Eric Senn, CEO and co-founder of Badge, joins Charlie on the Sports Loft podcast to discuss why the mobile wallet is quickly becoming the most powerful interface for fan engagement. With mobile wallet usage now outpacing platforms like TikTok, Badge has built the infrastructure to enable sports organisations to meet fans where they already live. Eric explains how sports organisations can move beyond using wallets for simple digital ticketing and create a branded experience that is pre-installed on every fan’s device. Coming off the back of their recent $13.8m Series A funding, we hear about the rapid growth Badge has seen since we heard from Eric at last year’s Sports Loft Summit.

Some of the topics we discuss include:

• How the pre-installed mobile wallet provides a 'lighter weight' entry point for fans compared to the high-friction journey of downloading a traditional team app
• How Badge enables sports organisations to trigger notifications and relevant sponsor offers precisely when a fan reaches the stadium gate through geofencing.
• Why developing across Apple, Google, and Samsung wallets is a massive engineering task and how Badge simplifies this into a single API.
• Integrating wallet passes with stadium POS systems to track real-time ROI and fan spending habits.

The conversation focuses on the evolution of sports sponsorship, exploring how new technologies are providing additional rights and diverse activation opportunities for sponsors. Our two guests bring unique perspectives, with Jason specialising in commercial contracts, technology, media and law, while Sally oversees Sage's sponsorship portfolio, including partnerships with MLB, Six Nations rugby and The Hundred cricket.

Our favourite bits include Sally explaining the differing strategies behind why Sage is engaged in sports in multiple markets, and Jason’s explanation of how the US and UK contrast when it comes to contract law around such sponsorships.

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.

Thank you for supporting our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review!

Among plenty more, Antonio gives us his thoughts on the evolving web3 and gaming sectors, offers us his pick of exciting growth areas, and explains what he looks for in the businesses Apex invests in.

This episode was recorded in April 2023.

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.

Japan isn’t the only country on the radar of Samson Mayall, the NFL’s senior manager of direct-to-consumer. Game Pass delivers year-round NFL content to fans across Latin America in a range of local languages. Germany, a hotbed of American football fandom, has also been trialled. In total, fans can access NFL content in 200 countries around the world.

Behind each of the local language streams is Spalk – the remote commentary platform that makes broadcasting multi-language sportscasts simple. In this episode, Yanni is joined by Samson and Tom Read, chief commercial officer at Spalk, to discuss the partnership, the NFL’s approach to developing global fandom and how direct-to-consumer plays a pivotal role in the league’s goal of taking football to the world.

This also gives us the annual opportunity to look back at the previous year’s predictions and see what came true and what didn’t. In this week’s podcast we do just that, with host Yanni Andreopoulos and Sports Loft CEO and founder, Charlie Greenwood, joining Andy in assessing the 2022 forecast, as well as casting an eye ahead to 2023 and what the year has in store. RSS: 3baa75c089bcedf8a675e5d070333d2db07288b2

Today, every organisation – from sports teams to media giants – needs a constant stream of engaging social media content. OpusClip makes that possible, helping clients like VoxMedia, Seattle Seahawks, FloSports, Memphis Grizzlies and Juventus to transform their video libraries into shareable clips, to engage their existing audiences and find new fans.

Over the course of the conversation, we cover the companies inception and growth, its relevancy to the sports and entertainment industry, and the company's new product, ClipAnything – which allows users to effortlessly generate specific moments from any video using natural language prompts.

OneCourt has developed a haptic device that allows fans to feel live action through trackable vibrations, revolutionising the way sports are experienced. The company, spun out of the University of Washington, recently partnered with T-Mobile and Major League Baseball to showcase their innovation at the MLB All-Star Game and are on the verge of launching a new device with improved features.

There's also an angel round underway, with the likes of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, heading up the cap table.

Timestamps:

• 05:00 – Developing the One Court haptic device
• 15:00 – Testing and piloting the technology
• 24:15 – The market
• 32:30 – The role of audio
• 37:45 – Partnership with T-Mobile and MLB at the All-Star Game
• 45:00 – The journey ahead
• 49:45 – OneCourt's angel round

Within the WISE portfolio, you'll find familiar names like Sports Loft member companies Tagboard and FEVO, plus former member Slate, and many more across the sports, media and entertainment space.

Konrad takes us behind the scenes at WISE, revealing why the firm likes to assume board positions in their investments, the art of crafting a robust cap table, and his secret for juggling numerous moving parts and projects (hint: you've just got to stay impeccably organised!).In September's 'Investor's View' episode Konrad also explains that for him, one of the most important skills for a founder to have is the ability to sell a vision.

Timestamps: 08:30 – Tech adoption in sports organisations 14:00 – The WISE thesis and strategic approach 19:30 – Active deployment in 2023 23:00 – Why take board positions 25:00 – Tagboard and building a great cap table 28:00 – What do you look for in founding teams? 35:00 – The strength of being organised ‍‍

Causeway, founded by Wyc Grousbeck, Bob Higgins and Mark Wan is one of the most respected names in growth-stage sports, media and entertainment investment, with a portfolio that spans broadcasters such as FloSports, rights holders like Formula E and tech scale-ups like Zwift and Freeletics. So, it's fascinating to hear what it takes to keep an ear to the ground across all these verticals within the sports environment.

Jasmine also explains her relationship-driven approach to seeking out Causeway's next big investment, discusses how to have tough conversations with founders and the Causeway style of nurturing their portfolio companies.

"Because we're so relationship-oriented, one of the things that was really hard about the pandemic is that we like to  have a handful of personal interactions with the CEO and  management team prior to making an investment," Jasmine told us. "We don't really like having to do everything over Zoom, so we're glad that the travel is more back to normal. We really go try to spend dedicated time and show up and get to know the team – to gather as much information as we can – as well as just be really clear about the kind of partner we are. And make sure that that's really what the management team is looking for."

Our host Yanni calls Jasmine, "one of the smartest people around", so have a listen and learn why.

In our latest episode with Finn Bradshaw:

Innovating at the Cricket World Cup

• Why the challenge for cricket in America is not building an audience, but having the right product?
• How did the ICC work with influencers such as Jomboy during the World Cup and what did they learn?
• Why did the ICC partner with existing games on Roblox rather than building their own?
• How did experiences on the Apple Vision Pro help with partnership discussions?
• What were Finn’s biggest learnings from getting 4million viewers on the ICC TV app?

