The Digital Sport Insider

Sam has responsibility for managing the end to end delivery of the technical solutions that IBM provides to The Championships as part of their role as the official IT provider to the AELTC. He also has responsibility for the award winning IBM marketing and innovation programme for the partnership with Wimbledon. He is also responsible for managing the IBM sports rights relationship with the RFU where IBM are the Official Analytic Partner. We sat down in the offices at Wimbledon, my second visit in a few months after never having been before. In our chat we covered; - His role at IBM and how it translates to what happens at The Championships - How the partnership has evolved since it began back in 1990 - The use of AI through 'Watson' and how they covered 4.4m data points in 2016 - What the possibilities are for cognitive learning within sport are going forward - The difficulties we face in the UK around building intelligent stadiums and issues with wifi in old stadiums - Why fans if they are at a sporting

Simon started out his career at Leeds Met University before breaking into sport (thanks to his brother) with PA in 2008. He is probably best know for his work in developing Opta into one of the foremost companies within the sports data industry. He worked with his team on bringing @OptaJoe to life, something that worked so well that in some cases it became the main reason they would get a meeting with companies they would love to have as clients. In 2014 Opta was bought by Perform Group, one of the leading digital sports content and media companies with brands such as Goal already on board. Simon took on a broader marketing role at Perform, with Opta being a fifth of his overall responsibility. Last year he took on a new challenge with wearable tech company Catapult Sports. A company he feels he can have a big impact upon and utilise the lessons he's learned from his time at both Opta and Perform. You can find Simon on @Banouby.

Seb works with his brothers, Spencer (presenter, founder) and Saunders (video lead) on Spencer FC and Hashtag United, and separately with his Dad on their renewable energy business. We sat down to speak about his work with Spencer and how he came on board in November 2015 as the team started to build out and the potential for the channel became more obvious. The Wembley Cup, with lead sponsor EE, ran in 2015 and 2016 with great success. With a highlight for Seb being when EE proclaimed it the best campaign they'd ever done, even including TV and print. Quite an achievement! We also touched on Hashtag United, a team that started out as a group of friends and now has been covered by the likes of BBC News and The Telegraph as it becomes a commercial alternative to more traditional football competitions. Plus the eSports team they have started to build out as well, with some insights into work going on at EA to take FIFA to the next level. He has some great stories involving Arsenal fans from Russi

In the latest Digital Sport podcast I caught up with Trev Keane, founder of Sportego and more recently the Celtic eSports League along with Geoff Wilson. Great to hear how they set it up, they're learnings from the inaugural cup in December and what is to come. As well as thoughts on eSports generally, his entrepreneurial journey and the sports business market in Ireland. You can find him on @TrevKeane and http://www.sportego.ie Tune in each Tuesday and Friday for more interviews with some of the leading lights within the digital sports industry. You can find us on Audioboom, iTunes and Stitcher Radio. @DigitalSportUK @DanielMclaren

Chris has been at the MLS since 2008, having approached the then president of the MLS about how there was a business around MLS digital products whilst studying for his MBA at Columbia Business School. Since then he has written and executed the digital strategy, becoming one of the foremost leaders on digital media within sports. In this interview Chris had some great soundbites and took us back to how digital at the MLS looked almost 10 years ago. - What MLS Digital does and how the 100 staff are split between roles - How he ended up at the MLS after initially going after a career in finance and having a private equity role lined up - How he advises people to 'always bring an idea to the table' - What the MLS digital looked like in 2008, with MLB running that side of the business when he arrived - In 2009 he carried out a full review of the digital business and ended up bringing a lot of the roles in house and relaunched the products in 2010 - Having all the teams using the MLS platforms gives th

Brian Solis is principal analyst at Altimeter Group (a Prophet company). Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders, speakers, and published authors in new technology, digital marketing and culture shifts. His new book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, explores the importance of experiences and how to design them for customers, employees and human beings everywhere. Solis also designed the book to be an experience as a physical example of what's possible when you take a step back to rethink products, services and models in a new economy (and world). www.xthebook.com. In the special show, that has little to do with sport directly but everything to do with business change and understanding your audience. - How he tracks disruptive technologies and their effect on business - How the events of 2016 (Trump/Brexit), why it happened and how it will affect marketing - His insane travel schedule where his keynote talks are some of the most sought after in the tech indus

Tom now mixes his love of gaming and sports at ESports team NRG who are based in the US and compete worldwide. Previously he worked as Head of Digital at innovative challenger motorsport series Formula E and before that, the Lawn Tennis Association. Our predominately ESports chat was a fascinating insight into the gaming world, a topic that has been as hot as you can get in 2016, with a big 12 months ahead for the 'sport'.

