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Want to learn more about the most talked about topics and trends in the sports business industry from the sports business executives who run it?Join Next League’s CEO David Nugent, a sports technology industry veteran and thought leader with over 20 years experience in the ever-changing technology services business. Tune in every week for insightful and engaging discussions on everything from artificial intelligence and fan engagement to the changing media landscape and the growth of women’s sports with the sports industry’s leading executives. For more on Next League, visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn.
From World Cup Momentum to Media Rights: Heidi Pellerano on Concacaf’s Commercial Model
Football across North America, Central America, and the Caribbean is entering a rare moment of opportunity with a World Cup on home soil, growing domestic leagues, emerging national teams, and increasing global attention.
Heidi Pellerano, Chief Commercial Officer at Concacaf, joins Dave to explain what it means to commercialize a confederation made up of 41 member associations operating in dramatically different markets. She shares how Concacaf thinks about creating value across media, sponsorship, ticketing, licensing, and content while ensuring that commercial success ultimately helps strengthen the football itself.
Heidi also reflects...
The “Share the Gains” Strategy Behind Drew Sheinman’s Sports Private Equity Firm
Money keeps pouring into sports, much of it chasing the same assets: teams, leagues, and media rights. Drew Sheinman, Founding Partner at Brand Velocity Group, is investing around them instead, with a model that gives 10% of his firm’s carried interest to the employees of the companies it buys.
Drew joins Dave to explain how BVG works as an independent sponsor instead of a traditional fund, raising capital deal by deal from institutions, family offices, and athletes. He draws on a career spent on nearly every side of sports, from team ownership and Madison Sq...
The U.S. Open Tech Strategy: Temporary Infrastructure, AI, and 50TB of Championship Data
A U.S. Open can bring more than 200,000 fans to a golf course with no permanent network, limited infrastructure, and none of the technology you would expect at a major stadium. Anthony Santora, Managing Director of IT at the USGA, joins Dave to explain how his team turns that into a functioning championship operation.
Anthony walks through what happens months before the first fan arrives, from planning the network and monitoring critical systems to deploying hundreds of access points and televisions during a compressed “advance week.” He also explains why the hardest part of cham...
How NASCAR Is Using Netflix, YouTube, and Fan Data to Grow Fandom with Tim Clark
NASCAR has spent years experimenting with new platforms, content formats, race environments, and ways to understand its fans. But one of its biggest lessons has been knowing what NOT to change.
Tim Clark, EVP and Chief Brand Officer at NASCAR, joins Dave to talk about the tension at the center of modern fan engagement: evolving how people discover, experience, and interact with a sport without losing the identity that made its most loyal fans care in the first place. He shares how NASCAR is thinking differently about content distribution, gaming, live events, and the...
The Business of Olympic Sports: Julie Swarts on Funding, Leadership, and Athlete Support
Julie Fabsik-Swarts has spent her career on the much less visible side of sports: the funding, governance, safety, officiating, and infrastructure that determine whether athletes and entire sports have the opportunity to succeed.
As President and CEO of the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association, Julie shares her learnings across gymnastics, Olympic and amateur sports, nonprofits, athlete safety, and now scuba diving.
There are very different realities facing smaller sports organizations, and leaders may be simultaneously trying to grow participation, support elite athletes, raise money, manage boards, a...
30,000 Shots, One Fan Experience: Dave Giancola on AI, Data, and the USGA
Golf may be one of the most complicated sports to produce digitally and on television. Every championship takes place on a different course, across hundreds of acres, with dozens of players competing simultaneously — and the USGA has to deliver that experience across broadcast, streaming, mobile, and digital products.
Dave Giancola, Senior Director of Global Media at the USGA, joins Dave to talk about how his role evolved from broadcast into a broader global media function spanning both traditional coverage and fan-facing digital products. He shares how the USGA thinks about connecting its 15 national championships, ex...
How to Design Better Digital Products in Sports [REPLAY]
How do sports teams achieve faster alignment, fewer reworks, and digital products that move from idea to launch more reliably?
Bora Nikolic’s views of technology in the sports industry have helped shape many of the fan experiences you see from leading sports properties today. And today, he’s challenging the idea that design is about aesthetics, arguing instead that it’s an execution discipline.
Dave and Bora look ahead at what’s changing, from accessibility, to AI accelerating how teams research, prototype, and align across functions. Bora also shares why the next phase of fan e...
