This week we go behind the curtain of the 25th Sport Industry Awards, ahead of the big night at Battersea Evolution on Thursday 30th April.

With an illustrious group of people from across the industry, Richard and Sean went to EY’s London Bridge offices in London to discuss the shortlist for the Business Moment of the Year Award.

The winner will be announced on the night.

Seven groundbreaking moments over the past 12 months were judged by a panel of industry experts:

Brett Gosper, NFL Head of Europe & Asia-Pacific

Allan Noble, Partner at EY

Fiona Harold, CEO of World Netball

Nick Keller, Chairman of Sport Industry Group.

THE BUSINESS MOMENT OF THE YEAR 2025/26 SHORTLIST

1. CVC restructures its sports portfolio in to Global Sports Group

2. Creative Artists Agency (CAA) acquires Portas Consulting

3. Red Bull’s takeover of Newcastle Falcons

4. Public Investment Fund (PIF) acquires EA Sports

5. F1 The Movie

6. The Bundesliga’s UK streaming strategy

7. Genius Sports acquires Legend

For full details of the shortlist, visit the Sport Industry website

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

A live podcast recorded at MSQ Sport and Entertainment HQ in London for the launch of Callaway Golf's new brand film 'At Last'.

You can see the film by clicking this link.

As the golfing world looks to Augusta for The Masters, the first major event of the golf calendar next week, it was a good time to take the temperature of the business of golf with four experts from across the game.

Ben Sharpe, MD of Europe, Middle East, Africa, Pacific and India, Callaway Golf

Jason Wessely, Director of Golf, Sky Sports

Georgia Ball, YouTube Creator and PGA professional

Rob Spedding, Director of Content, Future Publishing

Topics discussed:

• The State of the Game
• Brand Over Product
• The Influence Ecosystem
• Sky Golf's Numbers
• Women's Golf
• World Cup Overlap

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Digital advertising has a dirty secret: most of what you're paying for never reaches a human being. Dr. Augustine Fou is a world leading expert in digital ad fraud and has spent 20 years watching the internet fill up with bots, fake impressions, and dodgy metrics; and the advertisers funding it often know, but keep spending anyway. The incentives are too comfortable to disturb.

Sound familiar? Sport has built valuation models, rights deals, and global expansion strategies on fan numbers that deserve the same scrutiny. This conversation is about the mechanics of self-deception, and why the moment of reckoning may finally be arriving.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.