Michael is a partner and co-founder at Sports Investment Partners, a European investment firm focused purely on driving investment and growth in the sport industry. Senior operational roles combined with Board level experience in a wide range of business types enable him to have a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the industry – from companies with typical business models (Arena Group) to those exploiting the leveraged operating model that technology can provide (Rightster, Mondogoal, Umbel). We sat down at his office nr Regent Street in London to chat through; - his role at SIP - what he looks for in a potential investment - how the people involved in a startup are the no.1 most important area to look at, and can they explain their idea simply? - his thoughts on sport social networks including The Dugout - lessons he learned from involvement in Rightster, now Brave Bison, and how it was the right idea but it was the execution that let them down - his love of writing blog posts on L

Kate joined The Dugout in May 2016 as Executive Vice President. The company has set out to connect football fans to the world’s greatest clubs and players – giving you exclusive behind-the-scenes content and access, all in one place. In a world first, they’re giving fans one platform that delivers unrivalled access to their favourite clubs and players - away from the noise of multiple social media and news sites. Prior to joining The Dugout, Kate was European General Manager at Buzzfeed, has been CEO of AOL Europe and was Google's first employee outside of the US in 2001. So brings a wealth of experience into the UK startup. In our chat we covered quite a few areas including; - What is The Dugout and how is it unique? - Kate's role within the company - How they managed bring in some of the biggest football clubs in the world - The research and insights that led to the launch of The Dugout - How they will compliment and work alongside social platforms - What fans can expect from the platform in te

In this week's episode I had the honour of sitting down with Olympic gold medallist Mark Hunter. He now only won in Beijing in 2008 but also added 5 x World Cups, 2 x World Championships and a Silver at London 2012 to his medal haul. He retired in 2013 and recently became Director at the Sports Technology Awards. In our chat we discussed his career, that Silver at London 2012, his business life post-2013 and his thoughts on the challenges that lie ahead for sport and how technology can help. You can find Mark on @MarkHunterGB and also on Facebook. If you enjoy this show then take a look at the 21 previous interviews and if you can leave a comment, rating or review it would be massively appreciated. Thanks!

Sean Callanan has built up an archive of 130+ podcasts, talking to sports business exec's from around the world and been working with teams and leagues in Australia helping with their digital efforts since 2009. I had the pleasure of appearing on Sean's podcast back in 2014 (episode 37 if you want to look it up) and this was my chance to return the favour and also pick his brain on many topics including; - Working within sports and how he fits in between digital and commercial teams - Being an advocate for digital - Some of his experiences, good and bad - Why you should ask sports sponsors what they want, and then what they want and then what they want! - How he came to set up Sports Geek back in 2009 and how the industry has changed in the last 7 years - How he uses Snapchat and how he advises clients to do so - His hints and tips for setting up a podcast - How sports could utilise podcasts to reach new audiences - His thoughts on eSports and why he'd have trouble advising purchases of teams and its expan

This week I headed for my first ever visit to the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the home of the Wimbledon Championships. The most famous of the four tennis majors. Alex has been at Wimbledon for 6 years now and during that time her team have won numerous awards for their work. With Alex herself becoming a Sport Industry NextGen Leader graduate (with honours) in 2016 and is to return as a mentor for the 2017 edition. This was a really interesting and enjoyable chat where we talked about; - Alex's love of tennis, and where it came from - Collaborating closely with broadcast and other partners - Watching Andy Murray's first title win - What her job entails and what she does outside of championship time - Working with Snapchat and how the 3 year deal with them came about - Keeping Wimbledon innovative but still staying true to the Wimbledon brand and the tournaments heritage - How exciting it is during the tournament and what the team looks like and gets up to - Planing content prior to the event such

David is a senior executive with almost 20 years experience within digital. He's been at Sky since 1998, aside from brief stints at TEAMtalk Media and Coral, and has risen through Sales , Commercial Manager, Business Development Manager, Director of Mobile Apps and Services and then in 2012 to Digital Director for Sky Sports. In this chat (over Skype hence the differing sounds) we went through a number of topics including; - What his role encompasses at Sky - Why the recent reports of viewership decline in football need to be taken in context with Olympics, types of games and differing viewing habits (numbers didn't include Sky Go or NOW TV) - Their investments in the likes of Whistle Sports and GINX TV - How Whistle has helped relaunch Soccer AM to a new generation - The lessons startups can learn when pitching in ideas/products to him at Sky - Their work with Twitter on producing highlights for their Amplify product - Developing branded content with Ronaldo and Nike - How they stay relevant and keep innova

I had the pleasure of being on a panel at London Sport's 2.0 event at the BFI IMAX theatre in London and afterwards sat down with their Chief Executive, and self-professed data and tech geek, Peter Fitzboydon. London Sport has the aim of helping 1,000,000 Londoners become more active by 2020, and Peter sees data and technology as two of the ways they can achieve this. They also announced at the event the launch of a new 'sports tech hub' which will be launching in early 2017, which will be very exciting to the industry. We spoke about this and a number of other topics in our time together, including; - How Pete’s background in tech gives him a unique insight when bringing sport and tech together - How London Sport is looking towards the tech industry to help get 1m Londoners more active by 2020 - The importance of Open Data to what London Sport are looking to achieve - How sport is under threat from likes of esports and is failing to react to change generally - The opportunities shown by technology such as

