Expected Goals Live - FOMO Alert; XG Attendance Data Download; Wedge Issues - Golf got hot; Shovels/Gold Rush; DOGE days; Crisps as tobacco; Dark Horses' Personal Best
Overthinking the sports business, for money
Some days are made for WhatsUP
Buying shovels in a gold rush
Two agency acquisitions this week, one story.
CAA bought Portas Consulting, then Elevate buys RISE #BuysRise
Both are about getting a foothold in the Saudi advice market.
What we don’t quite yet know is whether the Saudis will continue to want/need that advice.
The story of PwC and PIF highlights the potential volatility in the market.
The Big Four consultant has been put on the naughty step until at least February 2026.
This could be specific, or a sign of something broader. Probably a bit of both. Either way, the scale of PIF’s bullying power is huge.
The FT reports sales at PwC’s Middle East business grew by 26 per cent in the year to June 2024, while UK revenues increased 3 per cent. The Middle East business accounted for almost one-third of PwC’s total revenues of £6.3bn across the UK and Middle East for the 12-month period.
Selling rights in the DOGE era
The talk around the corridors is of big lay-offs at Sky and ITV.
News and sport are in the Comcast cross hairs.
Staff at Sky Sports News are being asked to reapply for new, fewer jobs.
This could be a structural end-of-days type reset, an attempt to bring the UK and Italy shops in line with Germany, where a similar exercise has been carried out, or a DOGE-inspired cull of the bureaucrats.
Either way, not the mood music you’d want when bringing major sports rights to market.
“Is Sky facing a slow death? No,” Claire Enders told Mark Sweney in The Guardian. “They have survived 13 years against the likes of Neftlix spending enormous amounts of money and it is not like their model has been unseated, it has just had to change.”
Sent by Coventry
Similar vibes from Lausanne, as news slips out of a load* of senior people exiting the IOC.
*Some.
New era, new broom and all that: Were you loyal, or did you back the other horse?
Expected Goals Live
The best podcast in women’s football hosts its first live recording, at the HOTTEST space for women's sport this summer (Central London, very hush hush).
This will get very FOMO very quickly.
There’s a limit on seats, and the demand to be in that room will be very high.
My polite advice, as a not entirely neutral source, is to get a ticket asap, to beat the rush.
Press this button.
Imagine having a job title that included the term ‘women’s sport’ and not going.
That would be awkward.
What is it?
We’re bringing together a select group of industry leaders, commercial partners, investors, club officials, and entrepreneurs for a unique three-part event at Expected Goals Live!
Part 1 – "The Money" Panel: A candid conversation with top investors and commercial leads about where the smart money is going in women’s football, what makes an asset truly investable, and the advice they’d give to founders, clubs, and creators looking to grow.
Part 2 – "The Ideas" Pitches: Real-world lightning pitches from clubs, entrepreneurs, and business owners looking for investment, sponsorship, or guidance.
Part 3 – The Mixer: Afterward, we’ll host a relaxed mixer where speakers, experts and guests can connect, share advice - and leads - and spark future collaborations creating XG legacy in real time
The evening will be recorded live and published as an Expected Goals podcast and shared across the Unofficial Partner network.
Is this you?
We're opening up the opportunity to our Expected Goals community to take part in "The Ideas" pitches. You'll have five minutes to pitch your football club, business, investment concept, and ask the room for money, support, guidance or mentoring.
Sign up here if you'd like to be considered.
Deadline Friday May 30. Decisions will be communicated by June 3 2025.
Got questions? Email matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk
FREE STUFF - EXCLUSIVE WSL/WCL ATTENDANCE DATA
Expected Goals is not just the best women’s football podcast.
It’s a mine of valuable insight and data.
This has led the news agenda - see recent coverage in The Times and The Observer, and that’s just for starters.
The secret of XG’s success is the mix of informed, expert opinion with properly researched data.
So.
If you want to know what’s going on in the WSL and WSL2 (formerly Championship), you just got lucky.
Because Matt and Maggie have lovingly created a shareable graphic-led analysis for the UP audience.
If you’re working in football, you have two choices.
You can base your women’s strategy on:
Hunch, hope and hype.
Data, insight and facts.
Your shout.
For those who ticked 2) above, here’s the link:
The return of the middleman
This scoop from the FT could be read as an antidote to the ‘clubs as Amazon’ D2C vibe. If Nike can’t do it, what chance the rest of us?
Crisps as the new tobacco
From Private Eye.
Wedge Issues
Great conversation with the founders of Manors Golf for this week’s episode of Wedge Issues.
The Manors story captures several regular UP themes, mixing challenger strategy, the creator economy, sport on the scroll and sport-in-culture.
It also begs the question, is Manors a golf brand with an agency attached, or an agency that sells golf clothes - 25% of total revenue comes from the production side.
Their social content is so viral that a third of their revenue comes from production jobs for other people, namely PGA TOUR, Ineos, BMW among others.
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Hear the full podcast here:
See more on sport’s fashion moment here -
Personal Bests
Sports business people list their favourite things
This week: Melissa Robertson, CEO of Dark Horses