How the ICC uses different social platforms

• Why are Facebook and Instagram the best marketing platforms ever built?
• Which platform has the best analytics?
• Why did match highlights only go on Meta channels up until 2023 and why change?
• How does Finn balance the need to build audiences on their own channels vs getting the reach on social?

Running proof-of-concepts at the ICC

• How does the ICC test ideas before rolling them out more broadly?
• How did the ICC test vertical video? What did the learn and how did they adapt?
• How have POC’s built trust with internal stakeholders, sponsors and partners?
• Why is it important how you measure success for POC's?
• Why has senior backing been so important for implementing a “test and learn” approach?

In this episode, Charlie, Andy and our MC for the day, Yanni, look back at the event and discuss the presentations from the companies that can broadly be defined as operating in the fan engagement space.

They are:

• Monterosa
• Storyteller
• Satisfi Labs
• StellarAlgo
• OneCourt

In part two, we'll dig into the companies that presented in our Content and Immersive sessions.

We’ve been approached by lots of companies try to nail digital fan experiences, but in the last 12 to 18 months we’ve seen Monterosa’s approach evolve, coinciding with an increase in market demand for compelling digital experiences that keep fans coming back. It was therefore great to catchup with Tom, and really explore what this means for their clients such as Liverpool FC, EA Sports, Six Nations and Formula E.

Tom shares his learnings as the company has grown (and changed!) from its days when the BBC was an early client and discusses how teams and leagues can build their audience even if they don’t have the development resources of the big tech giants. One of our favourite sections was when Tom discusses how sponsor brands are using the platform to syndicate experiences across all the different sports properties they work with.

The growth of community building in sports is one of our trends for 2024, so it was great to catch up with Tom and really dig into the realities of what that means. In this episode, we explore the growth of the business, what Levellr adds to apps like Discord, and the delicate balance between building scalable software which is supported by human-powered services.

Tom shares his key learnings and success stories, discussing collaborations with industry giants like Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group and setting out how similar thinking can be applied to sports. We also dig into Levellr's recent £1 million funding.

It's an all-star panel to discuss the evolution of athlete brand-building: Simon managed the image of David Beckham at the height of his fame and recently worked on bringing Neymar Jr into the Fortnite and Call of Duty games. Greenfly, run by Daniel, allows athletes and their teams and agents to share and distribute short form social media content quickly and efficiently. And Ant's Move.ai is able to accurately capture and digitise human movement using basic cameras, smart software and AI, opening up a raft of applications – from licensing athletes' signature moves to embedding them in films, video games and more.

Throughout the course of the episode, the panel explores the value of authenticity, the impact of social media – how it's changed the relationship athletes and celebrities have with the media and their fans – and the ways in which public figures will use the 'metaverse' to further extend their brands.

To discuss all this, we welcome to the podcast Ari Daie, CEO and founder of Sports Loft member company FEVO, and Nathan Homer, chief commercial officer of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Nathan and Ari are the perfect guests to discuss these trends, with perspectives that cover making the ticket buying process easier and more social, and ensuring the live event is enticing and exciting as possible.

As Nathan explains, demographics are shifting and fans expect more from their ticket than just 90 minutes of sporting action – from selfie spots and shopping, to quality food and halftime shows. This is forcing venues to evolve, shifting to a “ticket plus” model, built on a premium economy experience.

In this episode we reference:

• Sports Pro Media – Study: Women’s sports attendance growth helps set new annual UK crowd record
• Evening Standard – Is the party over for hospitality? The rise of ‘premium economy’ in the match day box 

Regular host Yanni Andreopoulos was joined by Don White and Nathan Peterson, CEOs of Satisfi Labs and Tagboard, respectively, as well as sports sponsorship and comms guru Andy Sutherden. Andy has counselled major brands such as HSBC, Procter & Gamble and Adidas, led the sponsorship planning and activation for six of the major sponsors at London 2012 (and subsequent Olympics), and today advises companies from startups to FTSE 100s on partnership strategy.

First up for dissection was the pros and cons of growing startups hiring talented people out of the big tech companies. We then turned our attention to the idea that many Silicon Valley VC firms are seeking returns so vast that they're overlooking viable investment opportunities in order to discover the next 'super unicorn'. 

----more----

In this episode we reference the following article:

• Napkin Math – Venture Capital Is Ripe for Disruption

We were keen to catch up with him to discuss the rapid growth around women’s sports versus traditional franchises, and dive into what Europe can learn from the American sports model. The conversation also spanned the hangover of the pandemic and its impact on the sports ecosystem.

“Coming out of the pandemic when no live sports had been played, I think it made everyone sit back and say, ‘is our model working?’ And the ones who came out of it well were the US sports franchises,” says Nihkil. “There is a precedent where the US teams and leagues have got the model right from a commercialisation, monetisation and professionalisation perspective. I think there’s been an acceleration of the European leagues and federations across sports looking at the US sports model and asking, ‘how do we replicate that?’”

Looking ahead, we also discuss where Elysian is looking for its next opportunities. The surprising answer? Don’t ignore what's going on in the Web 2.0 space.

Elysian Park is the private investment arm of the LA Dodgers Ownership Group and counts more than 50 companies within its portfolio, including Sports Loft member Greenfly, football publisher Copa90, personal fitness app Freeletics and betting platform DraftKings.

‍

That’s the promise of motionless motion capture developer Move.ai, Sports Loft’s newest member. In this episode, Yanni chats with co-founder Ant Ganjou to hear more about “where artificial intelligence meets the metaverse.” Along the way, we learn how capturing athletes movements on the field of play will become the most valuable IP in the media industry, discover the implications for gaming and movie production – in both the amateur and professional fields – and explore the disruptive potential of reducing motion capture costs from the hundreds of thousands to hundreds of dollars.

“That’s the beautiful thing about computer vision, the beautiful thing about AI and the beautiful thing about being in the software business,” says Ganjou. “Within six or eight weeks anyone anywhere on the planet – whether you're in Sub-Saharan Africa, or native Chile or in an Alaskan substation, you can literally download an app and start incredibly high fidelity motion capture. It's designed to reach hundreds of millions of people and to create truly scalable animation.

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.

