1) Where are you being rerouted?
Thoughts with all those affected by the escalating military situation across the Arabian Gulf. A word too for the sports ops teams and logistics folks who have spent the past few days trying to manoeuvre around the various air restrictions in place as war spirals across the Middle East. That's those who have been figuring out how to get a group of ATP staff and players from Dubai to California or cricketers holed up in various parts of the UAE back home. Those trying to reroute F1 personnel to Melbourne for this weekend's Grand Prix or get the MotoGP paddock back from Thailand. And those working to support many expats or business travellers working across sport who have found themselves stranded across the region. There are ways and means, but it's far from straightforward right now so here's to anyone busy refreshing Skyscanner over the coming days and weeks.
2) What can the IOC learn from UC3?
That was the question that struck me as we reflected on our podcast conversation with European Football Clubs (EFC) CEO Charlie Marshall and Uefa Marketing Director Guy-Laurent Epstein, who are heading up the entity now busy commercialising European club football. UC3 was formalised last year to manage the marketing of men’s and women’s club football, amid reformatted tournaments and a rapidly changing media environment. It has folded the clubs properly and carefully into the commercial programme and while the media sales side has been visible – four-year deals secured for the next cycle beginning in 2027 for Europe’s big five markets and a raft of new tenders now in play across Europe – the changes to the sponsorship model have been less well-publicised. They’re nuanced, effectively an attempt to build in further flexibility and, where possible, weave in club assets and access in a way not viable prior to the creation of UC3. And while Uefa, its clubs, and agency partners Relevent and Two Circles are right across them, of course, it would be no surprise if Anne-Sophie Voumard and her Olympic team in Lausanne are keeping close tabs on how a widely-admired sponsorship offering is evolving, as they assess how to modernise and adjust the TOP programme.
3) How quickly can I get my BTS documentary to air?
I tend to treat the multi-season episodic F1 documentary that’s just had its season 8 premiere on Netflix in the same way as actors refer to Macbeth as ‘the Scottish Play’. But I was interested in Benni Stoll’s promotional positioning for the FIS’ new behind the scenes documentary on ESPN and Disney+, which, in an evolution of the genre, has been produced and distributed during the current World Cup skiing season rather than 'the multi-season episodic F1 documentary’, which tells the story of the previous year’s championship.
4) Is a knockout blow coming?
The arrival of Zuffa Boxing, fronted by UFC supremo Dana White but owned by TKO and Saudi’s Sela agency, on the global fight scene is ruffling feathers and appears to be further shaking up a sport that has in recent years become fatter – and a little reliant - on Saudi money. Main character energy is being provided, inevitably, by Turki Alalshikh, who has spent the last few years spending freely on making the big fights happen, largely ignoring the decades-old family rivalry between the Hearns of Matchroom and the Warrens of Queensberry and uniting them in the process. Now, though, his attentions have switched to Zuffa, which has given notice of its intentions by signing Conor Benn, one of the stars of Hearn’s stable. Meanwhile, Alalshikh is also promoting Tyson Fury’s latest comeback fight next month in London – Fury has been Warren’s man for years. Warren and Queensberry are now reportedly taking legal action against Sela and TKO for breach of contract. On the surface at least, Alalshikh seems to be cutting out the middle men and hitching his wagon to White’s bombast, the corporate muscle of Nick Khan and Mark Shapiro and the kind of centralised league model the UFC has pioneered. It’s the latest remarkable move in a sport that is making a habit of them.
5) And when will we hear about it?
Such is the nature of boxing’s utterly relentless media and content ecosystem that all of that may be out of date by the time it hits your inbox. No other sport has such a splurge of daily content, with promoters like Hearn, Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith, Warren and Boxxer’s Ben Shalom doing almost daily media rounds with the likes of Talksport, as well as online channels such as Ariel Helwani’s show, Boxing Social, IFL and the Stomping Ground, as well as being available for broadcast partner DAZN and their own in-house channels. Hearn even found time to star in a Netflix series. Meanwhile, The Ring, a storied boxing media brand, has been reworked into a Turki Alalsheikh promotional tool, after he acquired it in 2024. The promoters feed the machine, react to whatever one of the others said and then more often than not go on the offensive themselves, feeding the machine some more, sprinkling in some heavy promotion of their next fight along the way. The access is admirable, the noise is never-ending and other sports should study how it’s done.
6) How seriously is McLaren taking golf?
The F1 world champions have officially announced their new McLaren Golf equipment division will come to market from the end of April, bringing its high precision engineering and design values to an entirely new sport – and taking on several established golf equipment manufacturers as they do it. Behind the scenes, a formidable squad of golf industry pros have been assembled, including CEO Neil Howie, former President and Managing Director of Callaway Golf Europe; CMO Ryan Lauder, who was TaylorMade's Senior Director of Media; another Callaway alumni in Head of Brand and Strategy Nick Fergus; and Ryan Badgero, who is Director of Engineering and a former Head of Product Development at Cobra Puma. McLaren is no stranger to dipping its toes into other sports: under previous management in 2013 it began a partnership with Specialized to build a range of bikes, and up until 2020 had a partnership with the Bahrain-owned World Tour cycling team.
7) Do you know the difference between Analytical AI and Perceptive AI?
Me neither but I have two tactics that may help – a) reviewing this extremely helpful taxonomy of AI and then b) joining the interactive session examining various aspects of AI – including business preparedness, what it might mean for brands and its storytelling potential within sport – we’re hosting as part of Leaders Meet: Innovation in London next week.
8) Why Singapore?
That’s been the question since Premier League CEO Richard Masters confirmed last week the launch of a direct-to-consumer service, which will launch in Singapore, at the FT Business of Football event in London (having trailed the idea at Leaders Week London back in October). The answer in short: established media partners, a market large enough to be useful but small enough not to present an enormous risk and a largely-English language audience. The answer in full: as always, turn directly to Carlo de Marchis.
