eSports

This week’s sports industry reading list

Posted on by David Cushnan

Welcome along to the sports industry reading list, your weekly guide to the best, most interesting and most relevant writing on the global business of sport (accept no imitations). As usual, you’re invited to scroll down for a variety of pieces plucked from across the internet – from newspaper sites to specialist sports publications, social media to sports trade media platforms. And don’t forget to share widely – you’ll find me on Twitter and at davidcushann@gmail.com – among industry friends and colleagues. Parish notices concluded, let’s get down to business:

This week’s sports industry must-reads

•  Rob Harris spent his week in Bahrain, chronicling Fifa’s latest Congress. Here’s his razor-sharp Associated Press analysis of another noteworthy week in world football politics.

•  The European Tour’s first GolfSixes event – a short-form version of the game, with added dry ice and pyrotechnics – took place last weekend in St Albans, just north of London. Matt Cooper’s review of the razzmatazz for ESPN is well worth a read.

•  A fascinating and shrewd piece by former Olympic 1,500 metre runner Ross Murray, for Athletics Weekly, on the challenges of securing sponsorship for track and field athletes in an age of YouTube and reality TV ‘influencers’.

•  As the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission moves from Los Angeles to Paris, as it considers the strengths and weaknesses of both the remaining 2024 bids, Inside the Games’ Nick Butler considers the way the organisation communicates and wonders whether, in 2017, there might be a more effective way for it to do so.

•  More essential reading on Formula One’s finances from Autosport’s Dieter Rencken, who has the inside line on how the sport’s revenues have been distributed among the teams this year.

•  A cracking read full of interesting stories on what life is really like as an NBA player agent, by Alex Kennedy for the USA Today’s HoopsHype site.

•  Paddy Upton, head coach of the Indian Premier League’s Delhi Daredevils, has peered into his crystal ball for ESPNCricInfo and predicted what cricket will look like in 2027.

•  A typically thought-provoking piece by Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim, considering the impact the shift from linear broadcast to OTT might have on college sports in the United States.

•  Some expert eSports commentary here from Seven League senior consultant Charlie Beall, in a piece published this week on SportsPro’s website.

•  And finally, professional consultant Dave Wakeman turns his attention, via this interesting LinkedIn article, to the big topics: Nascar, stories, community and humanity.

That’s your lot for this edition, but be sure to check back here next week for another list of recommended reading about the sports industry. Until next time.

This week’s sports industry reading list

Posted on by David Cushnan

As the famous old song goes, ‘there’s no business like spo(rts) business’ – so with that in mind welcome along to my sports industry reading list, a weekly guide to the best and most interesting writing on the global business of sport. As usual, there’s a mix of interviews, features and analysis below, all on the subject of how sport is being organised and funded – from the biggest issues to the often-fascinating minor detail. Whether you’re a regular reader or a welcome newcomer, a share or a like is always appreciated. Feel free to get in touch via Twitter – @DavidCushnan – or via email. To business:

This week’s sports industry must-reads

  • Barry Hearn and his son Eddie are always good value, as the Guardian’s Donald McRae discovered when he sat down with both of them on the eve of the World Snooker Championship and this month’s Joshua-Klitschko heavyweight world title fight.
  • Not quite from last week, but for anyone interested in eSports, the video games industry or even Liverpool Football Club this is a superb in-depth interview with Peter Moore, as he leaves Electronic Arts for the chief executive job at Anfield, by Glixel’s John Davison.

As always, thanks for reading. Until next time.

This week’s sports industry reading list

Posted on by David Cushnan

Time, once again, for the sports industry reading list, my weekly(ish) guide to pieces of note about the global business of sport. They might be profiles, interviews, opinion pieces or long-form features and they might be about sponsorship, media rights, fan engagement, the way big events are organised or an industry grand fromage. You get the idea, I’m sure, so let’s get underway. To business:

This week’s sports industry must-reads

  • The BBC’s Greg Dunlop has an interesting tale from Australia, where a Facebook Live stream of a recent pay per view boxing bout has prompted a debate around rights infringements and underlined the challenges rights holders face in protecting their content. It’s a piece that has relevance for the entire the sports and media industries.
  • Heineken is, of course, one of world sport’s most prominent sponsors so it’s always handy to keep up to speed with what the company’s global sponsorship chief Hans Erik Tuijt is thinking. Dan Cancian of the IB Times is asking the questions here.
  • Was this the week when drone racing came of commercial age? It’s a ridiculous question, but what we can say with certainty is that Allianz has signed up as the new title sponsor of the Drone Racing League. And, perhaps as importantly, this new tech-sport is deemed worthy of a major – and very good – piece in the Observer, written by Simon Parkin.
  • Jon Wertheim’s Sports Illustrated interview with Dana White, ringmaster of the UFC, covers plenty of ground – from election night to Ronda Rousey, working with Ari Emanuel to fighter welfare – and is absolutely riveting.

