Gary Neville’s The Overlap, now majority owned by Global, has acquired the watchalong YouTube channels run by Mark Goldbridge, a significant moment in the independent football content space.

James Emmett and David Cushnan dissect this week’s news and consider what Global, the radio and outdoor advertising giant, is buying as it builds out its sport and podcast arms.

There’s also reflections on the future programming that might start to populate in-house streaming services operated by rights-holders - other sports, other leagues and perhaps even other genres - as James Johnson builds out a soccer media hub in Canada, by acquiring rights including the Bundesliga and Uefa Women’s Champions League.

And there’s a word for SailGP, which has now transferred 12 of its 13 teams from central to independent ownership - most recently with the sale the championship-winning Spanish team - adding business prowess and a sprinkle of Hollywood stardom to the sailing world.

With the US taking the lion's share of the headlines, you could be forgiven for forgetting that Mexico and Canada are also co-hosting the upcoming Fifa men’s World Cup.

While the US will host 78 of the 104 games, Mexico and Canada will each stage 13 games, in Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Vancouver and Toronto.

On the sidelines of March’s Business of Soccer event in Atlanta, David Cushnan sat down with Héctor Gonzalez Iñarritu, COO and President of Business at Club América, and James Johnson, newly installed at Canadian Soccer Media & Entertainment, to hear more about both markets as they make final preparations for the tournament.

Iñarritu runs LigaMX’s most successful club, which plays home games at the newly-refurbished Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, venue for the first game of the World Cup. He shares what international visitors and businesses should expect when they enter the Mexican sports market. And Johnson, new to his post after a stint as CEO of Football Australia, explains the changes he's making to the way Canadian soccer is packaged and sold, and why he believes Canada will be the legacy story of this summer’s tournament.

The first major of the golfing season takes place this weekend. It's a fixture on the global event calendar, the first real harbinger of a major sporting summer, and arguably the finest example of sports marketing strategy in action.

In this episode of the Leaders Worth Knowing podcast, James Emmett is joined by MSQ Sports + Entertainment founding partner Steve Martin to pinpoint why and how the Masters has become the north star for so many sports marketers.

From the look and feel to the sport itself, the TV product and packaging, the secrecy that permeates the membership and the comms policy, the phone ban and the pimento cheese sandwiches, the less-is-more approach and the surety to stick steadfastly to a singular strategic approach, the Augusta National is home to a Masters-class on how to run an iconic global event.