Building Fandom Without a Stadium: Kara Baker on TGL’s Shared-Services Model
With WTGL preparing to launch this November, TMRW Sports is scaling a shared-services model built to run team operations more efficiently than teams could on their own, and confronting a structural challenge: how do you build fan affinity for a team with no home arena?
Kara Baker, VP of Team Marketing and Business Operations at TMRW Sports, joins Dave to talk about her multidisciplinary career, how TMBO evolved as teams scaled, why some teams tap into ownership groups' existing infrastructure while others rely entirely on the league, and what she's...
What Makes a Sports Tech Business “Exitable” with Igor Ulis [REPLAY]
What REALLY makes a business worth buying, and what should founders actually optimize for?
In this candid conversation, Dave sits down with longtime friend and former business partner Igor Ulis, partner at Hudson Technology Systems. Igor traces his path from “dumb kid in college” who thought writing code was enough to get rich in the dot-com boom, to building and scaling a global sports technology services company that ultimately sold to Infront.
Dave and Igor get into the mechanics of valuation in the real world — multiples on revenue vs. profit, the importance of cash generati...
Can Data Change Who Gets Considered for the Heisman? with Jeff Price
The Heisman Trophy is one of the most recognizable symbols in college sports. Now, as college athletics undergoes massive structural change, the organization behind the trophy is entering a new era of its own.
Jeff Price, CEO of Heisman, joins Dave to share how his background across the NBA, Gatorade, Mastercard, Sports Illustrated, and the PGA of America prepared him to lead an iconic brand through its next phase of growth.
Jeff discusses the changing college sports landscape, purpose-driven partnerships, and why philanthropy remains central to...
The Human Side of Modern Sports Leadership with Andrew Siegel [REPLAY]
In an industry being reshaped by NIL, the transfer portal, and private capital, one question is becoming unavoidable: how do leaders make principled decisions when everything feels up for grabs?
Investor Andrew Siegel breaks down what leaders in sports and tech often underestimate, like the emotional complexity of teams, the tension between performance and values, and how managing people becomes exponentially harder when competition, money, and public scrutiny intensify.
Drawing on his experience spanning venture investing, media, hospitality, and board leadership, alongside his academic background in philosophy and religion, Andrew shares why leadership ultimately...
The $1.3B Stadium Strategy: Personalization, Friction, and Fan Engagement
Bank of America Stadium is undergoing a $1.3 billion renovation, but Tepper Sports & Entertainment isn’t just thinking about new seats. The bigger question is, what will get fans off the couch and into a stadium in 2030?
Bryan Lodigiani, VP of Business Strategy and Analytics, talks to Dave about why personalization and creating experiences fans can’t get at home are shaping the renovation. He also shares how TSE uses data to understand the surprisingly different audiences behind the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC.
Bryan breaks down wher...
How a College Project Became SBJ's Sports Tech of the Year with Antyush Bollini
A tablet that turns basketball into vibrations sounds like a novelty. Today, roughly half the NBA carries one, and Ticketmaster is footing the bill.
In this conversation, OneCourt co-founder and COO Antyush Bollini explains how a college project became Sports Business Journal’s Sports Technology of the Year, and how partnerships with leagues, clubs, and brands helped the company reach the market.
Antyush also shares what OneCourt learned from its earliest pilot with the Portland Trail Blazers, how the company is approaching media and tracking-data rights, and...
From Game Day Utility to Lifelong Fandom: George Scott on the Future of College Sports Apps
Sidearm Sports powers the digital experience for the vast majority of major college athletics programs, but George Scott believes the next challenge is much bigger than publishing scores, schedules, and game recaps.
With roughly 85% of Power Four schools and 90% of Division I programs in its network, Sidearm occupies a unique position in the college sports landscape. George joins Dave to trace his path from Fans Only and the NFL to YinzCam and Sidearm, and explains how those experiences shaped his view of digital fandom.
George offers a behind-the-scenes l...
Curling's $11.2M Bet: How Nic Sulsky Bought a Sport to Rebuild It
What happens when an entrepreneur recognizes that one of the world’s most-watched Olympic sports has never been built to maximize its global audience?
Nic Sulsky saw an established sport with elite international athletes and a premier competition that fans outside Canada could not easily watch. After acquiring the Grand Slam of Curling, his team launched Rock Channel, created the mixed-gender Rock League, built a live data infrastructure, and raised $11.2 million to begin connecting the sport’s media, events, athletes, sponsors, and fans.
In this conversation, Nic explains why The Curl...