Thanks to Audioboom for hosting this podcast at their studio in London. In this episode Dan spoke with Ben Wells about his thoughts about sport in the digital era, and where it needs to get to. Ben has some fantastic experience having worked with huge tech giants at Redmandarin, spent 6 years as Head of Marketing at Chelsea FC and helped them activate and then renegotiate the sponsorship deal with Samsung, had a brief stint as Commercial Director at Reading FC before striking out on his own. Ben now works with rights holders and tech startups, helping them prepare for a digital first era - and airs some of his frustrations with how it is viewed within sport at the moment. There is so much packed into this 40 minutes that you can't fail to take things away from it and use as inspiration in your own work. To ask the questions that need asking... and to always be curious! Please leave us a rating/review if you enjoy this podcast. You can catch up with the 16 previous episodes on iTunes, Audioboom an

In our first international podcast recording, done almost seamlessly over Skype(!). Dan caught up with the former VP for Digital & Brand Strategy at the NBA team Phoenix Suns. Jeramie recently left his role after 24 years at the team, having started in the club shop back in 1992. Rising through the ranks he led the charge into the new digital era and enjoyed the refreshing challenges it presented every couple of years. In that time, he and his team won numerous awards (including 2 Emmys!) and were also the first NBA team to launch an email newsletter in 1997 and then an online talk show in 2004. His love for sports journalism has meant that he's been Editor-at-Large for NBA Publications since 2000 and also found time to work on the Arizona Super Bowl for the organising committee 2013-15. Since leaving the Suns in September he is working with the 2017 Super Bowl hosts, Houston, as their Social Media QB. As well as working with numerous clients and increasing his speaking engagements. There was a

Dan McLaren caught up with one of the first employees for Bleacher Report in their London office. James has previously worked for Spectrum Strategy Consultants, Sportech Plc before working on a sports start-up called Fanatix. He's been at Bleacher Report for a year now and has built up a team of around 30 people, including 4 who work purely on their Snapchat activity. We delve into that, the lessons learned within a startup and much much more. If you enjoy this podcast then please listen to others either on Audioboom, iTunes or Stitcher Radio. Any follows, recommendations or rating you are happy to give, that is always massively appreciated. @DanielMclaren @DigitalSportUK

Rebecca's company, ENS, is an award-winning PR agency with over a decade of success working with brands, individuals and sports organizations, including BT, Craig Bellamy, Visit England, the LTA and Rhino Rugby. Rebecca's most recent ventures have been to devise and co-found The Sports Technology Awards (www.sportstechnologyawards.com) and Women's Sports Week. Not only did she found The Sports Technology Awards in 2013 but before that she started the Sport Industry Awards, which is still going strong as the BT Sport Industry Awards, after she sold it to Benchmark Sports. Her background in events with the publishing industry and love of sports has seen her carve out a great career. She talks through the highs and lows of owning your own company, seeing out financial crashes and her views on industry events we have now. Your can find Rebecca on @Sports_PR and on LinkedIn And Sports Tech Awards info can be found on http://www.sportstechnologyawards.com Please leave a comment, rating or share amo

Dr Steve Gennaro is a professor at York University in Toronto, Canada teaching communication and media studies. The other side to his career is that of co-founder and director at AllInSportsTalk.com and reporter/host at TotalFootball889. We met at Villa Park where he was one of my guest speakers at Digital Sport Summit 2016 and recorded the podcast before guests arrived for the day. He's a fascinating person and offers up some brilliant advice and experiences. He's a podcaster of enormous experience having started his own journey with RaptersRepublic.com which he co-founded through the True Hoop Network for ESPN in 2007. Then in 2010 it took off with 000's of listens and going onto on the Anfield Index which had hundred's of thousands of listens. We talked in depth about the improvements in podcasting (obviously!) and how easy it is now, his career in education, the change in sports consumption habits, his theory that NFL should buy Twitter - you heard it here first! - and what his plans are for All

This week I got to sit down with an old school friend who has been working in digital since moving down to London in the late 90's. Taking in CNET, Channel Flip, Unruly Media and now That Lot, founded by actor, writer and Twitter obsessive David Schneider (264,000 followers, not that he’s counting), finance wizard, David Beresford, and the UK’s foremost professional tweeter, David Levin, the fingers and thumbs behind accounts such as @BBCTheVoiceUK and @the_dolphin_pub We cover many points that have stood out in Barney's career including working for the first real YouTube MCN that was Channel Flip in 2009 and one of the most exciting video companies in Unruly. He offers some great insights into video content creation and measurement, Twitter campaigns for Virgin Media, taking the mickey out of Sam Allardyce with a Made In Chelsea sketch for Channel 4 and some hints & tips in using Snapchat. We also drop some 'knowledge bombs' and Barney invents a new term with the 'Banter Bunker'! You can find Barney on @