Unofficial Partner Podcast

Dame Tracey Elizabeth Anne Crouch DBE (born 24 July 1975) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chatham and Aylesford from 2010 to 2024. Crouch was appointed as Minister for Sport, Civil Society and Loneliness in 2017, but resigned in 2018 due to a delay over the introduction of reduced limits on the stakes of fixed odds betting terminals.

In April 2021, Crouch was appointed to chair a review of English football following the controversy over the proposed European Super League and in response to long-standing concerns about club ownership and financial sustainability in the English game.

Following the review, in November 2021, a final report made ten strategic recommendations for the future of football clubs (PDF). The main one was for the establishment, through legislation, of an Independent Regulator for English Football (IREF). 

Crouch is a qualified FA football coach and manages a youth girls' football team.[4][12] She is a keen Tottenham Hotspur fan.

She didn't stand in the 2024 General Election and is now managing director of sport at Hanover Communications.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

A special bonus episode of Expected Goals, Unofficial Partner's sister podcast on the women's football business, with co-hosts Maggie Murphy and Matt Cutler. 
Joining them is Polly Bancroft, CEO of Grimsby Town FC, who was formerly head of women's football at Manchester United and lists Brighton and Hove Albion, Nottingham Forest and UEFA on an extensive resume.

Expected Goals is published every Wednesday. Search in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app. 

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Welcome to The Bundle, our regular series on the sports media and streaming marketplace with co-hosts Yannick Ramcke, General Manager of OTT at the streaming service OneFootball and Murray Barnett, founder of 26West Consulting and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN International.

This week’s podcast is sponsored by We Are Sweet - helping you tell compelling stories in-the-moment, as they happen, from the heart of the action.
We Are Sweet captures live biometric data from athletes to uncover storytelling moments, from key macro-moments to subtle micro-moments you might not even know are taking place.
These moments are crafted into captivating stories and transformed into stunning visuals ready for your broadcast, live event displays, and second-screen fan experiences, all in real-time.
From head-to-head heart rates to anticipated overtakes, We Are Sweet provides AI-driven insights to fuel conversations, inform bookmakers and predict future outcomes, all in the name of deepening fan engagement.
Enhance your audience’s understanding of the action like never before by using live data from We Are Sweet

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

The Big Idea is our regular series on creativity, with co-host award winning consulting Creative Director Simon Moore.

We ask a guest to bring three of their favourite sports related creative campaigns.

This week it's Gundeep Anand in the hot seat.

Gundeep founded The Last Stand and is a docu-style Director & Photographer whose work is influenced by his background as an ex-youth worker, coaching in communities, council estates and schools.

Gundeep choices are:

1. And 1 Mixtapes
2. CRTZ x Nike
3. Joga Bonito 

This podcast is sponsored by We Are Sweet - helping you tell compelling stories in-the-moment, as they happen, from the heart of the action.

We Are Sweet captures live biometric data from athletes to uncover storytelling moments, from key major-moments to subtle micro-moments you might not even know are taking place.

These moments are crafted into captivating stories and transformed into stunning visuals ready for your broadcast, live event displays, and second-screen fan experiences, all in real-time.

From head-to-head heart rates to anticipated overtakes, We Are Sweet provides AI-driven insights to fuel conversations, inform bookmakers and predict future outcomes, all in the name of deepening fan engagement.

Enhance your audience’s understanding of the action like never before by using live data from We Are Sweet

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Fresh from an excellent Leaders Summit at Twickenham, or should we say Allianz Stadium, is a conversation with Gareth Balch, founder and CEO of Two Circles agency about the agreement to buy KORE Software, a deal announced this week.

Two Circles is buying the company from Serent Capital, the private equity firm that bought Kore in 2018. Earlier this year, Two Circles themselves sold a majority stake in their business to private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners, a transaction which valued the company at £250million. More recently, the company secured external investments from Otro Capital and David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures.

So, what have they bought, why and what does it mean, for Two Circles and for a sports industry seeking to predict the future shape of the agency sector.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Other People's Money is our regular series on sports investment, with co-host Matt Rogan, co-founder of Two Circles.

