The sixth edition of SportsPro Live will feature a future-focused sports agenda looking at the meeting point between tech, business and fandom.
We’ve added five new forums built around the hottest topics in sports business to ensure we go deeper than ever into the most disruptive topics transforming the industry today including: finance, artificial intelligence, esports, digital transformation and broadcasting.
Access all five forums and have the opportunity to network with all delegates over two days of cutting edge presentations.
President, Business Operations
Endeavor Streaming
Alongside Endeavor Chief Technology Officer Nick Wilson, Will Staeger oversees Endeavor’s business operations in video streaming services, spanning both internally developed streaming technology and the 2018 acquisition of NeuLion and its industry-leading platform technology. In his position as President Business Operations, Will is responsible for managing the company’s relationships with such clients as the NFL, NBA, UFC, Univision, Rogers Sportsnet, EFL, Eleven Sports, PokerGo, and many others. He also oversees the company’s new business growth initiatives and synergies across broader Endeavor company business units.
Before stepping into his role at Endeavor Streaming, Will managed strategic content initiatives and executive produced all premium original series and specials as co-head of the IMG Original Content group. Prior to IMG OC, Will oversaw production at WWE as EVP Production, managing the production teams for all original programs included in the launch of WWE’s groundbreaking global premium content platform, the WWE Network.
Chief Operating Officer
ELEVEN SPORTS
In November 2018 ELEVEN SPORTS announced Anouk Mertens would become Chief Operating Officer (COO). Mertens has served as Managing Director of ELEVEN SPORTS in Belgium and Luxembourg since October 2015, turning the business profitable in under three years and achieving 100% household distribution across the market. In her role as Group COO, Mertens will amongst other things; manage budgets in all areas, review market performances and seek synergies and operational efficiencies across the group. Mertens will also continue in her role as Managing Director in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Chief Executive
European Tour
On Monday August 3, 2015, Canadian Keith Pelley became the fourth Chief Executive in the history of The European Tour. Prior to joining The European Tour, he was President of Rogers Media in Toronto where he was responsible for leading the overall operations of the company’s diverse portfolio, including Television, Radio, Publishing, Digital Media, The Shopping Channel, subscription-based content services, Toronto Blue Jays, and Rogers Centre. Before that, he was Executive Vice-President of Strategic Planning at CTVglobemedia, President of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium – which won a record seven awards for its coverage of Vancouver 2010 – President and CEO of the Toronto Argonauts Football Club, and President of The Sports Network in Canada, a company he first joined as an Editorial Assistant in 1986. He is a graduate of Ryerson University with a BA in Radio and Television Arts, and also received an ATCL diploma from Trinity College in London.
Managing Director, Commercial Operations
Formula 1
Sean Bratches was named Managing Director of the Formula 1® Commercial Operations division in January 2017. With three decades of leadership, management and operating experience at multi-billion dollar scale in the media, entertainment, and sports business. He spent 27 years at ESPN where for 10 years he served as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Sean lead a sales and marketing team that provided national advertisers access to ESPN and its media, marketing and content platforms. He was also responsible for the first unified sales organization that represents The Walt Disney Company’s premier collection of sports assets across all media platforms.
Director, Strategy & Proposition
NOW TV
Marina is the Director of Strategy and Propositions at NOW TV having assumed the role in December 2016 to shape the future of the OTT business, having joined from being Deputy Director of Strategy at Sky. In this role, Marina is responsible for managing and developing the streaming service’s end to end customer proposition, which includes the content, pricing, and positioning its five passes as well as the brand’s own line of streaming devices. Most recently she’s overseen the introduction of partner passes to NOW TV, with the launch of the hayu Pass, as well as the business’ first standalone broadband proposition, NOW Broadband. She is also responsible for building brilliant content and distribution partnerships and played a key role in establishing long term agreements and partnerships with the likes of BT and Netflix.
Chief Finance and Commercial Officer
Everton FC
Alexander (Sasha) Ryazantsev joined the Board of Directors of Everton Football Club in March 2016 following a successful career in finance and investment banking spanning more than 20 years.
He became the Club’s first Chief Finance and Commercial Officer in June 2018.
Sasha graduated from the Russian Plekhanov University of Economics in 1995 with a BSc in Economics and Commercial Management, later working as an investment analyst at Global Natural Energy PLC, where Everton major shareholder Farhad Moshiri was CEO.
After completing his Masters in Finance from the London Business School in 2002, Sasha joined ABN AMRO Bank, where he led a team advising European consumer brands on their capital structures and corporate financing. Sasha was then invited to join the corporate financing and risk solutions team at RBS in 2007, where he was responsible for bond issues and mergers and acquisitions across Europe, Middle East and Africa. In 2016, Sasha advised Mr Moshiri on the acquisition of a significant stake in Everton and the strategy of the football club going forward.
