Steve Murray is Managing Partner at Revolution Growth, the Washington DC-based investment firm that has invested nearly $1 billion in growth-stage companies. In 2016, Revolution Growth invested in DraftKings and Steve joined the board. In April 2020, despite a temporary shutdown among major sports leagues, DraftKings debuted on the public market through a three-way SPAC merger with Steve working closely on the deal. Other notable investments from Revolution Growth include Sportradar, the world’s leading supplier of sports and betting-related data and CLEAR, the biometric identity company that has made entry into airports and sports stadiums around the country faster, safer, and more convenient. Steve is currently on the boards of Revolution Growth companies BigCommerce, Convene, Glowforge, Interactions, Tala and of course DraftKings. He is also a board observer at Tempus and Uptake. Steve joined Revolution from Softbank where he worked for nearly 20 years with some of the most important technology companies of our generation including Yahoo, Etrade, GeoCities, GSI Commerce, Alibaba, Fitbit, Kabbage and many others. https://sportstechworldseries.com/podcast

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Sports tech investment & growth insights from a DraftKings Board Member with Steve Murray, Revolution Growth.

Brian Matzat | Director of Digital Innovation | Portland Trail Blazers Brian Matzat enters his seventh season with the Trail Blazers and Rose Quarter as Director of Digital Innovation. Matzat is responsible for the advancement of digital strategy by enhancing digital experience and leading development of new digital products for the organization. Prior to his time in Oregon, Matzat earned his Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Communication at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin. A vegan and avid cyclist, the Wisconsin native feels right at home in North Portland. Lenny Goh | Vice President of Business Development | Tradable Bits. Hailing from Vancouver, Canada, Lenny has a wealth of experience in his career in eCommerce, digital and social media in a variety of startups. He blends his passion for sport and technology together as the Vice President of Business Development at Tradable Bits. Lenny works with global sports and entertainment brands to build their fan communities and activate their data. An advocate of fan-based marketing techniques, he empowers partners to build better fan experiences that are more personalized so they can bring their fans closer to the teams and brands they love. Lenny specializes in helping partners find innovative solutions that add value cross-functionally across marketing, data/CRM/BI, corporate partnerships, merchandise and ticket sales. https://sportstechworldseries.com/podcast

How fan engagement drives revenue with Brian Matzat, Portland Trailblazers & Lenny Goh, Tradable Bits

Fredda Rodriguez joined Concacaf 3 years ago as the Head of Digital & Emerging Technologies to oversee the Digital and Emergent technologies department, including digital platforms, product development, digital marketing, content strategy, innovation, and all digital revenue generation activities linked to Concacaf tournaments and events. Concacaf (the Confederation of North, Central America & Caribbean Association Football) is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 41 member associations represent countries and territories mainly in North America, including the Caribbean and Central America, and three nations from the Guianas subregion of South America — Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Concacaf's primary functions are to organize competitions for national teams and clubs, and to conduct the World Cup and Women's World Cup qualifying tournaments. Prior to Fredda's role at Concacaf, she gained over 20 years of experience in the digital field, including with clients such as Intel, Cisco, SAP, ESPN, Avon and Telemundo. Fredda has won several awards in the digital media and interactive activation categories across both the US and LATAM Markets. https://sportstechworldseries.com/podcast

Engaging a diverse & distributed fan base with Fredda Rodriguez, Concacaf

Phil Andrews was appointed Chief Executive Officer of USA Weightlifting in April 2016, having held the post on an Interim basis since December 2015. With responsibility for overseeing the strategy and operations of the organization, he has helped to transform the sport overseeing a complete change of culture within the sport which has seen membership in the United States almost treble since he took over. Andrews has also restructured the operations and governance of USA Weightlifting; supported significant reform internationally especially in the area of anti-doping; hosted three International Weightlifting Federation World Championship events; created the first independent Ethics and Judicial process and overseen the best high performance results in 60 years. Prior to his roles with USA Weightlifting, Andrews worked in professional Ice Hockey for British Champions Coventry Blaze. He learnt how to grow a minority sport alongside Team GB and served on the founding board of the British University Ice Hockey Association as well as charity Hockey Stars for Hope. https://sportstechworldseries.com/podcast/

