Business of Sport

Elite athletes who have achieved everything in their sport while building a career alongside; it’s the ambition many sports stars have today. But how do you do it effectively? Petr Cech is a footballing legend, and I don’t use that term lightly. Four Premier League titles, a Champions League, record for the most Premier League clean sheets, and hugely respected as one of the most dedicated and att...

Another huge week to dissect today with a quick look back at how one of the stories in particular has developed from last week. Today it’s the turn of the chaotic world of media rights after DAZN pulled out of another league deal in Belgium, the rise of darts (at your request) and how the sport has transformed to get to where it is today, and rugby; in the wake of the challenger league R360 delayi...

We think we know what the financial world of a footballer looks like. But the reality is very different. There is much more to understand than the salaries that media outlets publish like football scores. And if we’re honest, it’s never done to encourage a positive response. So what is the financial reality that faces some of sports most influential stars?  Matt Smith played over 500 games in the...

Hello and welcome to our brand new show, The Breakdown. I’m Charlie Stebbings, and joining me on this ride is legendary sports executive Charlie Methven. With his boundless energy and unfiltered opinions, and my carefully constructed guiding influence, we’ll bring you the rundown on the week’s biggest sporting business stories. For the first show, we’re extending the timeframe slightly to cover wh...

What does it cost for the biggest brands to sponsor the biggest sports? Why do they do it? How do they choose what to put their name to? The money behind sport is a primary feature of the show, but it’s normally from the perspective of the sports property. How big a sponsorship can Liverpool attract and what does it do to the bottom line. So to kick off the new year, we thought we’d change that. A...

Over the past year, we’ve gone inside football’s boardrooms, dressing rooms and balance sheets. This episode brings the most revealing moments together in one place. Welcome to The Business of Sport: Football Review. Across this compilation, we bring together the best moments from our recent football conversations to explore how money really shapes the game. From transfer fees and player contracts...

Today, we’re doing something a little different. Welcome to the Business of Sport: F1 Review. Over the past year, we’ve sat down with some of the most influential figures in Formula One. Team principals, world champions, and senior leaders shaping the sport behind the scenes. For this episode, we’ve handpicked the best moments from those conversations and brought them together into one definitive...

Today, we’re going headfirst back into the world of the tier one football executive. Peter Moore is the former CEO of Liverpool, the man who oversaw the clubs return to the top of English and European football. Working alongside Jurgen Klopp from 2017-2020, this was one of the most effective ‘performance x business’ relationships in modern football. How do you win on the pitch and build value off...

Today we welcome a true sporting legend. Bryan Habana is a 100+ cap Springbok, a World Champion and joint highest tryscorer in Rugby World Cup history, a man who races cheetahs. As I’m sure you’ve noted this is our longest show yet. That is because it’s also one of the best. Rugby sits at the heart of it, but the personal stories bring a side to an elite athlete we rarely see. There are moments in...

Hello and welcome to Business of Sport: The Breakdown, a brand new show where we will be reviewing the week’s biggest stories from sport business. Hosted by Charlie Stebbings & Charlie Methven, the former CEO of Sunderland and Charlton among multiple other roles in sport with organisations such as McLaren and The Jockey Club,The Breakdown will analyse the biggest commercial, financial, and str...

Sir Andrew Strauss is the last England Captain to win the Ashes in Australia. So what better time to get him in the hotseat. Aside from the timing being perfect, this is a show I have wanted to do from day one. That is not just because he is one of England’s greatest captains and batsmen, but he has also played an integral role in shaping the success of English cricket across formats in recent yea...

Emily Frazer is the CEO of Matchroom Multi Sport. She's led the charge in transforming sports like 9-ball pool into fast-growing, commercially compelling global properties, building new formats, elevating athlete storytelling, and bringing fresh audiences into what we could call a challenger landscape.  The Multi-Sport story was told to perfection in the recent Matchroom Netflix series, shining a...

IT’S ASHES WEEK. One of the biggest occasions of the sporting year is here, and with it we have a special show unlike any other we’ve done before. The Barmy Army is so influential it has made it into the Oxford Dictionary: to quote…it is a term for a group of passionate, noisy, and dedicated fans who support the English national cricket team, especially during overseas tours. For over 30 years, th...