Born into a footballing family, Sasha’s father was a goalkeeper at a number of clubs across the former USSR in the 1960s and 1970s and he himself played at right-back for Dynamo Moscow boys until the age of 16 but then turned his focus towards his studies.
In 2018, Sasha completed the Business of Entertainment, Media and Sport programme at Harvard Business School to further enhance his commitment to the business of sport and finance.
Co-Founder
Sports Ledger
With an exceptional passion to be the best, Thomas “Hal” Robson-Kanu has gone on from his early days as a young professional in his journey to playing in the English Premier League and at elite international level. Throughout, he has always been a leader who offers inspiration at every opportunity on and off the pitch. Asides being an elite sportsman, Thomas is a veracious advocate and enthusiast of blockchain technology, becoming devoted to using the opportunities offered by blockchain technology to impact the world of sports. Thomas is certain that the application of this technology will help the sporting world break new grounds, enriching interactions and changing the scope of value for vested sporting stakeholders across all sporting paradigms such as fans, athletes, clubs, and corporations. Thomas is co-founder at Sports Ledger, becoming the first elite professional sportsperson to conceptualise and develop alongside an accredited team, a game changing blockchain-based platform set to score numerous blockchain goals for the sporting industry.
CEO and Co-Founder
Sports Innovation Lab
Olympic Gold Medalist and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame with leadership positions at the highest levels of sport, including the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee, Angela guides the strategies of major sports organizations in her role as CEO and co-founder of the Sports Innovation Lab.
Eurovision Media Services – the business arm of the European Broadcasting Union – has a global reputation and is the first choice media services provider for many media organizations and sports federations around the world. We provide innovative services across the value chain from content production and broadcast services to content distribution and permanent circuits. We produce and deliver premium live sports, news and entertainment events around the world on all platforms (TV, radio and online).
Hookit is the leading sponsorship analytics and valuation platform for sports. Hookit developed the first, most trusted standard in the global marketplace that effectively measures $5B per month of previously unknown sponsorship value that brands receive from athletes, teams, leagues, venues and events in social and digital media. Hookit aggregates billions of data points from social and digital platforms and uses machine learning and predictive analytics to provide real-time insights and valuations for brands and properties to quantify and maximize sports sponsorships.
NAGRA is the digital TV division of the Kudelski Group and the world's leading independent provider of content protection and user experience solutions for pay-TV providers, content owners and sports rights holders. Our comprehensive technology portfolio is designed to address today’s ever-evolving pay-TV and OTT market and includes: the NAGRA Security Services Platform, the Conax Contego content security platform, the OpenTV Signature Edition always-evolved OTT video ecosystem, the Conax GO Live OTT solution, direct-to-TV solutions including TVkey, a broad cloud TV offering, DVnor media asset management, NAGRA Insight AI-based pay-TV analytics platform, as well as a comprehensive suite of Anti-Piracy Services and NexGuard forensic watermarking, to monitor, disrupt and fight piracy of premium content at its source.
Sportradar is a global leader in understanding and leveraging the power of sports data and digital content for its clients around the world. Sportradar provides cutting-edge solutions and services to media companies, bookmakers, sports federations and state authorities. Sportradar is a truly international organisation, employing over 2,000 people in more than 30 locations around the world. The rapid growth is driven by technological innovation and a deep understanding of their clients’ business needs.
WSC Sports' platform generates personalized sports videos for every digital platform and every sports fan - automatically and in real-time.
Currently being used by leading media rights owners such as Turner Sports, NBA, Bundesliga, US Open, PGA Tour and others, WSC Sports’ platform utilizes advanced AI and Machine Learning technologies to analyze live sports broadcasts, identify each and every event that occurs in the game, create customized short-form video content and publish to any digital destination. This enables partners to instantly generate and distribute professionally edited personalised clips and videos on a large scale, to engage audiences and maximize video monetization opportunities.
"SportsPro Live is an incredible gathering of sports leaders to discuss and network."
Mark Parkman, General Manager, Olympic Channel“Excellent content, great speakers, well hosted
and truly insightful. It reignited my passion for
the industry.”
“I thought the content was relevant, everything
was really well organized and the whole
environment provided a great opportunity to
network and learn from others.”
“This event is critical date in the calendar
because it brings people together to debate the issues that really matter to them as they grow their businesses, grow their sports and grow their governing bodies in a very relaxed environment.”
"The content, level of speakers and venue was great!"
Amy Wright, Events PR & Media Manager, EventScotland