The 'Free Agent Fan' Strategy That Doubled the Nets' Fan Base with Darolyn Pierce
What happens when you stop benchmarking yourself against other teams and start borrowing ideas from Apple, Google, and Netflix instead?
Darolyn Pierce leads three distinct functions at Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (consumer research, advanced analytics, and sales enablement) – with her team shifting in real time between Liberty ticket performance, renewal risk, NPS feedback, arena experience, Nets fan segmentation, and next-season planning.
In this conversation, she explains how that constant overlap shapes decision-making, why her team is trying to push beyond what other clubs are already doing, and how she earned the tru...
Sports Fans Have Changed. Has Sports? with Alden Mitchell
College athletics, media, and technology are all being forced to reinvent themselves at the same time. Alden Mitchell has spent her career navigating exactly those industry shifts at Disney, MTV, Uber, the Pac-12, Stanford Athletics, and now TrailRunner Sports.
In this conversation, Alden shares why college athletics is being forced to operate more like a business, what sports still misunderstands about consumer behavior, and how technology can transform fan engagement. She also explains why strategic communications has become a business function, and why relationships are the most valuable investment you'll make in...
Best Of: Inside Cosm's New Category of Live Sports
The company that invented the first VR headset in 1968 is now powering one of the most talked about venues in sports. In this Best Of episode, we’re revisiting conversations with Cosm President Jeb Terry and Chief Product & Technology Officer Devin Poolman on how a 60-year-old planetarium heritage, an LED dome bigger than anything in the market, and 425 live sports productions a year add up to a category nobody else is building.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
How Cosm produces more than 425 live sporting events every year...Best Of: How the USGA Runs 15 Championships Without a Home Venue
From record participation among women and junior golfers to new technology platforms, major investments in player development, and a reimagined fan experience, the USGA is helping shape what the next generation of golf looks like.
In this episode, we’re talking to Chief Commercial Officer Jon Podany and Managing Director of Global Ticketing & Media Amanda Weiner about the Women's Open's rapid rise and the U.S. National Development Program to ShotLink, ticketing innovation, and the technology strategies designed to make golf more engaging and inclusive.
In this episode, you’ll hear...
How the UFL Built a Live Football Lab for ESPN, Fox, and Tech Startups with Scott Harniman
Most sports technology companies spend years trying to get access to a live game environment. The UFL can put them in front of 600 players, coaches, officials, and broadcast operators in a matter of weeks.
As SVP of Innovation and Media, Scott Harniman oversees the technology, broadcast, and football systems that make the UFL's innovation model possible.
Scott explains how the UFL's FAST program works, why ESPN and Fox are active participants in the league's tech incubation process, and how a centralized football operation allows the league to test emerging technologies...
SBJ Tech Week: Sports Leaders on Big Ideas, AI Prompts, and What's Next
What patterns start to emerge when you put 10 sports tech leaders in front of a microphone at SBJ Tech Week and ask them what's next?
While AI was a common thread, the discussions expanded into operational scale, fan engagement, accessibility, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and the leadership challenges that come with adopting new technology.
This episode features the following guests:
Michael Zeto, Boingo WirelessDiana Lovati, AEG WorldwideAntyush Bollini, OneCourtJess Smith, Golden State...How Flywheel Economics Are Reshaping Sports Businesses with Steve Mitzenmacher
Steve Mitzenmacher spent 25 years inside Apple, Oracle, Google, and Salesforce. Now he's helping sports organizations stop thinking like event businesses and start operating like platforms.
Steve and Dave get into the Disney flywheel, and why it’s the most useful mental model for sports executives right now, the “buy vs. build” trap, why "greenfield development" is basically a myth, and what it means to own the critical control points between fans, sponsors, and partners.
Steve also explains why leadership styles are changing inside technology companies, why Scott Galloway's "don't follow your p...
Why the NFL and PGA Tour Are Betting on TMRW Sports to Build New Fandom
The NFL didn't build the next professional flag football league. The PGA Tour didn't build TGL. They handed those assignments to a startup called TMRW Sports - a signal of how leagues are rethinking fan engagement, media, and product development.
Chief Marketing Officer Pete Jung is on the show to share what changes when leagues stop treating technology as a layer on top of the product and start building the experience around data, immersion, team identity, and modern media behavior from day one.
In this conversation, Pete draws on his 11 y...
