SportsPro Podcast

In the space of a few short years, Just Eat went from a sports sponsorship newcomer into a major partner for Uefa’s club and international competitions.

The relationship spanned everything from the Champions League to the Women’s Euros, helping the newly-merged Just Eat spread its message across an entire continent and elevate it in a food delivery market increasingly dominated by global players.

But how did the partnership come about, what did it achieve and how are these big ticket sponsorships activated?

Marijn Luchtman, global head of sponsorships at Just Eat, explains how the deal evolved, why it was more than just a logo slap, and why the company is walking away after seven years.

Three promotions. A fanbase that's grown from 116,000 to 27.6 million in five years. Wrexham AFC director Sean Harvey sits down with SportsPro's CEO Nick Meacham to unpack what's actually driving the club now that the Hollywood novelty has worn off.
 
Harvey walks through how Wrexham has built out a full executive structure to support its growth, including a CEO handling day-to-day operations and the deliberate tension between staying "different" and moving into football's mainstream.
 
He breaks down the commercial engine behind the club: record sponsorship revenue from brands like United Airlines, Meta Quest and HP, why the US market is now the primary growth audience, and how family companies tied to the ownership group handle sponsorship inquiries directly.
 
The conversation also covers the investment side - new capital from Apollo and private family offices, and what Harvey calls "the Wrexham effect" on other US buyers entering English football, plus his take on football's incoming independent regulator, visibility gains through AFL's streaming platform, and what the future of Ryan Reynolds and McElhenney's ownership actually looks like.

In this special live edition of the SportsPro podcast, recorded at SportsPro Investment Summit in London, SportsPro editor Steve McCaskill is joined by Bex Smith, founder and CEO of Crux Football, and Michael Broughton, co-founder and partner at Sports Investment Partners, to look at the rise of disruptor properties.
They discuss disruptors as an investment asset and what separates a genuine opportunity from a money pit. What are the potential gaps in the market, business models and possible pitfalls?
The panel also attempt to answer why investors are increasingly drawn towards creating new sports properties rather than backing existing ones, identify potential new revenue streams and suggest which disruptors have come closest to cracking the code.

For decades, the sports industry has relied on broadcasters to fund growth, distribute content and monetise audiences. But what happens when that model starts to change?

In this episode, SportsPro CEO Nick Meacham sits down with Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports, to explore how leagues, teams and technology companies are adapting to a new era of fan monetisation.
 
Locke discusses Genius Sports' evolution from its betting roots into a global technology business, the company's acquisition of Legend, the growing role of AI and data ownership, and why he believes the next generation of sports growth will come from direct relationships with fans.
 
The conversation also examines the changing economics of media rights, the company’s NFL partnership, gaming as a future distribution channel and what sports organisations need to do to thrive in a more personalised digital world.
This is the first episode in SportsPro's New Economics of Fandom series, exploring how sport's commercial future is being rewritten.
 
Key topics:
Is the era of broadcast-driven sports growth coming to an end?
What does the future of fan monetisation actually look like?
Who will benefit most from AI in the sports industry?
Why did Genius Sports spend up to US$1.2bn acquiring Legend?
What might be the next billion-dollar revenue opportunity in sport?

Sport’s best content doesn’t happen by accident.
Behind every viral clip, every campaign that cuts through, every piece of creative work that moves the needle commercially, there's a person, a team, and a strategy. But rarely does that person, team or strategy get the recognition or coverage they deserve.
SportsPro and Greenfly’s recently launched Short-Form Showcase is designed to fill that void by amplifying the talent and teams behind the best short-form content being produced across the global sports industry.
Unveiled in July, the Showcase recognises the human craft, creativity and collective effort that goes into creating content that stops the scroll and delivers commercial impact by celebrating the people who make it happen. This is not a ranking or an award – it’s a curated exhibition of best-in-class operators and a collection of their most memorable work.
On this episode, SportsPro’s Michael Long is joined by Greenfly’s Gabby Vidal Castillo and Melissa Lawton, SailGP’s chief content officer and one of the 39 specialists named in the Showcase, to discuss the value and important of exceptional content operators, how strategy and insight guide the creative process, and where social-first sports content is heading next.
To view the full Short-Form Showcase, visit Home - SportsPro x Greenfly - Short-Form Showcase