In this second episode of our two-parter on the event, Charlie, Andy and our MC for the day, Yanni, look back at the Summit and discuss the presentations from the companies that can broadly be defined as operating in the content and immersive spaces.

They are:

• Twelve Labs
• Opus Clip
• Tagboard
• Audioshake
• Spalk
• Ateme
• Arcturus

And if you missed part one, make sure to check it out. In that episode, we dig into the companies that presented in our Fan Engagement sessions.

We kick off the conversation by setting the scene, with Sam discussing the inception and evolution of PTO, including its recent partnership with World Triathlon. He digs into the organisation's goal of becoming a more consumer-facing brand with its T100 Triathlon World Tour and outlines the strategies for growing a sustainable fan base for triathlon.

"It's taken us a couple of years to figure out the right model. But we think that in the T100 we have something unique," he says. "We're like the PGA Tour from a governance structure because we've got the athletes and the pros. We're Formula One with this season long narrative with glamorous locations. And we're the World Marathon Majors with the mass participation. So really it's super exciting."

We were keen to chat with Sam about the role technology plays in the roadmap for the T100 series. Tech, Sam explains, will be baked into almost every element of the series – from its broadcast and commentary, to the sponsorship proposition and management of mass participation rankings. 

Sam also mapped out the PTO's funding model, with the likes of Michael Moritz as a lead investor, alongside Warner Bros. Discovery. And with the prospect of the organisation securing further funding to accelerate the growth of the T100, it's going to be a fascinating journey to watch.

Timestamps:

• 10:46 – Evolution of PTO's business model
• 25:11 – Importance of technology and investment from Warner Bros. Discovery
• 29:39 – Consolidating high-value audience with first-party data
• 30:21 –  Using data for sponsorship, media, and direct-to-consumer
• 35:09 – Storytelling and technology in triathlon
• 40:59 – Bringing non-endemic sponsors into triathlon
• 43:50 – Building revenue streams for triathletes
• 53:18 – The future of the PTO

  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”.

Spalk combines its Virtual Commentary Studio with a Talent Marketplace. This means broadcasters and right-holders have the software to put out broadcast-quality commentary from anywhere with an internet connection, and have access to a vast array of sportscasters spanning tens of sports, languages and regions.

Today Spalk boasts more than 2,500 commentators across some 50 countries, covering 30+ sports, including some of the biggest events on the global calendar.

We catch up with Ben to hear about the successes of 2022 (including the football World Cup), the potential of remote commentary for providing niche audiences with unprecedented levels of personalisation, and how Spalk customers are turning what was previously a cost centre into a revenue stream. In this episode we reference:

• Sports Loft – Want to take a sport to new markets? Speak their language

Consequently, the need to innovate (and sometimes innovation for the sake of doing something different) becomes more important for content owners. How can the broadcasters get the fans to watch just a bit longer? How can they provide the fans with a differentiated experience that enables them to have their voice heard or to access more complementary content on their phone? How is interactivity changing the presentation of the broadcast? How do they have to compete (or compliment?) the teams, leagues and athletes who are becoming content producers in their own right? How is on-screen talent being evaluated - is it now as much about the community that they can bring?

In the latest Sports Loft podcast, we are joined by Michael Bucklin, Vice President of Digital Content at Fox Sports, who leads the development of content to complement Fox’s rights portfolio such as the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup, as well as studio shows such as Fox NFL Sunday. We are also joined by Tagboard’s President Nathan Peterson, whose clients include content owners such as Fox Sports, NBC, NFL Media and MLB. 

Some of the topics we discuss include:

• Why has the fragmentation of content workflows has become such a big pain point for sports organsiations?

• How has ScorePlay leveraged best-in-class AI technologies for facial recognition, logo detection, speech to text conversion and even dubbing, rather than trying to build it themselves?

• How are rightsholders using the platform with their commercial partners?

• How has the content market evolved since the launch of ScorePlay and how will it continue to change?

• Why they have stayed very focused on the sports vertical?

• How have their athlete investors played such an important role in driving adoption in the locker room?

• Why does Victorien see the future for ScorePlay as the “media infrastructure for sports”? – and why is developing their API so important in order to achieve this?

We were blown away by Arcturus' demo at the Sports Loft Summit, which put the viewer in the middle of a wrestling match. So we've been keen to delve further into the origins of Arcturus, the concept of volumetric video, and how the technology is being used by its sports and entertainment clients.

Kamal explains how Arcturus provides tools and services for creating and manipulating volumetric video content, which can be viewed on 2D displays, as well as VR/AR headsets, such as the Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest, and Microsoft HoloLens. The conversation also covers current capabilities, future developments and the crucial discussions around rights deals.

Timestamps:

• 06:25 – What Arcturus does
• 14:45 – Difference between volumetric video and standard AR/VR
• 25:00 – Capturing volumetric video
• 28:30 – Video complexity and compression
• 35:15 – Market readiness for immersive video rights
• 42:30 – Integrating volumetric video into broadcasts
• 49:45 – Next Ssteps and fundraising

Our panel also discuss whether the launch of ChatGPT marks the true beginning of the Age of AI with respect to, and even find time to dig into why the sports sector is seeing a proliferation of new direct to consumer (DTC) products from rights holders, such as FIFA, Manchester United and others.

In this edition of the Sports Loft Podcast, host Yanni Andreopoulos is joined by Daniel Kirschner, the president, CEO and co-founder of Greenfly, and Nick Goggans, co-founder and CEO of Pumpjack Dataworks. Making his debut on the pod is Pete Burns, VP of Commercial Strategy at Deltatre, who works with leading rights holders to develop their strategies for growing their own DTC business.

In this episode we reference:

• Hypnotoad and its adoption by the TCU Horned Frogs as their mascot. All glory to the Hypnotoad.

With its first fund, deployed between 2018 and 2021, Sapphire invested in Sports Loft member company FEVO, among others. Now, having raised $180m from many of its original partners, plus some new names, Michael and the team are on the hunt for new opportunities.

Yanni and Michael explore where Sapphire Sport hopes to find its next round of investments, how the firm’s thesis is being employed in the current market, and what advice Sapphire is giving to founders across its portfolio.  ----- This episode was recorded in May 2023

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.

"The relationship you have with the fan is becoming more central, regardless of the revenue streams you're trying to drive," Vince explains. "Our platform makes it easy to identify fan insights and opportunities, and we put those at your fingertips."