500 Live Events a Month: What Jon Slusser Has Learned About AI, Mixed Reality, & Sports Tech
When The Famous Group was getting started, arenas were buying million-dollar video boards with nothing meaningful to put on them. That gap became a business — and 25 years later, that business now powers more than 500 live sports events a month across nearly every major team in the country.
In this conversation, Jon shares how The Famous Group evolved from a creative production shop into mixed reality, virtual fan experiences, and Vixi, and how they built a scalable platform without taking on outside investment. He also offers a grounded take on where AI genuinely helps in live production wo...
What It Takes to Turn a Women's Soccer Club Around with Ryan Dillon of Gotham FC
When Ryan Dillon joined Gotham FC as Chief Business Officer 2.5 years ago, he walked into what he describes as a distressed asset. A fully remote workforce, a league starved of investment, and a club with no real product discipline to speak of.
What followed was 2 championships in 3 years and triple the revenue, all built on a framework Ryan carried over from 6 years at Peloton: obsess over the product, track NPS, and make winning the foundation everything else sits on.
In this episode, Ryan breaks down how they use first-party data a...
How CAA Sports Navigates Talent Value, Creators, and Streaming Platforms with Matt Kramer
Sports media is becoming defined by the people who keep fans engaged between games: the insiders breaking news, athletes building their own platforms, and creators turning digital audiences into real media businesses.
Matt Kramer, Co-Head of Sports Media Group at CAA Sports, shares how an unexpected call from Adrian Wojnarowski helped launch his career as a sports media agent, why he sees representation as a relationship-driven service business, and how CAA evaluates talent across broadcasters, athletes, streamers, and creators like Dude Perfect.
He also explains why the next wave of NFL media rights could r...
How the USGA Delivers Championships and Fan Experiences with Amanda Weiner
The USGA operates one of the most complex models in sports, delivering global championships, media, and fan experiences without a fixed venue.
Amanda Weiner, Managing Director of Global Media and Ticketing at the USGA, oversees a broad portfolio spanning championships, media rights, digital products, and ticketing.
She explains how these functions are coordinated to deliver consistent fan experiences across changing venues, including their new partnership with SeatGeek, while also sharing her perspective on leadership and the growth of women’s golf.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
Best Of: The Business of Sports Technology
This compilation episode brings together perspectives from senior leaders across leagues, teams, media, and technology, including the NBA, NASCAR, MLB, the USOPC, and emerging platforms like Cosm.
Plus, Dave’s book is out today. Get your copy of The Business of Sports Technology for a practical guide to making smarter, ROI-driven technology decisions.
This episode features the following guests:
The Next Chapter of the New York City Marathon with Juliette Morris
The New York City Marathon is the largest marathon in the world, drawing more than 50,000 runners and millions of spectators annually.
As the race approaches its 50th anniversary, it’s evolving into a year-round platform spanning digital engagement, community programming, and global scale.
Juliette Morris, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer at New York Road Runners, talks with Dave about how the organization is aligning brand, technology, and content to support runners and spectators across the full lifecycle. She outlines the integration of digital products, the role of personalization and AI, an...
Inside US Soccer's 300% Growth Ahead of the 2026 World Cup with David Wright
US Soccer is heading into a defining stretch, and David Wright is helping shape what comes next. As Chief Commercial Officer, he sits at the center of it all, from partnerships and media to events, marketing, and business ventures.
In this conversation, he breaks down how US Soccer has grown its business more than 300% in a short period of time and why its nonprofit structure has become a real differentiator in the market.
David also shares how they’re preparing for the 2026 World Cup, the commercial strategy behind US Soccer’s par...
How the Sports Industry Is Rethinking Its Talent Pipeline with Scott Rosner
Scott Rosner collected hundreds of rejection letters he got trying to break into sports. And it shaped exactly how he thinks about the candidates knocking on Columbia's door today.
Private capital has rewritten ownership, NIL and conference realignment have blown up college athletics, and AI is changing how every function operates. The curriculum can't look the same as it did ten years ago.
As Program Director of the Sports Management program, Scott believes the industry needs people who can think across disciplines, absorb disruption, and figure things out when there's no playbook. His graduates...
Why San Diego FC Treats Its Academy Like a Capital Investment
San Diego FC is only a few years old, but COO Bill Miles and his team are already taking an ambitious approach to building a modern soccer club.
In this episode, Bill shares why San Diego FC is betting on a long-term, academy-first model, what makes the club’s ownership structure so distinctive, and why San Diego is uniquely positioned to become one of the most important soccer markets in the United States.
