with a very successful 2012 Olympics. He then moved onto BT Sport as Head of Digital Production, working on the launch of the brand new channel. And is now Head of Media within the world of pro cycling with Velon. In this very enjoyable chat with Mark we covered a large number of topics including how he’s helping new audiences discover and understand pro cycling, who Velon are, badgering the boss of his local paper to get his first role in journalism and the results of the newly launched Hammer Series. Enjoy! You can get in touch with Dan on @danielmclaren and find out more about Digital Sport at www.digitalsport.co

Paul is an old friend of Digital Sport, having written one of the first articles on the site back in early 2010, and we've been keeping tabs on his work ever since. Following 14 very successful years at Liverpool, where he initially went to help establish the club's first ever website back in 2001. He rose to leading the digital initiatives, especially on social media, before moving out to the US to join AS Roma (Paul explains how this works in our chat!) in 2015. In our conversation we covered a multitude of subjects and stories including; - Making the worst transfer video they could this year at Roma to make light of the ever increasing seriousness they were done by others during this summer's break. - How he started out writing about hip hop concerts and had his first article published. - He used us to make a confession that he'd not shared before, when he landed his first internet job back in the boom. But it should have been another Paul they spoke to! - Liverpool being the first club to reco

Aarti Dabas has been at the ICC for 10 years now after initially joining after the 2007 Cricket World Cup. After the success of the Champions Trophy and Women's World Cup this year in UK we dug into more detail on the WWC, the most successful event so far with a sell out crowd, 1.1m tuning into Sky's broadcast and BBC's most viewed page ahead of The Open final round and Tour de France. Aarti has a fascinating career from her start in broadcast with IMG, TWI and Ten Sports, to her current role within cricket's governing body. One of only a few women involved in sports broadcast in India, something that has changed as her career has gone on and she has climbed the ladder herself. The power of social media and digital (especially streaming) has had a profound impact on cricket coverage. We learn about what the ICC does around events, what they learnt from this year's Champions Trophy that they took into the WWC and how the game is looking to advance, on and off the field, over the next few years. If you

Amar has been at the top of his profession for a number of years, taking in the Evening Standard, Goal.com, Squawka and now West Ham. He joined the club in May and has been working hard on putting in place a new content strategy taking in everything from the match day programme to social media. With his experience coming into the club fans can expect to see a different approach. But he won't allow things to get too serious either. He started out at the Ethnic Media Group at a time when the voice of his community needed to be heard. And then moving onto the Evening Standard around the time of 7/7 where he had another important role to play. His biggest break, and bravest move, was to leave behind his senior journalist role to move to a little known start up called Goal.com - pre it being owned by Perform Group - and helping shape it into the media mammoth of the game it has become. Listen to his journey within journalism, his obvious passion for the profession and the different 'campaigns' he's w

Ahead of the football season kicking off, I caught up with championship side Middlesbrough FC's Bob Tait to talk all things football and digital. In a very open and candid chat we spoke about how he came about being in football, firstly with Sunderland as he landed a maternity cover role as Head of Digital before ending up at Middlesbrough, via the English Football League where he was Head of Audience & Content. We not only talk about football but delve into mental health and his own battle with depression. Something he come out the other side from stronger and a more successful person in his life and career. We also touch upon the issues surrounding the topic within pro sport and if more could be done to support athletes/players. He reveals his thoughts on virtual reality (and how it not ready for their own audience yet), the spate of 'entertaining' player transfer videos and the role clubs play in a media landscape that contains mainstream media, fan channels, social media influencers and many others.

Ken took over as CEO of world leading sports data company STATS LLC in 2015 after a colourful career that has included stints at Sports Illustrated (twice), Fox Sports Interactive and Yahoo. During a trip over to the UK from his base in Chicago, we caught up to talk about his career and also how STATS is changing the way sports data is collected and interpreted. They're placing big bets on the success of machine learning and AI to help both sports teams improve (and save time) their player's performance, and engage fans in more interactive ways. If you enjoy the podcast then do leave a comment or rating, or get in touch at @danielmclaren. And if you want to recommend someone for an interview or want to sponsor this podcast then email Dan at daniel@digitalsport.co Enjoy!

Kev Bain is Head of Digital Development at The R&A, organisers of world's most prestigious golf tournament, The Open. We spoke about his preparations for this year's event being held at Royal Birkdale in Southport. The challenges they face when it comes to the constantly changing locations for the event and how they engage with fans outside of the tournament time. The Open itself extends out to all the main tours from November the year before, as qualifying takes place for those who haven't yet secured their place. This provides plenty of opportunity to talk to fans and create content to build up to the main week. Kev's journey into golf wasn't one set out early in his life. Graduating with a degree in Computing and then spending the next 9 years within the oil & gas industry, the primary employers in Aberdeen where he was brought up. Then a move to the St Andrews area saw him go for a role he didn't really think he would get, but did. This role was with the R&A back in 2010, and since then he's