Today we get in to the minutiae of deal making, with Steve Hacking, managing partner at Latitude Partners, who has worked on more than 200 company acquisitions for clients across both buy and sell side of investment deals in sectors ranging from technology and telecoms to media, healthcare, retail and sport, including working on behalf of Sky Sports and British Cycling in the creation of the Team Sky Pro Cycling team.

So, nobody better to interrogate the tricks of the due diligence trade, how to analyse future potential and what to look for when buying or selling a business.

This episode of Unofficial Partner is sponsored by We Are Sweet, helping you tell compelling stories in-the-moment, as they happen, from the heart of the action. We Are Sweet captures live biometric data from athletes to uncover great stories, from the big occasions to subtle micro-moments you might not even know are taking place. These are crafted into captivating stories and transformed into stunning visuals ready for your broadcast, live event displays, and second-screen fan experiences, all in real-time. From head-to-head heart rates to anticipated overtakes, We Are Sweet provides AI-driven insights to fuel conversations, inform bookmakers and predict future outcomes, all in the name of deepening fan engagement. Enhance your audience’s understanding of the action like never before by using live data from We Are Sweet.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

The 3 is a failed experiment in podcast format innovation. 
The 3 is a creative collaboration between Unofficial Partner and Leaders in Sport. 
The 3 picks three stories from the sports business week and dissects them on a Friday morning. 
The 3 may return, and it might not.

This week Richard Gillis, David Cushnan and James Emmett pick these three stories:
Will the cool kids be wearing FIFA 1904? 
Wither the Wimbledon line judge.
What is Brand Saudi now?

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

This is a follow up to our popular series of last year, The Squeezed Middle, which was a collaboration with PTI Digital, the independent strategy and technology consultancy. This episode looks in to a new report, The Sports Leadership Benchmark, based on a survey of sports CEOs, carried out by PTI. You can download the report, for free, at ptidigitalgroup.com

Joining Richard are Ben Wells, CEO of PTI Digital and Aquatics GB CEO and former EFL Marketing Director, Drew Barrand.

This podcast is sponsored by Leaders in Sport - Get 15% off Summit passes

Leaders in Sport connects the most influential people and the most powerful ideas in global sport to catalyse discussion, and drive the industry forward. Through a series of global summits in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, invitation-only memberships and long form content, Leaders in Sport provides professional executives, both on and off the field, with access to a community of peers to share best practice and trends that are shaping the future of sport. Their flagship event, Leaders Week London, returns from 14 to 17 October, with The Summit taking place at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham hosting the most senior executives from over 40 countries, including over 100 brands. We'll be there, and you should join us. Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information and use UP15 for a 15% discount on your Summit passes.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

The ECB is currently seeking investors for The Hundred franchises, the short form cricket competition and are selling a 49% stake that values them at up to £150m each. Today’s guest Lalit Modi disagrees. The founder of the Indian Premier League explains exclusively to Unofficial Partner why: “Based on the information memorandum a 100% stake in a team would be between £5m and £9m [for] outside London teams, and maximum, if one really wants a trophy asset, is London teams closer to £25m.”
Earlier this year, Modi was involved in a $1bn (£747m) offer to buy the entire competition – with the intention of turning it into a T20 tournament – which was rebuffed. When an unrelated bid of £400m for a 75% stake was also rejected last year Richard Thompson, the ECB’s chairman, said it would take a bid of “a few billion” to convince them to sell.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

Three stories, three opinions, ten minutes (50minutes)

What's in a name? FIFA's Club World Cup stadia naming snafu
What is streetwear? The deeper meaning of Arsenal's style collab
How old is too old? Sportfive and Tendulkar launch International Masters League

This podcast is sponsored by Leaders in Sport - Get 15% off Summit passes

Leaders in Sport connects the most influential people and the most powerful ideas in global sport to catalyse discussion, and drive the industry forward. Through a series of global summits in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, invitation-only memberships and long form content, Leaders in Sport provides professional executives, both on and off the field, with access to a community of peers to share best practice and trends that are shaping the future of sport. Their flagship event, Leaders Week London, returns from 14 to 17 October, with The Summit taking place at Twickenham Stadium hosting the most senior executives from over 40 countries, including over 100 brands. We'll be there, and you should join us. Visit leadersinsport.com/UP for more information and use UP15 for a 15% discount on your Summit passes.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.