He also highlights how their platform empowers teams to identify fan insights and personalise content, with the goal of improving fan engagement and revenue growth. And we dig into how one NHL team effectively targeted 30,000 fans for a Toyota campaign, resulting in significant engagement and sales, showcasing the tangible impact of data-driven marketing.

For early stage companies, this is a challenge. How do you deliver the quality of marketing and content across multiple channels with limited resource and budget? How do you build a consistent message when the product is evolving so fast? But equally, in the early days of a startups’ journey, companies are focused on understanding their customer’s needs and building an initial product that they can sell - do they really need a brand at that stage? As they acquire more customers and the product becomes increasingly defined, that’s when the company’s brand – as Jeff Bezos put it, “What other people say about you when you are not in the room” – becomes increasingly important.

In the latest Sports Loft podcast we are joined by the Chief Marketing Officers of FEVO and Greenfly, Betty Tran and Tom Kuhr respectively. They discuss why a brand is important to achieve scale, how their brands are constantly evolving and how building a brand plays into fundraising conversations.

Cordero also gives us a sneak peek to where their focus will lie for their second fund, including which aspects of NFTs and the metaverse look post appealing for investment.

Our favourite quotes:

“Leveraging the connectivity that we have in marketplace…, that's one of the perks of having the Packers and Microsoft, you can really get connected to anyone in the world and pick up the phone to call someone to say hey, we have a company that fits your thesis would love for you to take a look at it.”

“The founders are taking all this risk, they’ve been told no 300 times, and here they are still fired up, talking to me. That’s so fun to me to watch - I always say the founders are some of the most courageous people we ever deal with.”

“As a former athlete myself, the competitive nature of identifying talent, finding the right deals to get into, being able to carve out a niche that fits your thesis - it's something that makes the job very fun and it gives you kind of that feel of being in the game again”

Our first discussion kicks off with a deep dive into how leagues that sit outside of Europe’s top tier are using star signings to grow their fanbases. Our guests examine the Messi transfer to Inter Miami and the arrivals of Ronaldo, Benzema, and Henderson in the Saudi Pro League, exploring their impact on the league's popularity.

Moving on, we dig into the changing consumption habits in sports media, fueled by the rise of short-form content. With YouTube execs expressing concern that Shorts is cannibalising its core product, Matt, Kristen and Andy discuss what’s driving the shift to bitesize formats and what it means for sports. Plus, they examine the evolving strategies of young athletes, as they navigate the world of content and find themselves becoming influencers and content creators.

Timestamps:

• 07:00 – Messi to Inter Miami
• 09:00 – Athletes as creators 
• 12:45 – Building athlete brands
• 18:00 – Saudi Pro League vs MLS
• 22:00 – Athletes as investors
• 30:00 – Short-form vs long-form content
• 36:00 – How social media is impacting other formats
• 41:00 – Young athletes navigating social media
• 44:00 – The success of the docuseries format 

ADvantage focuses on three areas of the sports tech ecosystem: fan engagement, the connected athlete and derivative sports, which spans fantasy, gaming and e-sports. As such, the its portfolio includes the likes of Greenfly, the short-form content distribution platform; Tappp, which enables commerce, betting and interactive polling to sit alongside live sports on a single screen; and Infinite Athlete. ADvantage tends to lead investment rounds for Series A and B companies, with cheque sizes ranging from $2-5 million and $4-8 million, respectively.

Timestamps:

• 06:00 – The ADvantage thesis
• 12:00 – The role of strategic LPs 
• 18:00 – Evaluating sports tech startups
• 24:00 – Fan engagement technology
• 30:00 – Emerging sports leagues as investment opportunities
• 36:00 – How ADvantage is looking at AI in sports

The discussion then moves onto the impressive strides clients like Bauer Media Group and Comcast NBC are making by building Covatic into their advertising strategies. Nick opens up about what it's been like to work with such giants of media, and the feedback they've received along the way.

Finally, on the back of its recent Series A, the pair also discuss Covatic's growth strategy, Nick's personal development as a founder, his approach to building up the team, and what the future holds for the business.

Timestamps:

• 08:30 – Intro to AudioShake
• 15:45 – How the tech alters the content creation process
• 19:00 – Speed of processing and real-time
• 23:00 – The reaction of the sports industry
• 30:00 – Karaoke and the company's founding
• 33:30 – The business model  
• 39:30 – Real-time audio splitting 
• 45:30 – Training the AI models

Kiki is our podcast guest this week, and in a wide-ranging conversation, we learn what drew her to the industry, the sectors that are exciting her right now and how she's working to improve the representation of women across the VC space, the startup world and the sports industry. We also dive into the founding story of Drive by DraftKings, its investment thesis and what the team looks for in the founders behind potential investment opportunities.

Drive is an early-stage VC firm led by CEO and managing partner Meredith McPherron. It focuses wherever sports meets tech and media, counting Sports Loft member FEVO, fitness wearable scale-up Whoop and publishing platform Just Women's Sports among its portfolio. Its founding partners include sports betting company DraftKings and VC firms General Catalyst, Accomplice and Boston Seed Capital.

Karta boasts an impressive client base that includes Amazon Music, Ronald McDonald House, K-pop group TWICE, and Unilever. And in this week's podcast, Yanni chats with Erik to learn about the process of developing award-winning immersive experiences for these brands and organisations on platforms like Roblox and Fortnite.

Over the course of the episode, Erik introduces Karta and his own background in esports, explains his thinking around how to best engage fans in these spaces, and discusses his vision for how all brands – across the sports and entertainment ecosystem – will soon have a presence in the metaverse.

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.”

They discuss the rise of vertical video formats like Stories and Reels, the power of narrative in sports, and how Storyteller helps sports teams and rights holders deliver engaging content to fans. Storyteller is a platform that helps clients create and deliver vertical content in a compelling and personalised way. Clients, such as the LA Rams and FC Barcelona, have seen positive results in terms of increased engagement and video views after implementing Storyteller. The platform also offers opportunities for commercialisation, including sponsored content and full-screen ads.  Timestamps:

• 07:00 – Overview of Storyteller  
• 08:16 – The rise of vertical video   
• 19:39 – Creating vertical-specific Content  
• 23:32 – The components of the Storyteller platform  
• 29:00 – Success stories: LA Rams and FC Barcelona  
• 33:00 – Monetising content and selling merchandise  
• 38:00 – Building partnerships  
• 49:00 – The dream client

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.

