SportsPro Podcast

What happens when a football league needs to broadcast its own live games?
 
In the latest episode of our New Economics of Fandom miniseries in partnership with Genius Sports, Chris Stone and Nick Meacham are joined by Cyprien Castanedo, head of media platform and innovation at LFP Media, to explore the launch and growth of Ligue 1+, the league's direct-to-consumer streaming platform.
 
After the LFP lost its domestic broadcast partnership, Castanedo explains how Ligue 1+ was built in a matter of months, reached one million subscribers within three weeks, and drove revenue through both subscriptions and major distribution partnerships. 
 
As the league adopted the mindset of a modern media business, the conversation also covers pricing, churn, piracy, first-party fan data, and what Ligue 1's experience suggests about how DTC and traditional broadcast might coexist in the future.
 
The New Economics of Fandom is produced in partnership with Genius Sports and explores how sport's commercial future is being reshaped by technology, data and changing fan behaviour.
 
Key Points:
How Ligue 1+ was built and launched at speed
Delivering one million subscribers within three weeks and objectives for year two
The role of distribution partners like Prime Video
How Ligue 1+ approaches pricing, churn and piracy
What DTC means for fan data and future media rights negotiations

The US Open just wrapped up three weeks that delivered US$108 million in prize money, record viewership on ESPN and the tournament's first American male finalist since 2006. However, the conversation was also dominated by rising ticket prices and a backlash over the unescapable presence of influencers.
In this episode of the SportsPro Podcast, Sam Carp and Steve McCaskill take a look at the continued commercialisation of the tournament and consider how the event compares to tennis’ other Grand Slams.
Also in this episode, the pair review the first edition of World Athletics’ Ultimate Championship and what it revealed about the governing body’s efforts to retain interest in the sport outside of the Olympics.
There’s also time to look back on some of the major stories from the past week, including what LIV Golf’s bankruptcy filing reveals about the tour’s business model and news that Chelsea shareholders Todd Boehly and Mark Walter are on their way out of the club.

Sports organisations have spent years talking about data as the key to growth. But what if most are approaching it the wrong way?
 
In the latest episode of our New Economics of Fandom miniseries, Chris Stone and Nick Meacham are joined by UEFA Chief of Marketing and Digital, CMDO, Roman Putsch to explore how one of the world's leading sports properties approaches fan engagement, first-party data and commercial growth.
 
Putsch explains why UEFA views data as "crude oil, not gold", how the organisation measures audience quality rather than simply audience size, and why creating value for fans must come before collecting information from them. The conversation also explores sponsorship activation, media rights, and the capabilities sports organisations need to build for the future.
 
The New Economics of Fandom is produced in partnership with Genius Sports and explores how sport's commercial future is being reshaped by technology, data and changing fan behaviour.
 
Key Points:
How are sports organisations are thinking about data the wrong way.
How fan value creates data value, not the other way around.
The best metrics for evaluating audience quality.
Why "owning the fan" may be the wrong objective for sports organisations.
How to build the capabilities needed for sport's next commercial era.

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.