Rugby is facing a massive few years. A battle to demonstrate financial sustainability, the need for players to build brands that can compete with sport’s biggest stars, a threat to established systems from challenger leagues; it’s sink or swim time, if that’s not being too dramatic. Dan Biggar is one of the game’s great fly-halves (though he’d never admit it himself): over 100 caps for Wales inclu...

Multi-club ownership groups have had a tough year in the eyes of many, with high profile cases around Crystal Palace & Lyon as well as Forest & Olympiacos showing the competitive risk of one owner or group having too much control over multiple entities. But, and it is a big but, this model can be a hugely valuable business and performance structure to apply to football. Tim Bezbatchenko is...

The celebrity investor coming into football as part of an ownership group is nothing new these days, but there were more than a few eyebrows raised when it was announced that Snoop Dogg, alongside footballing legend Luka Modric, had become a minority investor in Swansea. There must be something in the Welsh water. Swansea is storied club with a hugely passionate fanbase and a recent history of Pre...

What does women’s football need to do to match men’s? Could it be even bigger? What is currently holding it back? Every so often, we have a chat on this show which pushes beyond the surface of sport. The potential, growth and popularity of women’s football has become a feature of macro conversation for years, but finding someone with the credibility and willingness to say it how it is is not easy....

What is the world of LIV Golf really like? Cutting through all the noise and the image portrayed of a league propped up by PIF money incapable of supporting itself, is there another side? That’s what we take a look at with this week’s guest James Dunkley, Team Principal of Majesticks Golf Club, one of the 13 teams that compete on the tour.  There is no denying the controversy that LIV caused when...

Today, we’re delighted to welcome Pablo Longoria to the show. Pablo is President of french football giant Marseille, marking a welcome venture for us into European football! Make no mistake, this is a huge club steeped in history, the most passionate fans, and a global brand. Managing all of this from a business perspective is a serious job. Then of course add into it the need to create a winning...

Today, we’re delighted to welcome Richard Coleman to the show. Alongside one of our favourite previous guests Mr Guenther Steiner, Richard is the new co-owner and Team Principal of MotoGP team Tech3. This sport has had some big headlines since Liberty’s $4.9bn acquisition went through earlier this year. As the infamous owners of F1 who have played a major role in re-inventing the sport and making...

This week we’re delighted to welcome Graeme Le Saux to the show. A Chelsea, Blackburn and England icon, Graeme played over 500 club games, 327 of them in the Premier League, as well as 36 caps for England. There was more than enough in here to just enjoy some unparalleled sporting nostalgia, from Blackburn’s insane Premier League title to playing in the infamous David Beckham red card match at the...

When we recorded this show the day before James flew out to Baku, we did not expect Williams to be up on the podium delivering in real life what James was theoretically describing to us on the show. Podiums are of course part of the development plan, but not yet. When James came to see us at Business of Sport HQ last week, we talked through both what he has done to position the team for future suc...

This week we’re delighted to welcome Patrick Mouratoglou to the show. Patrick is one of tennis' most successful coaches, working with Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Holger Rune, Grigor Dimitrov, Simona Halep to name a few. Perhaps most famous for his collaboration with Serena Williams where they won 10 Grand Slams together, it’s regarded as one of the most successful coach-player relationships...

This week we’re delighted to welcome Mark Hammond to the show. Mark is the CEO of Bromley, one of the EFL’s emerging success stories. Having only played one full season in the football league and finishing a hugely respectable 11th last year, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the the early stages of this club’s acclimatisation to top level football would focus on consolidation and survival. You’...

This week we’re delighted to welcome Dominic Thiem to the show. We’ve waited nearly 100 shows but finally tennis has arrived, right in the middle of the US Open, which Dominic won in a 5 set epic in 2020. One of the few non-Federer, Nadal, Djokovic players to win a slam while those three were at their peak, Dominic’s career saw him win 17 ATP titles alongside the Slam before being forced into reti...