What if we could fix the conference panel? You know the format—interesting people, good intentions, and about ninety percent of it forgotten by the time you reach the bar.

Chat_UP Live was held at FUSE headquarters in London. Rather than just another AI panel, we ran an experiment. Working with the team at TFG Labs, we built a custom AI co-pilot that captured the onstage conversation in real time, took in audience questions, and offered evidence-based responses that pushed the discussion in genuinely non-obvious directions. Think of it as a second brain for live events.

Did it work? Partly. Was it interesting? Very. This is test and learn in public—and we're sharing the results.

In this episode, you'll hear how we approached football club valuations with the system running behind us. If you want to interrogate the model yourself, there's a link in the Unofficial Partner Substack newsletter—but it won't be live forever.

Part two drops Friday, where we go deeper into the race to build the operating system for sports business.

A huge thank you to our friends and partners in this experiment, in particular the following people:

At FUSE: Helen Burford, Louise Johnson, Monica Conway, Zainab Zaman and Annabel Wilson, Lucy Basden Smith and Sean Betts.
At Twenty First Group: Blake Wooster, Andy Shora, Omar Choudhuri, Dan Zelezinski, Chris Woodcock and Conall Milligan.

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 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

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

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, 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 Sport and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN.

This episode of the Unofficial Partner podcast is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport.

Sid Lee Sport is the fame-making creative and sponsorship agency for brands in sport. Through exceptional creativity, deep sponsorship expertise, and flawless on-site delivery, they help brands, sponsors, and rightsholders unlock their full potential in sport - most recently picking up a Leaders Sports Award for their work with Lidl at UEFA EURO 2024.

Everything they do is driven by a culture of effectiveness - because in sport, performance matters. Not just on the pitch, but in the work too. So whether you want to build buzz, connect with audiences, or do something that actually cuts through, Sid Lee Sport knows how.

Visit sidleesport.com

Sid Lee Sport - where brands become champions.

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.

Nikki Doucet has the most interesting job in British sport and one of the most difficult. Certainly, everyone in the sports business has an opinion on what the CEO of WSL Football should do to capitalise on the potential of women's professional football in England.

The role wrestles with many of the conflicts and trade offs currently at play across the sports business - open vs closed leagues, sport as entertainment, the anti-DEI lobby vs progressives culture wars, the changing definition of a sports fan in the digital platform era, the role of private investment in leagues and teams. The tenure of her job may be a few years, but the decisions taken will have a disproportionately large impact on women's football for a generation. Some want her to go quicker, to bring in private equity and blow it up. Others want her to focus on the long term, and build with the entire pyramid of women's football in mind.

But what does Nikki Doucet think?

Listen to find out.

This episode of the Unofficial Partner podcast is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport.

Sid Lee Sport is the fame-making creative and sponsorship agency for brands in sport. Through exceptional creativity, deep sponsorship expertise, and flawless on-site delivery, they help brands, sponsors, and rightsholders unlock their full potential in sport - most recently picking up a Leaders Sports Award for their work with Lidl at UEFA EURO 2024.

Everything they do is driven by a culture of effectiveness - because in sport, performance matters. Not just on the pitch, but in the work too. So whether you want to build buzz, connect with audiences, or do something that actually cuts through, Sid Lee Sport knows how.

Visit sidleesport.com

Sid Lee Sport - where brands become champions.

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.

David Cushnan and James Emmett of Leaders in Sport join Richard on the final podcast of the year to review the people, stories and events that mattered in 2025.

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.

Richard Gillis is joined by Damian Browarnik from WSC Sports, the content and data platform working with over 650 clients including the NBA, NFL and La Liga, and Rich Johnson, sports marketing strategist and cofounder of End Product, formerly of Man Utd, New Balance and Social Chain.

The conversation explores how algorithms now dictate sports content discovery, why millennials remain the commercial core while Gen Z follows athletes over teams, and what winning looks like in an era of content overload. From Ronaldo's YouTube subscriber paradox to Ilona Maher's accidental growth hack for women's rugby, they examine who's thriving and who's drowning in the attention economy.

Throughout the episode we refer to WSC Sports 2025-26 Generational Fan Study. You can download the full report here.

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 Bundle is our long running 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 Sport and formerly of F1, World Rugby and ESPN.

This episode of the Unofficial Partner podcast is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport.

Sid Lee Sport is the fame-making creative and sponsorship agency for brands in sport.

Through exceptional creativity, deep sponsorship expertise, and flawless on-site delivery, they help brands, sponsors, and rightsholders unlock their full potential in sport - most recently picking up a Leaders Sports Award for their work with Lidl at UEFA EURO 2024.

Everything they do is driven by a culture of effectiveness - because in sport, performance matters. Not just on the pitch, but in the work too.

So whether you want to build buzz, connect with audiences, or do something that actually cuts through, Sid Lee Sport knows how.

Visit sidleesport.com

Sid Lee Sport - where brands become champions.

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.

Today's guest is Dan Jamieson, who is chief executive and co-owner of ICONS, the world's biggest signed football memorabilia company.

ICONS was founded in 1999, originally starting as an editorial website for footballers to connect directly with fans. The business successfully pivoted to focus on signed memorabilia, a niche subset of the broader merchandise market, valued at hundreds of millions annually within football.
ICONS focuses on exclusive partnerships with superstars, holding the worldwide exclusive contract for Leo Messi’s signed memorabilia, which they combine with licenses from rights holders like FIFA and the Champions League. This strategy capitalizes on the trend of fandom increasingly shifting toward individual players. Authenticity is maintained through a "triple lock" system, which time-codes, geolocates, and video-records every signing session, linking the unique digital evidence to the physical product via an NFC chip. Their customer base includes retail buyers (often purchasing gifts) and B2B partners such as clubs and sponsors like Heineken, who use the items for promotions.

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.

Inside Edge is our cricket business series with co-host Mike Jakeman. Today's guest is Venkat Ananth on the money circling the IPL franchises. Check out Venkat's newsletter and blog, State of Play.

This episode of the Unofficial Partner podcast is brought to you by Sid Lee Sport.

Sid Lee Sport is the fame-making creative and sponsorship agency for brands in sport. Through exceptional creativity, deep sponsorship expertise, and flawless on-site delivery, they help brands, sponsors, and rightsholders unlock their full potential in sport - most recently picking up a Leaders Sports Award for their work with Lidl at UEFA EURO 2024.

Everything they do is driven by a culture of effectiveness - because in sport, performance matters. Not just on the pitch, but in the work too. So whether you want to build buzz, connect with audiences, or do something that actually cuts through, Sid Lee Sport knows how.

Visit sidleesport.com

Sid Lee Sport - where brands become champions.

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.