Anthony's 25 years of experience spans founding his own businesses, holding board positions at a number of portfolio companies, and leading the technology investment practice at West River. Tech is just one of the four sectors the 'investment platform' focuses on, with experience (ie. entertainment), decarbonisation, and life sciences being the rest. Sport intersects with those in a number of interesting ways, which is why we had to invite Anthony on the podcast.

Over the course of our conversation Anthony explains what he's looking for when founders approach West River for funding, what he and the group can offer once a deal is done, and how entrepreneurs should be operating in the current economic landscape. It's a fascinating chat with tens of takeaways for those looking to build their own businesses.

Timestamps:

• 02:15 – The West River Group thesis and proposition
• 05:30 – Where sports comes into the equation 
• 10:00 – The power of data in the sports space
• 14:00 – What makes a good founder from the VC perspective?
• 21:00 – Negotiation, valuation and setting terms
• 29:00 – The impact of the interest rate shake-up
• 35:00 – The next geographical tech hubs 
• 40:00 – AI and other areas of interest

Over the course of the conversation, Jordan details how Techstars identifies promising startups, and the ways it works with successful applicants to help their businesses develop. The pair also cover the equity terms and ongoing support offered by the accelerator.

As well as Jordan's search for “the Topgolf of fishing”, the discussion touches on what qualities Techstars looks for in its founders, their teams, and products, plus the sectors and areas that are exciting Jordan in 2023. This leads to the unlikely story of how Jordan became an early investor in Lemon Perfect. Founded by former basketball coach Yanni Hufnagel, the hydration company has since raised more than $70m.

Jordan is a former managing partner at Founders First, an angel fund and syndicate. He was co-founder and CEO of CoachUp, a platform to connect athletes with coaches. Among other ventures, he was co-CEO of Draft.com – a fantasy sports site which sold to Paddy Power Betfair in 2017 for ~$48m.

Timestamps

04:30 – What does an accelerator like Techstars do?

09:30 – How does Techstars attract and vet companies?

14:00 – The decision process of admitting a company

23:00 – What the end goal for each company they bring in?

18:30 – What makes a company too mature for Techstars?

31:15 – Where Jordan expects to find the next big opportunity 38:15 – How the economic landscape has shifted

43:20 – What makes a good founder or team?

56:00 – Lemon Perfect

To unpick it all, we’ve called upon Jenny Mitton, director and women’s sport lead at M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment, who’s worked on some of the biggest sports sponsorships of recent times. Joining Jenny and host Yanni Andreopoulos are returning guests Tom Read, chief commercial officer of Spalk, and FEVO’s chief revenue officer, Josh Rose. Our panel assesses the state of play when it comes to broadcast infrastructure, sponsorship activations, commercial opportunities and more. 

And in the second part, we switch gears to explore the fascinating landscape of sports content streaming. As Netflix hints at venturing into live sports, potentially launching a new golf competition, we ponder its implications for the industry and ask whether some sports need Netflix more than Netflix needs sport. Answers on a postcard please.

Timestamps

• 02:00 – Favourite sporting moments of the week
• 06:30 – The viral Orange Women’s World Cup ad
• 12:30 – Investment in broadcast production around the women's game
• 17:15 – The opportunities around women's football and other sports
• 25:20 – Does sport need Netflix more than Netflix needs sport?
• 27:50 – The changing landscape of sports distribution
• 30:30 – Which stories should Netflix and others focus on?

This episode references:

• The Drum – The Orange Women’s World Cup ad is dividing the internet

So for teams, how can you deliver a better experience for the fans across all aspects of their experience – from before the game, at the venue and after the venue. How do you help them get the information that they need to ensure that they have the best experience? How do teams compete against other ways that people can spend their time?

In this episode, Yanni spoke to Donny White, CEO at Satisfi Labs and David Garcia, Senior Vice President, Experience & Innovation at Atlanta Hawks. They discussed the approach that led the Hawks to be ranked as the #1 gameday experience in the NBA, what David has been able to bring from his background with Amazon and Disney into the NBA and how the data captured by Satisfi’s AI assistant is informing changes to the fan experience at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.

Quotes from this episode:

David - “When fans rate their experience at a game, it’s tied to the amount of information they have before they arrive and the expectations that they come in with. For example, the bag policy doesn’t change from one guest to the next. But the guests that knows you can’t bring a bag will have a better experience than the guest that didn’t know and shows up and has to deal with that.”   Donny – “The new fan is a data giver. They’ll ask questions, they’ll tell their friends, they’ll be on social media, they’ll communicate - they have an expectation that brands will respond to them.”

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!

Up front, Maninder explains what multimodal AI is and why it's the perfect tool for understanding the content and context in video. We also cover the evolution of Twelve Labs, its recent $50M Series A funding and the challenges and opportunities in the market.

We think Twelve Labs is an exciting proposition for sports and entertainment organisations with large (or even unwieldy) content libraries because there are so many potential use cases. A broadcaster might use it to tag and organise incoming match footage to share with relevant commercial partners. A team might use it to help its video editors quickly assemble highlight reels and social content. A brand might use it to scour historical footage for advertising material – showing how they’ve been the key differentiator at crucial moments through the decades. And that's just scratching the surface.

“My view is that it can make a video editor into a bionic editor,” says Maninder. “They can do so much more with Twelve Labs. Most of the teams, at the club and league level, are often quite lean and very scarcely resourced. So this technology will enable them to do all of the things on their backlog and their to-do list that they never really get around to because they're just overburdened with the volume of day-to-day tasks.”

Timestamps:

• 06:30 – Intro to Twelve Labs  
• 12:00 – Using AI to organise and search video libraries  
• 16:15 – What is multimodal AI?  
• 23:30 – Explaining foundation models      
• 28:00 – Applications in various industries  
• 33:30 – Twelve Labs as an API business  
• 46:00 – AI: efficiency versus automation  
• 48:00 – The future of Twelve Labs and dream clients

During the episode, we learn the strategy behind RSV’s involvement with Bournemouth and the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, Paul explains why he thinks sport’s reliance on sponsorship and rights sales needs a rethink, and we ask for his hot sectors to watch in 2024. Spoiler: AI gets a mention. 