That’s this week’s list. As always feel free to get in touch via davidcushnan@gmail.com or, on Twitter, @DavidCushnan. Until next week.

This week’s sports industry reading list

Posted on by David Cushnan

Now that Tom Brady/Lady Gaga have sorted out the Super Bowl, the way’s clear for the main event of the week: this sports industry reading list. Regular visitors to this part of the internet will know that below is my pick of the best and most interesting/useful/mission critical writing about the global business of sport, carefully collated over the past few days. As usual you’ll find a combination of interviews, analysis, opinion pieces, longer-form features and profiles. Intro completed, let’s get going. To business:

This week’s sports industry must-reads

  • The best Super Bowl ever was preceded by the usual week of hype, parties, celebrity appearances, fan experiences, business seminars and no little glad-handing in the host city, Houston. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s annual pre-game press conference always provides plenty of talking points and this recap from last week by The Score’s Michael McClymont, is especially handy for those of us an ocean away from the day-to-day business and politics of the league.
  • SportsPro’s Michael Long went to Manila to see the success of ONE Championship, the Asian mixed martial arts property, for himself. What’s not to like? (Note: this piece also includes the best description of one man breaking another’s nose you’re likely to read all week.)

Thanks for reading, as always. Drop me a digital line or two if the mood takes you, at davidcushnan@gmail.com, or click here to find my Twitter account. Until next time.

 

This week’s sports industry reading list

Posted on by David Cushnan

Here goes with another sports industry reading list, my weekly selection of interesting and relevant writing about how sport is organised, funded and marketed. Whether it’s sports sponsorship, major events, fan engagement, media rights or politics that floats your boat, there’s usually something for everyone here; as usual, it’s a mix of profiles, features, opinion, analysis and interviews from newspapers, specialist sports websites and the sports industry trade press. Time to get cracking. To business:

This week’s sports industry must-reads

  • Ordinarily I wouldn’t include a company’s annual report in this list, but I think we can make an exception for Dalian Wanda since it’s shown signs, over the past year or two, of being anything but an ordinary company. Anyone looking to understand the scope and scale of its ambitions inside and outside sport should read founder Wang Jianlin’s 2016 review and outlook for 2017.
  • Given the politics and controversy around Russia and Russian sport just now, expect one of the recurring sports marketing topics over the next year or so to be how football’s major sponsors approach the tricky business of activating in and around the country as the 2018 World Cup looms large. Courtesy of the Business of Fashion site and Vikram Alexei Kansara, here’s how Adidas is beginning that process.

As always, any feedback is much appreciated. You can find me on Twitter or send me an email. Do share widely and do come back next week for more required reading.

This week’s sports industry reading list

Posted on by David Cushnan

A new year seems like a neat moment to resurrect the sports industry reading list, a guide to the most interesting and relevant writing on the global business of sport. Let’s see if we can make this a more regular thing in 2017. As with previous installments, what follows are pieces I’ve recently read, a combination of longform features, profiles, punchy opinions, blog posts and interviews. Hopefully it’s a handy little resource if sport is your industry, or you’re simply interested in peeling back the curtains to see how professional sport is organised and financed. And that’s really all you need to know: without further ado, to business:

This week’s sports industry must-reads

  • Inevitably the past week or so has seen a glut of annual reviews (not to mention the obligatory ‘things to look out for in 2017′ pieces) across all sorts of different areas of sport but I’d recommend sparing the time to read Inside the Games’ senior reporter Nick Butler’s personal reflections on a fairly remarkable 12 months in sports politics.
  • eSports. The mere mention of it will either make you glaze over, shrug a slightly weary shrug or sit up bolt upright, visibly intrigued. Whatever your take, competitive gaming has become virtually – see what I did there – impossible for the sports industry to ignore. To ensure you’re up to speed for 2017, Joe Favorito and Maurice Eisenmann have pieced together this handy primer on eSports’ current challenges and talking points.
  • Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel went behind the scenes with the Ohio State and Clemson digital media teams ahead of the Fiesta Bowl, for this fascinating piece on the huge investments the major college football programmes are making in content and distribution – and what it means for recruitment.
  • A punchy piece here by Oliver Owen on the promising new Sport500 site – where each article is made up of no more than 500 words – as one or two murmurings emerge about the direction in which Formula One’s new owners might be looking to take the sport.
  • This is a tasty piece – sorry – by Rory Smith of the New York Times on Liverpool FC’s approach to nutrition, underlining, as if we needed it underlining, the levels of investment and attention to detail required at all the world’s major sports organisations.

That’s all for now. I’ll try to make these  as weekly as I can in 2017. In the meantime, all feedback is warmly received at davidcushnan@gmail.com – and you can find me on Twitter @DavidCushnan. Happy New Year.