The Business of Sport - Sam Shave and Dr Susie Tomson
Release Date: 11/27/2024
The Business of Sport
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After more than 15 years with Unilever and over a decade as Global Lead of their Rexona/Sure brand of deodorant, Emily has led numerous high impact global campaigns and strategic partnerships. The Sure brand, known as Rexona globally, is over a hundred years old, but Emily’s focus is very much on the future, developing on-going partnerships with Manchester City FC, the reigning World Club Champions, Chelsea Football Club and the UEFA Women’s Euro Tournament, recently won by England. This is part of a broader strategy to drive brand growth, global visibility and deeper consumer engagement....
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Thayer Lavielle says she is never afraid of a blank page, something she has proven over the last 6 years, by leading the development of The Collective, a women-focussed division of Wasserman, designed to bridge gaps in gender equity in sport and music through community, insights, events, tools and services. Since 2019, that “blank page” has grown to include The Collective Think Tank, The Goal Post and the Collective Marketplace. Thayer has negotiated over $250m worth of deals across talent, brand, property and venues and has extensive experience with leading female-focussed brands...
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A year out from the next FIFA World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, one man is leading the charge to create a sustainable platform for soccer in the USA. For over 50 years, American soccer has relied on importing players from around the world, mostly at the end of their careers, to play in stadiums designed for more popular American sports. Now though, a former college goalkeeper turned entrepreneur is trying to change all that. Justin Papadakis is the Chief Real Estate Officer and Deputy CEO of the USA’s fastest growing pre-professional and professional soccer organisation, which is...
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Imagine being a student at one of the best sporting universities in your country. An opportunity to learn from the best and to play in the greatest facilities available. Well, for Steven Ball, that dream not only became a reality, but almost 30 years later, he is still there, as CEO of The High Performance Centre (hpc) at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. HPC is a partner organisation of the ISC, offering some of the best facilities for national teams, professional clubs, universities and colleges to enjoy over 72 hectares of training and recreational facilities.
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A new organisation has been formed to offer guidance, education and legal support to those working to protect children, young adults and the vulnerable in sport. The Union of Safeguarding Officers, with a Mission Statement of “Every Child Safe, Every Voice Heard”, was formed by former Manchester City and Tottenham star Paul Stewart, who has spent almost a decade raising awareness of sexual abuse in sport, following his own harrowing experiences as a young footballer. Many ISC delegates at our event at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2024 witnessed Paul's story as he spoke about his...
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Michael D’hulst is a man on a mission. Driven by a passion for triathlon, the Belgian entrepreneur and former Ironman World Championship athlete, is currently seeking funding to take his Supertri business to the next level. After helping Volkswagen set up a new plant in China, D’hulst turned his entrepreneurial skills to his love of Triathlon. Along with business partner and four-times Triathlon World Champion Chris McCormack and Russian Tech Investor Leonid Boguslavsky, D’hulst founded Supertri in 2016, with an ambition to transform Triathlon from a traditional, participant-led...
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Charlie spent the first decade of her career producing TV, radio and film for the biggest UK networks and companies, including the very popular radio show Fighting Talk. During this time, she worked closely with talent, where she witnessed their unfiltered, off-duty, human side and started to think about creating a world where fans could gain access to this too. Disenchanted by the unimaginative, boring, predictable events she attended, where talent was reduced to scripted conversations and stifled interactions, Charlie saw the need for something radically different. She envisioned a space...
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Formerly the Director of Leadership, Organizational Development, & Mental Wellness for the Texas Rangers, Baroody brings over 20 years experience in professional sports, having overseen leadership, mental wellness and organizational development programs for the Texas Rangers Baseball Operations Department. During his tenure with the Rangers, he spearheaded the revolutionary ‘Rangers U Player Pathway’ in partnership with ACU, creating bilingual, custom educational programs aimed at enriching players’ personal development and advancing their careers. He also played an integral role in...
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Josh is a digital media professional with a comprehensive understanding of the OTT ecosystem. He joined Simplestream in 2015 and has been a part of their commercial and business development team since then. His primary responsibility is to create, launch, and manage OTT services for various broadcasters, rights holders, and publishers such as British Forces Broadcasting Service, GAAGO, PBS America, Telus, Racing UK, TVSN, and NewsCorp. Before joining Simplestream, he worked with digital rights experts at Perform Group which has since become Stats Perform and DAZN.
info_outlineISC International Sports Awards Agency of the Year nominee, Think Beyond, is a leading social impact and sustainability consultancy, working in and through sport and entertainment.
With offices in London, New York and Lausanne, they have an impressive portfolio of clients keen to prepare for the future, including Liverpool Football Club, World Athletics, World Rugby, FIBA, Subway, The Premier League, ESPN, SailGP and more.
In this latest ISC Business of Sport podcast, Andrew James talks to Managing Partner Sam Shave and Senior Partner, Dr Susie Tomson.
Sam on the changing landscape of sustainability in sport:
“We talk about the shift from risk, to opportunity. This started off as CSR and sport felt it had to do something, because someone might look at us, so let’s make sure we tick a couple of boxes and give some money to this charity, so nobody is going to have an argument with us now.
Then it got to the point where sport realised it probably does have to do something. There’s regulation coming in, fan and sponsor expectations etc. But it was still fundamentally, risk mitigation.
What we try to embed with our clients, is that actually, you need to take a different mind set. Fundamentally, what does it look like if you become leaders in this space? You are no longer just reliant on the size of your perimeter advertising boards or the eyeballs on them, you now have a story to tell and that human interest is attractive to partnets. So it’s not about mitigating risk, it’s about maximising opportunity.”
Susie on the business case for sustainability in sport:
“There are three angles really.
One is just, fundamentally, getting your house in order. You can put a value on retaining and attracting clients, there’s a lot of research done around the expectations of the next generation and you can put a value on that too.
You can also start looking at what happens if you lose your licence to operate from an environmental or health and safety perspective, where there are values if you have a breach of compliance.
The third aspect is commercialisation, which is part of the conversation, but becoming an increasingly critical part.
Susie on the climate future:
“When you talk about the climate, that really is looking to the future and making sure that your sport or your business is future-proofed and resilient to the impacts. Now, as in Spain recently, we are seeing lost days of events and damage to infrastructure. All of that has a cost.
We are certainly now moving into that space where we are helping our clients just measuring their carbon and signing the Sports Climate Action Pledge and making sure they are not being damaging, to now realising that you now have to start thinking about what the risk and the impact is on you from a climate perspective.
Looking at each risk, how can you flip that on it’s head and turn it into an opportunity and make sure that from grassroots through to the professional level, you are ready for what is going to come down the track. We are starting to put numbers on ‘what is the cost of adaptation’ and ‘what is the cost of inaction’.”
Sam on the American focus of the next four years, with both the world’s biggest sporting events heading to the USA.
“We are looking quite carefully at the US. Whatever happens over there will be interesting to watch and we hope to be an integral part of that.
We already have an office in New York and interesting clients there. NASCAR is an absolutely fascinating piece to work on. A traditional sport with a really traditional fanbase. In terms of the US political situation their fanbase will have a view on sustainability, but actually, they have got an incredible leadership team that are saying, ‘we want to look at how NASCAR develops and changes into the future”.
It is easy to get into some kind of rabbit hole, looking at what needs to be done with sustainability. But actually, you just want to think ‘what is the kind of sport you want to be delivering in 20 years time and how do you get to that point.
There’s going to be a huge amount of change and sustainability is going to be one of that pieces of change.”