Our favourite sections included Paul's reflections on the tailwinds in women's sports, and the growth potential for businesses which are able to take sports data and make it genuinely actionable.

Timestamps:

• 08:30 – The difficulty of focusing on multiple verticals
• 12:00 – The returns of investing in teams versus technology
• 19:00 – The background to the AFC Bournemouth deal
• 26:30 – Learnings from the world of rugby
• 34:00 – The over-reliance on sponsorship and rights sales
• 41:00 – The use of AI in sports tech
• 45:30 – Evaluating what a good return is

Adrian Wells, chief marketing officer at Harlequins F.C, Don White, CEO and co-founder of Satisfi Labs, and Josh Rose, chief revenue officer at Fevo, explore the ways sports teams and rights-holders can attract new fans, including big one-off events, sports and sponsorship crossovers and live overseas activations.

They also discuss the imperative for sports and teams to attract a younger and more diverse audience, as well as the challenges that come with selling to broader audiences in addition to superfans. The guests draw on their personal experiences, including the recent Harlequins Big Game 14 at Twickenham versus Exeter Chiefs.

That's how Lance Dietz, partner of KB Partners, describes his job of identifying successes and investing across the sports, tech and media startup landscape. It's a turbulent time for the investment space, as well as the wider economy, which seemed the perfect time to catch up with Lance to discuss all aspects of the industry.

Our discussion spans how best investors can provide value for their portfolio companies beyond cold, hard cash, the opportunities around Web 3.0, how to best engage with the Gen Z audience, and the pros and cons of operating a compact investment partnership.

Lance joined KB Partners in 2018, as part of the investment team after spending time as an investment banker with JP Morgan. Prior to that, he was an officer and engineer in the US Army, stationed in Germany, Afghanistan and across the US. He also played competitive basketball at West Point in the Patriot League.  

Among the many insights offered up by Lance, one was that now might not be such a bad time to invest as it might seem.

"Now could be a great time to be supporting companies and founders in spaces that you find attractive with models that are sustainable and valuations that have become more rational," he says. "I think if you capitalize those those companies well and give them enough runway, you could build a really attractive portfolio in the next twelve eighteen months at prices that seem less frothy."

In this episode of the Sports Loft podcast, we are joined by ATP Media's Chief Strategy Officer Nick Bourne as he takes us through his journey as commercial lead at sports media disrupter Copa90 to his position at one of the biggest rightsholders in the industry. He shares his perspective on how the industry should be approaching its content strategy today. Throughout this journey, Nick has brought an outsider’s perspective to the industry, whether through driving a disruptive brand and new content formats at Copa90 or bringing different approaches to the tennis world.

This product focus is vital in the world of sports, media and entertainment. Why is the fan going to choose this product over all the other options they have? How can the product be applied to the workflows of a major event or the constant “always-on” of a league season? What can teams, leagues or sponsors achieve with this product that they couldn’t do before?

In this podcast, we are joined by Slate’s co-founder and CEO, Michael Horton whose clients include teams across every major US league, the Premier League and major sponsors, and Tagboard’s President Nathan Peterson whose clients include the likes of Fox Sports, NBC, Turner and NFL Media. They discuss what they have learnt from building tech products for the sports and media industry, the importance of the people in the product building process and how their products have evolved from their earliest iterations.

Our conversation took place shortly after 53,000 people had completed the 2024 TCS London Marathon the previous weekend, raising an unprecedented £67 million for charity, and breaking more than 40 other Guinness World Records.

We wanted to find out from Charles what role technology plays in the success of the marathon and LME's other events – which include 10km fundraisers, half marathons, a swim in the capital’s Hyde Park, a cycling race and plenty more.

“Innovation for me is a layer cake and you have to have a firm foundation on which you build,” says Charles. “The starting point at London Marathon Events is very much based on our data... because innovation pivots around insight and insight requires quality data.”

Timestamps:

Along with our Head of Strategy, Andy Selby, Charlie and Alex explore the significance of data in driving revenue for both rights holders and brands, dig out success stories from Trajektory's client base, and explore the balance of providing a SaaS service and supporting customers through hands-on customer success teams. Based in Chicago, the company works with major brands and teams across the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS.

Timestamps:

• 06:15 – Intro to Trajektory
• 11:00 – Client successes
• 14:30 – Understanding brand objectives
• 22:00 – Innovations around in-venue data tracking
• 28:30 – Serving both sides of the market
• 34:30 – Getting granular on reporting
• 39:00 – The culture at Trajektory

With user behaviour shifting from public feeds toward private messaging, and short-form video dominating content strategy, we wanted to get an insider’s view on how sports organisations such as Formula 1, Premier League clubs and Mercedes F1 are navigating Meta’s eco-system to engage fans globally.

Some of the topics we discuss include:

• Why short-form video (ie Reels) is the key to success across both Facebook and Instagram
• How F1 teams and drivers have built a thriving community on threads
• Why the majority of a social media user’s time will soon not be spent in feeds, but rather in private and group messaging conversations.
• How Meta is looking to make their platforms more attractive for content creators?
• Why providing utility and not posting too much has been so important for success with WhatsApp channels
• How sports organisations are looking to monetise their activity across Meta’s platforms
• Why teams should be investing in tools that can help them manage their content archives
• The potential opportunities for sports organisations in AR with Meta’s Orion glasses

Some of the topics we discuss include:

• Has YouTube become THE destination for highlights?
• How are rightsholder’s monetising their content, but also how are they incorporating YouTube into their sponsorship conversations?
• How are YouTube Channel Memberships being used by some clubs as an extension of their OTT platforms? And in some cases could it be a more cost-effective alternative?
• Should creators be viewed differently now that much of the output is almost broadcast quality in terms of the production and storytelling? And which teams and broadcasters are working with them well?
• With athletes such Jude Bellingham becoming creators – how are they developing different content formats and commercialising their own YouTube channels?
• What benefits are rightsholders and broadcasters seeing from having live games on the platform?
• Where is AI being used in the YouTube platform to create new content and commercial opportunities?

Founded by Japanese serial entrepreneur Tak Miyata in 2013, Scrum began life as a generalist VC firm, “investing in pretty much anything under the sun,” says Michael. That all changed in the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, when Scrum’s investors – including the likes of Panasonic, Fujitsu and Mizuno – became interested in the opportunities around in sports, media and entertainment.

