The global sports ecosystem has a huge range of stakeholders involved from the athletes participating on tracks, pitches, fields and boxing rings, to the sponsors seeking exposure to the media and data holders delivering content to viewers around the world.
Insider Sport tries its utmost to engage with the widest range of these key stakeholders as possible. As the year comes to a close, we’re taking a look back at some of our favourite interviews and key insights from a year which delivered some historic sporting moments.
Ben Shalom, BOXXER – the right partnerships for British boxing
One of Insider Sport’s most interesting interviews of the year, particularly to this boxing enthusiastic editor, was with Ben Shalom, Founder and CEO of one of the UK’s biggest boxing promotions, BOXXER.
The Manchester-based promotion put on a number of big fights in 2024 and towards the end of the year was able to join the craze in Saudi Arabia, becoming part of the highly lucrative Riyadh season. Central to the firm’s activity has been its partnerships though, Shalmon stressed to Insider Sport, such as its broadcasting arrangements with Sky and NBC.
“As a promoter, your number one job is to get your fights seen by as many people as possible, and so for me having Sky and NBC is a huge milestone and boost for our business,” he said.
“What is key for us is how do we make boxing as accessible as possible, that was always the bedrock of the business. How can we reach wider audiences? You need partners who can do that.”
Stephen and Paul Smith – taking trade unionism to combat sports
Staying on the topic of boxing, Insider Sport was able to get some time with two veterans of the British boxing scene, Stephen and Paul Smith. The brothers, part of Liverpool’s Smith boxing family, have 78 fights on their combined record.
They are now looking to make a different contribution to the sport they dedicated their lives to though. Towards the start of the year they helped set up the Global Fighters Union (GFU), a trade union for combat sports athletes including boxers, kickboxers, MMA fighters, and more.
“Fighters, more often than not, they can fight but they aren’t aware of the things in the background and the legal side of things, and you need someone to look over the contact and make sure you’re not getting the bad end of the stick,” Stephen Smith explained.
“You need things to weigh in your favour wherever possible, with earning as much as you can and making sure you can contractually secure that. The fighters are often the one left out, and we want that to stop.”
Paul Smith added: “For me, you need to have experts in fields, and there’s experts in boxing here and also expats in unions, and how things should be and how contracts are. We will have experts from across the board, from medical experts, contractual experts, commercial law experts, boxing experts, MMA experts, and we will make sure that they know the rules inside and out.”
Jason Siegel, Greater Orlando Sports Commission – turning a city into a new sports hub
2024 saw a lot of sporting activity. Outside the usual domestic sporting schedules fans were treated to the extravagance of two major football tournaments – the UEFA European Championship and CONEMBOL Copa America – and of course the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Hosting events like this is a big business in its own right, with Paris 2024 alone bringing in billions in tourist revenue to France’s capital. With the World Cup heading to the US in 2026, stateside, various cities were keen to put themselves forward as contenders.
Though Orlando was not successful in its 2026 World Cup hosting bid, Jason Siegel, President and CEO of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission, is confident about the city’s ability to become a major hub for hosting major sports events in the future.
“Our vision is to be the hub for sports tournaments and events,” he said. “We want to be the ideal destination in the US for a wide range of sporting events and continue to build our proven track record of world-class hosting.“
“From elite venues and facilities to entertainment powerhouses of Disney and Universal right here in town, along with over 200,000 hotel rooms, timeshares, and vacation rentals, Orlando has what it takes to become the premier host city destination in the US.”
Simon Breckon, Speedo – inspiring the next generation at Paris 2024
As noted above, the Paris Olympics was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, sporting event of this year, and captivated the attention of countless millions of people. The event also provided an opportunity for major sports brands to showcase their products.
One such brand is Speedo, whose SVP, Simon Breckon, spoke to Insider Sport ahead of the Olympics Opening Ceremony to discuss how brands can relate to both the athletes participating in the games and the people watching at home.
“If you think about what the Olympic dream is, the inspiration that any one of us can achieve, that’s the pinnacle of the sport,” he said. “What the Olympics does is relate to us on a personal level, because these are sports which we don’t see all of the time.”
He continued: “I think what the Games do and what one of our jobs is to do, is make these swimmers relatable. You get to see them, their interests, their personalities and who they are, as well as their performance. We encourage that.”
Stuart Simms, Fair Play Sports Media – creating a new legacy
Amidst the talk of athletes, broadcasters and promoters it is important to remember that the sports ecosystem is home to multiple different stakeholders, Many of these relate to the betting sector, a major stakeholder in sports in its own right.
Earlier this year, Oddschecker – one of the world’s biggest sports comparison sites – undertook a rebrand to Fair Play Sports Media (FPSM). Central to this new identity, the firm’s CEO, Stuart Summs, told Insider Sport, is the notion of a level playing field.
“It’s been a bit of a mission and a rallying cry for us,” Simms remarked. “But then in terms of how we reflect on that for key markets, the big change we’ve made for our business is that we used to operate in silos.
“The US business had different brands, a different platform and different technology, in some ways, to the UK business, and that would be different from Italy and from Spain.
“What we’ve done under my guidance is bring our technology team together, to then build our product team which works closely with the product team to build products that we can drop into lots of different markets from the get go.”