National Governing Bodies bouncing back from the pandemic with Phil Andrews, USA Weightlifting

Greg Harvey is the Chief Innovation Officer for The Famous Group. In this role, he's led the transition of The Famous Group from a traditional creative services company into a forward-thinking creative services technology business that develops and owns several software platforms and solutions. These platforms include Vixi a real-time social display application powered by Unreal Engine, Virtual Seat a cloud-based enterprise solution that delivers large-scale audiences virtually into live broadcast events, as well as the companies new Mixed Reality solutions. Their clients & projects include 13 Super Bowls, Nike, the NFL, Live Nation, the NBA finals, Ubisoft, NCAA Final Four, Pepsi, NHL All-Star Weekend, AT&T, and more than 90 professional sports teams and venues. Greg's role covers discovering new technologies that can be integrated into the company’s software platforms/solutions, building technology partnerships to further expand the company’s products and services, integrating Unreal Engine across the company’s software and creative services, implementing a robust remote cloud-based production pipeline and exploring new investor relations, as well as being the face of innovation for the company. https://sportstechworldseries.com/podcast

Creating immersive fan experiences across the physical / digital divide with Greg Harvey, The Famous Group

Zaileen Janmohamed is SVP, Partnership Development & Innovation, Commercial at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties. She's a passionate leader with a wealth of holistic experience on the brand, agency and property sides of the sports marketing business. As the USOPP’s head of partnership development & innovation, Zaileen works at the intersection of sales and partner management and activation, using market data to help evolve and innovate business strategy and opportunities for existing and future Team USA and LA28 partners. She also works closely with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to bring future-forward solutions to Team USA Athletes and the Movement as a whole. Most recently, Zaileen launched the Athlete Marketing Platform (AMP), a digital marketplace that houses Athlete group marketing rights and as well, directly connects Athletes to Brands for individual endorsement opportunities. Prior to USOPP, Zaileen guided brands like Intel, Google and Visa in sponsorship and experiential marketing opportunities as senior vice president of client consulting and services at GMR Marketing. She also served as head of Olympics management at Visa., where she was responsible for delivering Visa’s premier sports sponsorship on a global scale. Zaileen began her career as an account executive at Major League Soccer (MLS). Zaileen is an advocate for diversity and inclusion to drive culture and business. In 2016, she was honored as a member of Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 Class and Leaders’ Leaders Under 40 Class of 2017. Her approach to sponsorship strategy has been featured in two books: What Sponsors Want and Beyond Harvard. Zaileen is also the Founder of the Women in Sport Business Program at the University of Massachusetts.

How the LA28 Olympics are embracing innovation with Zaileen Janmohamed, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties

This week we're joined by two guests: Sue Thaden (CEO, From Now On) & David Pillen (Assistant AD, Marketing) Rice University. Sue Thaden is founder and CEO of From Now On (FNO). The FNO vision is to be the community engagement platform for sports and events. After five years in the market, FNO now offers Fan X, a mobile engagement solution serving over 90 US colleges, high schools, teams, venues, and events, including multiple NCAA championships, the NAIA, The Ohio State University, Rice University, Xavier University, and high schools across the US. David Pillen joined Rice Athletics in the spring of 2018 as the Assistant Athletic Director Marketing. David is responsible for creating the marketing strategy and plan for Rice Athletics. He will administer and oversee game presentation, special events and promotions, band and spirit groups, digital marketing, apparel + licensing, advertising, video broadcast, creative video and design, sponsorship collaboration, campaign execution and be overall responsible for increasing revenue and attendance, creating a positive and exciting game day atmosphere, increasing fan engagement and furthering the brand of Rice Athletics. Pillen came to Rice after spending four and a half years at Louisiana Tech University, one as the Director of Video Production & Creative Services and three and a half as the Assistant AD for Marketing.