Now, the remit is to find companies that “transcend the vertical” – those that relate to sports, health or entertainment, but might have a total addressable market (TAM) beyond those definitions.

“If I look at the first dozen investments we've made,” says Michael. “A lot are either outside of sports, change the definition of sports and entertainment, or show the evolution of what sports and entertainment means in a 2024 perspective.”

Timestamps:

• 01:23 – Introducing Scrum Ventures
• 08:00 – The importance of relationships in the Japanese market
• 20:00 – The attraction of tech that transcends the sports vertical
• 25:00 – Valuing companies and finding growth opportunities
• 30:00 – The importance of partnerships 
• 36:00 – Scrum's approach to supporting its investments
• 41:00 – Investing in IP and other growth areas

So, for teams and events, how can you deliver those “Instagrammable” moments that the fans will remember? How do you get the fans’ attention in an environment where they have so many other ways to spend their money?  How do you deliver a ticketing and event experience that is at least as good, and hopefully better, than anything they can get from Amazon, Netflix or Instacart?

In the latest of the Sports loft podcasts we are joined by F1 Miami Grand Prix’s Josh Young, who is building the ticketing operation for F1’s new race in Miami, and FEVO’s Colin Casey, whose clients include the LA Dodgers, NY Giants, Nascar and many others. They discuss how teams and events are leveraging technology in the ticketing process, the importance of the gameday experience and whether you’ve got your pricing wrong if you sold every ticket.

We dig into how sports organisations and other brands can incorporate gaming as part of their marketing mix, touching on in-game merchandise, measuring success and picking the right platform.

Highlights include Pia pushing BMW execs to allow gamers to blow up Bimmers in a game (“the community will like it and they'll talk about it because it's authentic”), Erik on the thrill of live esports events, and how to find the “sweet spot” that allows for both authentic gaming experiences and brand promotion. Our guests also reveal lessons learnt from their recent projects and discuss why engaging with younger audiences on these platforms is so crucial for brands who want to stay relevant – across the world of sports and beyond.

Timestamps:

06:30 – Defining the metaverse 13:00 – How sports can utilise the metaverse 15:45 – The pros and cons of e-sports as a marketing tool 23:30 – The process of designing an activation 29:30 – Marrying brands with the gaming platform 36:30 – Using gaming to boost relevancy  40:00 – KPIs and indicators of success 

When Courtside was founded in 2015, it was this realisation that informed the investment strategy of the New York firm, leading to successful early stage backing of startups operating across the sports, tech and media landscape, including adjacent sectors. Part of the founding team, Deepen instrumental in Courtside's involvement in sports media giant The Athletic, personalised nutrition business Gainful, esports and lifestyle organisation 100 Thieves, and many more. 

We caught up with him to dig into where he sees the opportunities today (and which sectors Courtside is avoiding), to find out what VCs can offer founders beyond the funding itself, and to ask how the firm goes about making its investment decisions. Here's just one nugget from the conversation:

"We like taking models that we know really well in the US, and then finding what we believe are the most compelling teams in more nascent markets but where the TAM is incredibly large and so we're diving [into sports gaming] really heavily," says Deepen. “We’re looking a lot more at wellness as a category, nutrition, and a lot of other areas that we think there's a lot of growth opportunities that are still fairly nascent. So every fund within the world of sports, collectibles, gaming and wellness we’ll go really deep in a couple of areas. Our goal is to talk to as many companies as we can to understand the market landscape and ultimately make investments in areas we think we can be really helpful to the founders in.”

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.

In part one, our guests explain how they’re navigating the fast-changing social media landscape. Nick Shaw outlines Greenfly's role in fan engagement and his tips for operating in this period of flux. While Keegan Pierce shares La Liga's innovative social strategies, which involves managing accounts across 20 different social media platforms and has resulted in it being the most followed football league on social media. 

Later in the episode, we delve into how teams and leagues are changing their approaches to pre-season tours – from visiting new territories to trying out new broadcast solutions. Plus, Yanni revisits his Women’s World Cup prediction and takes another bite at the cherry. 

• 02:45 – Favourite sporting moments of the week
• 07:00 – How Greenfly is used by sports organisations
• 10:00 – LaLiga's approach to social media 
• 13:45 – Where social should sit in the organisation 
• 19:45 – LaLiga Tech 
• 26:45 – Democratising content and the power of athlete brands
• 33:30 – Predictions for X, the company formerly known as Twitter
• 37:00 – What are the goals of pre-season tours?
• 41:30 – Making the most of the pre-season 

However, growing a global operation is not easy. Should you build in your domestic market first and then think about selling internationally or should you go global from the start? Can you sell from your home base or do you need “boots on the ground?” How do you get to really understand the cultural differences between college basketball, international tennis and IPL? If you don’t expand globally quickly enough, will local copy-cats interfere with your global ambitions? What people do you need? Will the value in your product be perceived differently between Canal+, NBC and Foxtel?

In the latest of the Sports Loft podcasts, we are joined by Pumpjack Dataworks' CEO Nick Goggans whose clients include World Table Tennis, Williams F1 and Miami FC, and Covatic’s CEO Nick Pinks whose clients include media owners such as Bauer Media. They discuss their experiences of building global sales operations, the cultural differences in the sports industry between US, Europe and Asia and whether operating internationally will necessarily increase your cost per sale.

In this episode of the Sports Loft podcast, Yanni and Charlie sit down with Chris Schlosser, the senior vice president of emerging ventures at the MLS and head of the MLS Innovation Lab. They dive into the purpose and goals of the Innovation Lab, and explore how the lab can really contribute to the growth of MLS – from the role of technology in elevating fan engagement to how new tools could speed up player development.

Chris opens up about what the Innovation Lab entails from the perspective of the six tech companies in their primary cohort, and breaks down how the initiative provides resources, mentorship and test opportunities to those startups. We also talk about MLS’s selection process, the Lab’s three core areas of focus, and who the cohort taking part in 2024 programme are.  