You’ll also hear what it takes to build a fan base from scratch, how technology and AI can help clubs creat...
The New Operating Model for Live Sports with Jeb Terry
Live sports is evolving beyond the traditional broadcast model. New venue formats, new production workflows, and new distribution strategies are reshaping how fans experience games outside the home.
The question is no longer how to enhance the fan experience, but how do we redesign the operating model behind it?
Jeb Terry, CEO of Cosm, joins Dave to explain how Cosm is combining dome-scale LED immersion, hospitality, and a purpose-built production approach that produces hundreds of live events a year.
They also zoom out to the broader industry shifts shaping the opportunity, while...
The Gap Between AI Hype and What Actually Works in Sports with Scott Gutterman
If you’re going to talk about generative AI in sports, don’t start with the tools. Start with the operating model. Are you structured to deploy it at scale?
Scott Gutterman is back, drawing on two decades of experience inside one of the most complex sports in the world. His lens is operational. How do you prioritize? How do you govern? How do you create space for innovation without introducing chaos?
From there, Scott and Dave get tactical on AI — including what sports leaders often misunderstand, why most organizations stall after early pilots, and wh...
Inside Barclays Center’s Push to Scale AI and Facial Authentication with Keia Cole
Digital transformation in sports only works when the fan journey is treated as a SYSTEM. And what does it actually look like inside a multi-team, multi-venue sports organization?
In this episode, Keia Cole shares how Brooklyn Sports + Entertainment operates when one leader owns cybersecurity, data and insights, web and mobile, AND venue systems across the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty, and Barclays Center.
We also dive into how they adopted Wicket facial recognition technology and why embedding AI into their daily workflows is reshaping roles faster than ever.
In this episode, you’ll...
What It Takes to Modernize Youth Sports at Scale with Sameer Ahuja
Youth sports operates at a scale few people realize, with millions of games, volunteer-run teams, and technology that has to work for everyone from coaches to grandparents.
GameChanger CEO Sameer Ahuja is here to walk through how the company approaches those challenges, and how that thinking shaped their most significant product update in its 15-year history.
He shares how GameChanger has leaned into a mobile-first, automation-driven approach to serve millions of teams, how AI is being applied in practical ways, the long-term vision for athlete profiles, and how privacy and trust shape every product...
Best Of: USOPC and Team USA on the Road to LA 2028
What does it take to build Team USA in a rapidly changing global, political, and digital landscape? In this Best Of episode, USOPC leaders Sarah Hirshland and Katie Bynum Aznavorian are breaking down how Olympic success is engineered, the road to Milano Cortina and LA 2028, the role of storytelling and personalization, and how they’re evolving fan engagement.
You’ll hear from the following guests:
In this episode, you’ll hear:
Why p...How to Design Better Digital Products in Sports
How do sports teams achieve faster alignment, fewer reworks, and digital products that move from idea to launch more reliably?
Bora Nikolic’s views of technology in the sports industry have helped shape many of the fan experiences you see from leading sports properties today. And today, he’s challenging the idea that design is about aesthetics, arguing instead that it’s an execution discipline.
Dave and Bora look ahead at what’s changing, from accessibility, to AI accelerating how teams research, prototype, and align across functions. Bora also shares why the next phase of fan e...
Why the 360° Fan View Is Broken and How Jordy Leiser Is Rethinking Sports Ticketing
If your organization is still talking about a “360° fan view,” chances are your technology stack is already working against you. Jordy Leiser, Co-Founder and CEO at Jump, argues most clubs are stuck with disjointed legacy systems that are blocking direct-to-fan experiences, especially in ticketing, identity, and mobile.
Jump was built to unify those layers into a single, seamless ecosystem so clubs can operate with the speed and personalization fans expect today.
Jordy explains what it looks like to move off legacy infrastructure using Jump’s Minnesota Timberwolves rollout as a real-world example: a full transitio...
What esports and Creators Reveal About the Future of Sports with Pete Vlastelica
Power in sports is becoming more distributed, and Pete Vlastelica has seen that shift from nearly every angle: early digital media, league operations, esports, and now venture investing.
In this conversation, Pete reflects on how operating through multiple cycles of disruption shapes judgment, partnerships, and long-term strategy in sports and technology. You’ll hear about the operating lessons he carried from building Yardbarker in the early days of user-generated sports content, scaling digital platforms at Fox Sports, and helping professionalize esports at Activision Blizzard.
Pete and Dave also explore what those experiences sig...