Gameday app experience driving fan engagement & revenue in college athletics with Sue Thaden, From Now On & David Pillen, Rice University

Andrew is the Chief Technology Officer at Topgolf where he leads the development of innovative ways to experience and grow the game of golf – in-person, virtually and digitally. As a self-proclaimed golf lover, Andrew works to introduce new audiences to the game through technology. Prior to Topgolf, Andrew served as CIO at WesTower Communications, a leader in the cell tower construction and maintenance business. He is also the former CIO at Clearwire Communications, the company that built the first-ever 4G wireless network in the U.S. There, he transformed the cost, quality, engagement and output of the IT Department. Andrew earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Operations Research from the University of Leeds in England, and an MBA from Baylor University in Texas. Andrew is from the U.K. near Watford, the home of the first Topgolf venue. Today, Andrew resides in Dallas with his wife and their three sons.’

Innovation powering golf’s future with Andrew Macaulay, TopGolf

Jean-Baptiste has worked in the sport industry for the past 10 years across multiple positions which lead him to drive the innovation strategy within UEFA and set-up the UEFA Innovation Hub. This delivers high-quality innovation programmes to address UEFA’s needs in delivering the 2019–24 UEFA strategy, through new partnerships and diverse collaborations with a wide range of stakeholders (including UEFA staff, start-ups, academic institutions, cross-sport federations and more). Among his new responsibilities as Chief Strategy Officer at LaSource, Jean-Baptiste is now in charge of supporting sports organisations in leveraging innovation, strategic collaborations and partnerships with startups.

Crossing the physical / digital divide with Jean-Baptiste Alliot, Advisor, UEFA Innovation Hub & Chief Strategy Officer, La Source

Jenna Kurath serves as Vice President of Startup Partner Development overseeing partner relations and resource management of Comcast SportsTech – a multi-stage accelerator focused on developing and investing in the world’s next great sports technologies and The FARM – an innovation hub supporting early-stage startup founders. In this role, Jenna is responsible for leading strategy for both accelerator funds; defining the investment thesis and managing key industry partnerships to build and curate a team of advisors and mentors, along with custom-designed curriculum and capital investment, to attract the best startups from around the world to innovate in Atlanta. Both programs are part of a larger portfolio of Comcast NBCUniversal accelerator investments, including LIFT Labs in Philadelphia, focused on entrepreneurial engagement to help the next generation of technology leaders succeed. Learn more: https://www.comcastsportstech.com Subscribe to our Sports Tech World Series weekly newsletter: https://sportstechworldseries.com/newsletter

The inaugural Comcast Sports Tech Accelerator cohort with Jenna Kurath, VP, Startup Partner Development & Head of SportsTech

Ricardo Mazzucca is CEO of Arena Hub. Located within Allianz Parque, Sao Paulo, in an area of 4,000 m² with a capacity for more than 1,000 people, Arena Hub is the largest center for sports innovation in Latin America (LATAM). The Hub seeks to develop the sports, media and entertainment industries generating social and economic impact. Before Arena Hub, Ricardo worked for 20 years as the Sports Marketing Director of TV Globo, a Brazilian media group that’s the largest commercial TV network in LATAM and second largest in the world. He also served as the South American Marketing Manager for Umbro International. Arena Hub is a global partner of STWS. The STWS-Arena Hub partnership was established with the goal of exchanging knowledge, experiences and content to amplify each partner’s impact on the global sports technology industry. Learn more about Partnering with us today: sportstechworldseries.com/partnerships