Timestamps:

• 05:00 – Timeline of the Innovation Lab
• 12:45 – Pitching the Innovation Lab to MLS owners
• 22:00 – Testing events and opportunities for startups
• 25:45 – Benefits of the Innovation Lab
• 27:45 – Selection Criteria for Focus Areas
• 32:30 – Criteria for Evaluating Startups
• 36:00 – Companies Chosen for the Innovation Lab
• 47:30 – Future Goals for MLS Emerging Ventures

To kick off, Andrew gives us an overview of RX3's operational strategy, which focuses on investments in consumer wellness and sports companies. The unique part of the model is the way the group draws on the networks, knowledge and insights of their athlete and celebrity backers to benefit the consumer focused companies they invest in.

Later in the discussion, Andrew sheds light on RX3's meticulous decision-making process and their focus within the consumer wellness and fitness sector. He elaborates on the skills and traits RX3 looks for in founders and shares insights into the growth areas that are exciting him, and shares his take on the state of the market. 

With a successfully deployed first fund of $50 million across 19 portfolio companies, RX3 is now looking for opportunities to invest in from its second fund, a $150 million vehicle.

Timestamps:

06:00 – Moving from one-off investments to building a fun?

09:00 – Onboarding athletes as LPs14:00 – Deciphering fad trends versus long-term shifts

21:00 – Managing sponsor clashes

26:00 – Estimating growth returns on investments

31:00 – Backing big brands versus high growth startups

38:00 – Where RX3 add value beyond dollars

44:00 – Regretting missed opportunities

Jasmine's partner at Monarch is Kara Nortman, who co-founded NWSL club Angel City FC, and the fund has already made its first investment: NWSL Boston – a team which was awarded expansion rights in September 2023.

Over the course of the episode, we discuss the founding story of Monarch, its overall thesis and how the Boston investment falls into that. Jasmine explains how she never expected to leave Causeway, but that she felt the opportunity in women's sports were too good to miss out on. And we find out why women's sports is the perfect test bed for innovative new technologies.

After giving a quick recap of the event, we dig into the biggest trend of 2023: the impact of AI. Undoubtedly it will have major repercussions for the sports industry, so it was fascinating to see how AI is already being used to solve problems and create opportunity. In the podcast, we discuss how companies like Move.ai, Satisfi, Greenfly, FEVO, and Spalk are using artificial intelligence to do just that.

Fundraising is another significant topic the tech industry is wrestling with, and our panel addresses misconceptions around the availability of VC funds, highlighting successful fundraising efforts. Finally, the Sports Loft team explores the opportunities for women's sports to benefit from technology, focusing on how innovative solutions can support women's teams and leagues

In this episode with VRTL’s CEO:

The revenue opportunity from driving engagement with non-match attending fans

• Are fan engagement strategies too focused on in-venue and matchday?
• Have teams already saturated their local market?
• How much more do engaged fans spend than non-engaged fans?
• Why the playbook for engaging fans in-venue should be extended to fans globally?

Creative uses of the platform in both the UK and US

• How are Premier League teams using the platform to engage with their global fans?
• How are the Minnesota Vikings using VRTL to give extra value to season ticket holders?
• How is an F1 team looking to connect hardcore fans in discussion with car engineers?
• How did ESPN use the platform to drive conversations around a new 30 for 30 documentary?
• Are sponsors leveraging a team’s virtual events or are they putting events on themselves?

Combining versatility with the ability to scale

• Why does “one size fits all” not work in the sports industry?
• How have fan’s expectations changed post pandemic from a generic zoom call to a “special” experience?
• Why are the virtual autographs so popular?
• How will CRM integration enable events to be more targeted?
• Why making the experiences scalable is so important to teams?
• How much “handholding” of customers is currently required and at what point will the platform be viewed as “self serve”?

Early adopters, pilots and opportunities in music

• Why is it important to work with teams who want to be early adopters?
• Why are UK teams more likely to try things in-season than their US counterparts?
• Why is sports a “copycat” industry and why is this a benefit to tech companies?
• How important have pilots been in helping conver teams into customers?
• Can sports be a beach-head to expand into other industries?
• What is the opportunity in music and film?

The main focus of this episode is the transformative impact of AI in the sports and media industry. We'll explore how companies like Greenfly (which recently acquired machine learning startup Miro, which Jamie co-founded) and Satisfi Labs are utilising AI to enhance fan engagement, streamline sports operations, and create compelling sports-related content. Together, we'll uncover the challenges faced in training AI models using vast and complex sports data, and how these challenges are being overcome.

Our panel also dive into the intricacies of running an AI company. From the hurdles of budgeting and talent retention to the evolving business models and staying ahead of commoditisation, our guests will share their insights into the dynamic world of AI startups. Join us as we unravel the potential of AI in sports and media, and discover how these innovations are reshaping the future of the industry.

Timestamps:

08:00 – How mature is AI usage in sports today? 13:00 – The role of AI in the Satisfi proposition 20:00 – The Greenfly acquisition of Miro 31:45 – The impact of AI on human personnel 35:00 – How AI startups can retain the best talent 42:00 – How to avoid commoditisation 50:00 – The applicability of AI between sports

Host Yanni kicks things off this week by asking Olaf about the success of Cheltenham this year and how his team approach marketing a sporting event with deep historic roots. The panel then dives into the challenges faced by organisers of such events, why knowing your audience can help to improve the fan experience, and how data is crucial for developing successful marketing strategies.

Our guests also talk about the importance of broadcast and streaming for growing the sport and finding new fans, as well as the potential of audio and commentary in building relationships with fans and racegoers.

Finally, as ever, we ask our guests to share their favourite recent sporting moment. 3baa75c089bcedf8a675e5d070333d2db07288b2

We ask: were memberships re-imagined by sports teams? To what degree did rightsholders become content businesses? And did the industry really get smarter on data? Find out what we think, as Yanni holds Andy and Charlie to account on what we got right and what we got, err, not so right.

Warning: contains multiple references to Hull City football club.

Show notes:

• Gerard Pique's new Kings League
• Juventus' fixtures list reveal video
• Sports Loft Podcast – The role of machine learning in sports, and how to build an AI startup
• Sports Loft Podcast – BMW, Karta and marketing in the metaverse
• Sports Loft article – From AI to data enrichment: five sports trends to watch in 2024

Timestamps:

• 7:00 – Sports will get smarter on data
• 17:30 – “We are a content business” will become a reality
• 24:45 – AI will complement (not replace) content creators
• 31:00 – Memberships will be re-imagined
• 38:30 – For now, the metaverse is multiplayer online games – that people actually play!
• 48:00 – Our 2024 predictions