5 Unofficial Partner podcasts in a week

We're proud and grateful that thousands of people from right across the sports business are now listening to Unofficial Partner every week.

If you have an advertising, sponsorship or branded podcast enquiry, give Sean a nudge on sean@unofficialpartner.co.uk and he'll be happy to help.

ICYMI, here's a list of the last week's output - they are all available here https://www.unofficialpartner.com/podcast or via your favourite podcast app.

The Opta Story
This was one recorded before the shutdown wth Aidan Cooney, founder of Opta and Simon Banoub, who was head of marketing for the company. I can't think of many more influential companies than Opta in terms of changing how we consume football and sport more broadly.

The view from Alex Willis' window
Again, this was recorded in the heady days of pre-virus travel. We went to SW19 to talk to Wimbledon's head of comms and content about all things sports marketing, with a particular focus on the skills needed to progress in the industry. There was a bit at the end when we looked for a somewhere in her office to take a photo. Then Alex said, 'What about Centre Court?'. Ok, if you insist...

The (new) world according to Barry Hearn
We'd been scheduled to go to Matchroom HQ to do this face to face, but Barry kept his promise and we did it over the phone instead. It's hard to summarise, but essentially this is half hour of classic Hearn, the mix of Barnum and Bailey showman with one of the sharpest business brains in sport. Matchroom's live sport output is enormous, so the shutdown's implications are particularly acute, so fair play for being so open about how the company is going to respond. Come for the Frank Maloney anecdote, stay for the Karren Brady bit at the end (which ended up in the Daily Mail btw). Fair to say we went big on the promotional side of things.

Inside football with Adrian Bevington
For nearly two decades Adrian was the The FA's go-to comms guy, first as head of media around the England team and then as managing director of Club England, a role he held for five years to 2015. There's not much he doesn't know about how it works inside football, at both the national, international and club game, having just left his role at his home town club Middlesbrough.

We need to talk about...cricket
Sometimes we just want to follow a story as it evolves. When it comes to cricket's response to the coronavirus pandemic, Tim Wigmore has led the way, breaking a series of scoops for The Daily Telegraph. So we got hold of him and had a chat. It goes deep in to the finances of the game and the difficult and potentially long term questions that are now being taken, both around the counties but across the world's T20 calendar.

And finally...

Gary Linke's Deal or No Deal, Volume 2
If you read one thing about how to sell sport sponsorship, make it Gary Linke's second volume of stories from the front line of the business. I can't recommend it highly enough. Volume 1 is here, Volume 2 here. There are ten lessons in all, that are relevant for everyone connected to sport. If you're just starting out or a cynical old veteran, Gary's got a message for you.

We'd love to hear your feedback on how regularly you want to hear the Unofficial Partner podcasts, and ideas for topics and guests.
In the meantime, thanks for all your help and support. Keep in touch and stay safe.