Sports Tech Opportunities In LATAM with Ricardo Mazzucca, Arena Hub

Dr. Markus Deutsch is the Co-Founder & CEO of Fusion Sport. Markus started his career in High Performance sport after completing a PhD in Physiology at the University of Otago and working closely with the New Zealand All Blacks National Rugby team. In 2003 he co-founded Fusion Sport to pursue the development of sports technology products including their Athlete Management System, Smartabase. Which has become the industry standard in assisting teams centralize and make sense of the data they are collecting, used by over 260 high performance organisations globally. In his role as CEO Markus remains actively involved with clients and product development, managing the overall direction of Fusion Sport into the future. In 2020 the company secured a funding round of $5.5m and has played an integral role in COVID-19 illness screening and tracking for clients, including the NBA season restart. You can find more info about Fusion Sport in the latest Chapter of the Sports Tech Annual, a new industry research publication bringing together the most comprehensive directory of companies in the global sports tech landscape. It also features industry insights and commentary from leaders in the sports tech ecosystem. Free to download now: sportstechworldseries.com/annual

Pivoting in High Performance through the ‘New Normal’ with Dr. Markus Deutsch, Fusion Sport

John Pollard is the Vice President, Business Development at Zebra Sports, a division of Zebra Technologies, the “Official On-Field Player-Tracking Provider for the NFL”. John leads the company’s team engagement efforts with the NFL, NCAA, as well as other sports around the world. In addition to his management responsibilities, John continues to work directly with the league and team personnel. This includes coaching and analytics staff around the NFL and college football to help organizations use statistical, analytical, and player-tracking/performance data and technologies to work more efficiently and support informed decision-making. John has held various product marketing, management and business development roles and provided consulting services in the consumer goods, technology, and sports industries working with some of the most identifiable corporations and influential brands in the world including Ray-Ban, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Oracle Corporation, Microsoft, the NBA, and the NFL. As an industry consultant, John continued to enjoy working closely with team and media clients, including NFL and NCAA coaching staffs and personnel departments, and on-air talent helping them derive insights and knowledge from their various information sources and analytical studies to aid in game planning and strategy, self-scouting, player evaluation and roster valuation.

Super Bowl LV insights from the NFL’s Official On-Field Player-Tracking Provider with John Pollard, Zebra Sports

Sceenic Watch Together white-label software solution (SDKs & APIs) power the world’s best co-viewing experiences for broadcasters, Leagues and OTT vendors, allowing users to share their favourite content with family and friends on their own platforms. Their clients include  LaLiga, WeLoveGaming eSports and BT Sport among others.   Paul Bojarski started his first company Skipworth, an online music streaming service, in the dot com boom era back in 1998, aged only 17. He then spent the next 10 years (2004-2013) running AOL UK and MTV Digital Ad Ops before relocating with Viacom to Buenos Aires, to head up Digital Ad Sales (revenue growth from $0.5m to $7m in just 2 years). Paul then once again innovated but this time in the video streaming space with SayYeah, the world's first Watch Together Premium Millennial Video Streaming service he co-founded in 2013, for which he led the fundraising and product. Subsequently, SayYeah pivoted to Sceenic in 2016, a B2B SaaS company he also co-founded, for which he secured funding from R/GA Ventures, SFC Capital, NMA.VC and LCIF and grew the company to 18 full time employees currently.

Making sports broadcasts social through co-viewing experiences with Paul Bojarski, Sceenic

Mark Lambert enters his ninth season with the Lightning, his second as Director of High Performance and Strength Coach after previous serving as Strength and Conditioning coach. An industry veteran of more than 20 years, Lambert has worked with hundreds of athletes ranging from amateur ranks to the professional tiers as well. With the Lightning, Lambert is responsible for overseeing all planning for in- and off-season player workout regimens to optimize performance and increase player physicality. This episode is brought to you by Kinduct. Used by over 550 professional and elite sports teams, Kinduct's Athlete Management System consolidates athlete performance, wellness, and injury-related data. By consolidating often-siloed data, we empower coaches and trainers to make informed decisions that save time and optimize results.

Winning The 2020 NHL Stanley Cup - Resilience And Flexibility In A Time Of Unique Adversity with Mark Lambert, Bay Lightning

The Global Sports Technology Podcast delivering you in-depth interviews with the greatest minds in sports tech. Hosted by Thomas Alomes. New episodes released every Monday. Show notes available at: https://sportstechfeed.com Presented by Sports Tech World Series and Vumero.

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