Andreas is the CEO of the digital arm of the Bundesliga, one of a number of sister companies to the German Football League. Now 2 years into his first role within sport, he has taken his experience from 20 years within the internet industry and helped the league take control of its digital assets and work with its global partners in new and exciting ways. In this interview we discussed; - What it is DFL Digital Sports does and his role within it as CEO. - His early career I-D Media, Microsoft and RTL. - The dot com crash and how that affected his career at such an early stage. - Big data and how the DFL measures measures success through its own APS (Article Performance Score) Index. - Building a strong, engaged community rather than going for bigger reach. - Learning through leading an early social media network (sevenload) during the financial crisis and how that helped shape him into the leader he is today. - How focus is key to success with both employees and your business goals. - Why it is

Luke is Head of Content at Goal Studios, an arm of Goal.com and part of Perform Group. An organisation he's been part of since leaving University and joining Goal.com His path into journalism started during his degree at Portsmouth University, a place he chose more on it's position next to the sea and the reception their club had given Thierry Henry one year after he scored a hattrick at Fratton Park against them. During his time there he became interested in Croatian football, and more specifically the hooligan element and its effect on the political turmoil at the time. We spoke for a good section near the start as it's a fascinating route in and also topic in itself. Since then he's been sub-editor and moved into more of the commercial side, becoming Commercial Social Media lead back in 2013. It's a fascinating chat where we explore the wider topic of journalism in this digital age and the shifts that organisations such as Perform have had to make. As they explore new areas such as working directly w

This week I had the fantastic opportunity to sit down with Mark Clemmit, probably best known for his features on BBC Football Focus as well as being a regular on Final Score and 5 Live. Mark's broadcast career has covered two decades and he's interviewed everyone from Huddersfield Town's David Wagner to City's Pep Guardiola. He's also an established event host and got his big career break on the Football League Show almost ten years ago now. In our wide ranging chat we covered everything from; - his career in broadcast. - starting out with a Middlesbrough fan show on local radio called 'Red balls on Fire' which was nominated for a Sony Radio Award after only 9 months. - His love for the game outside of the Premier League and why the top teams have become more distant. - How he prepares for and arranges interviews with top managers. - What it takes to have a long term career in sports broadcasting and what advice he would give to anyone setting out. - His pain at the use of interns in the industry (and in s

Alex graduated from the University of Bradford with a BSc in Electronic Imaging and Media Communications in 1997 and has a Masters with Distinction in Creative Technology. He has worked in various web development and teaching roles ever since. Today he is lecturer in Digital business for Salford Business School and runs a digital media and web development company called EDinteractive. Alex has won a number of team and individual awards recently including, A European Search Award, two Vice Chancellors Teaching awards, Postgraduate supervisor of the Year (2015) and Innovative lecturer of the year (2016) and is a travel writer and photographer for a VW magazine. In this conversation we covered a qide range of subjects, especially around the subject of his PhD in digital marketing, football and social media. A subject he also blogs about on his site alexfenton.co.uk - Why it's important for clubs to have a wide fan base on social media (it might not be all about the numbers, but they are still important). -

Matt Wilson co-founded Ball Street with Stuart McDonald in 2012 with the aim to offer something different from traditional broadcast in football. Since then they have worked with brands such as Vauxhall, Ladbrokes and Virgin Media, and have a network of creators with an aggregated social reach of over 50m, generating millions of views and engagements every month, they have grown into a leading sports media network with a huge network of YouTube creators, influential social media accounts, famous fans and sports personalities based in offices in London and Liverpool. In our chat we not only covered his journey through 10 years at TalkSport and starting Ball Street from scratch, but also gave our opinions on the relationship between broadcasters and social media platforms, the pros and cons influencer marketing and 'YouTuber teams' such as Hashtag United. It's an hour of great conversation that I hope you really enjoy and can take one or two things from it. @DanielMclaren @DigitalSportUK Chec

Rina is Digital Content Manager at basketball's international governing body based in Switzerland. His story starts in Grenoble in the south of France before moving to Paris to kick start his basketball career. He gives some great pointers as to how his varied career at the start with video production, radio show/podcasting and digital helping in landing his dream role as a basketball fan. We also spoke about his role in bringing a quite complicated social media landscape together in 2013, when they had multi region and event accounts scattered around the world. Now they are centralised and much more coordinated. In 2016 FIBA live streamed for free 97 days worth of games, mostly at youth level. Helping serve fans the content that wasn't available on traditional broadcast channels. He provides insight into why they took this approach and how it will provide value going forward. You can get in touch with Rina at @RinaAnthony on Twitter and Instagram or find him on LinkedIn. If you enjoy this podcast then

James McKeown is the Head of Global Marketing at what could easily be described as a start up in the world of higher education. Only formed in 2011 at Burnley's Turf Moor ground, it now boasts 1,500 students spread around 3 campuses. The other 2 being The Etihad Stadium in Manchester and Wembley Stadium. In the interview we chatted through James' career; why he ended up at Loughborough University when he's from Melbourne and was living in Bern, Switzerland at the time. From there he decided against a career in sports science and crafted one instead in sports marketing. Interning at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and then back in London for his first f/t role at Braben Media. Where most interestingly he worked on the ill fated Setanta Sports account, a truly interesting first client to have! We also covered; - his respect for agencies and the people who work in them, for their work ethic and drive. - Moving away from the agency side and into a governing body in British Athletics - Being part of t