In this episode, Charlie is joined by Ben Warner, co-founder of Electric Twin, to discuss how sports organisations can use synthetic audiences to get a much better understanding of their fanbase.

Enabled by advances in AI and behavioural science, synthetic audiences allow organisations to model how people think and behave, enabling them to test ideas before investing time and money. We believe this has the potential to dramatically change how sports organisations can understand their fanbase, and to do so at a scale and level of detail that would not be possible with traditional research. With funding from the likes of Atomico, Local Global and Mercuri, Electric Twin is working with organisations such as The Times and Virgin.

In this episode:

• How Electric Twin have tested their models to make sure the data is at least as accurate as traditional research
• Why Ben views sports as such a fertile territory for synthetic audiences
• How your commercial partners can test creative and activation ideas against your synthetic audience
• How you can use existing data to establish your own synthetic audiences quickly and easily
• Why framing the question wrong isn't an expensive or timely mistake - you can just ask again immediately
• How you can test contentious issues - such as ticket price rise - in private, and avoid public backlash
• What their recent $10m Series A means for their entrance into the USA and the sports industry

Charlie is joined by Scott (DJ Skee) Keeney, CEO and Co-Founder of The Realest, to talk about the untapped revenue stream sitting inside every sports organisation - Memorabilia.

Using its on-site authentication technology, The Realest has transformed sports memorabilia from a market previously plagued by fraud into a structured, high-value marketplace. Their platform handles every step of the process: from authentication to fulfilment, photography, and sales. Beyond primary sales revenue, The Realest gives teams and leagues a new way to engage fans and access to a secondary market that generates perpetual royalties on every resale. Since presenting at last year's Sports Loft Summit, The Realest has closed a $12 million Series A backed by OneTeam Partners, PGA of America, and Elysian Park, and has worked with clients including FIFA, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Ryder Cup.

In this episode, Charlie and Skee discuss:

•⁠ ⁠How witness-based authentication and tamper-proof markings are eliminating fraud for fans and teams

•⁠ ⁠How memorabilia can generate multiple revenue streams from a single item with minimal operational lift on the club's side

•⁠ ⁠What the $12M raise means for The Realest's international expansion plans into Europe and Asia

•⁠ ⁠Why physical, authenticated items are becoming more valuable in an AI-dominated world

“Every company now has a TikTok strategy… yet more people now use mobile wallets than TikTok, so why don’t you have a wallet strategy?”

Eric Senn, CEO and co-founder of Badge, joins Charlie on the Sports Loft podcast to discuss why the mobile wallet is quickly becoming the most powerful interface for fan engagement. With mobile wallet usage now outpacing platforms like TikTok, Badge has built the infrastructure to enable sports organisations to meet fans where they already live. Eric explains how sports organisations can move beyond using wallets for simple digital ticketing and create a branded experience that is pre-installed on every fan’s device. Coming off the back of their recent $13.8m Series A funding, we hear about the rapid growth Badge has seen since we heard from Eric at last year’s Sports Loft Summit.

Some of the topics we discuss include:

• How the pre-installed mobile wallet provides a 'lighter weight' entry point for fans compared to the high-friction journey of downloading a traditional team app
• How Badge enables sports organisations to trigger notifications and relevant sponsor offers precisely when a fan reaches the stadium gate through geofencing.
• Why developing across Apple, Google, and Samsung wallets is a massive engineering task and how Badge simplifies this into a single API.
• Integrating wallet passes with stadium POS systems to track real-time ROI and fan spending habits.