Highlight Reel: Kevin Durant Partners with QSI and Paris Saint-Germain 🏀
Plus, Challenging the myth of the "lone genius,” and Preston North End cook up social-first partnership with SpudBros...
I really enjoyed this week’s podcast with Rich and Dan Parnell. His take on Network Theory sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole (and left me with a very long reading list).
It turns out ‘network’ is also the perfect theme for this week’s newsletter and probably the only way to put Kevin Durant and Preston North End into the same sentence. Both are leveraging networks in very different but very smart ways.
At Sports Pundit, we’re all about connecting the dots, too. Our Sports Pundit Summer Drinks will happen on Thursday (July 3rd), a chance to bring all you wonderful readers together again.
Hope to see lots of you there on the back of events across London like MAD// Fest, the Athlete Investment Summit, and iGB.
Now, on to this week’s stories:
Kevin Durant Partners with QSI and Paris Saint-Germain 🏀
Challenging the Myth of the “Lone Genius” 🧠
Preston North End Cook Up Social-First Partnership 🥔
Let’s get into it:
PARIS SAINT-DURANT
NBA Superstar Kevin Durant Partners with QSI and Paris Saint-Germain 🏀
Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), majority owner of Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain, has signed a strategic investment agreement with Kevin Durant, one of the NBA’s most influential figures both on and off the court.
Durant, through his media and investment platform Boardroom (co-founded with Rich Kleiman), has acquired a direct minority stake in PSG, building on his earlier involvement via Arctos Partners, also a minority shareholder in the club.
As part of the partnership, Boardroom and QSI will collaborate on a range of commercial, investment, and content initiatives.
Durant will support the club’s wider growth ambitions: co-developing branded kit and original media, advising on US and international market strategy, working with PSG’s charitable foundation.
Perhaps most notably he will also contribute to the club’s multi-sport strategy, including possible plans for basketball.
Why It Matters:
This feels like a calculated move that has huge benefits for both sides.
Sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East are increasingly seeking exposure to US-based sport assets (as we saw SURJ develop via a partnership with Enfield Investment Partners in January). For QSI, the partnership provides them with a different strategic bridge into getting that access.
Beyond access, Durant also brings cultural leverage, content firepower, and built-in audience reach. Through Boardroom, they now have a media partner with deep U.S. roots and credibility among the next generation of fans and who can both influence and amplify the narrative.
For Durant, while he’s been an active investor for some time, this deal puts sovereign capital behind him and a major European club beside him. The deal gives him a seat at the top table of sport-business strategy and the chance to shape something at significant scale, starting, most likely, with a PSG-backed franchise in the frequently-discussed NBA Europe project.
Paris would be the crown jewel of that expansion. The city already hosts regular-season NBA games, has a passionate basketball fanbase, and sits at the intersection of sport, fashion, and global culture.
LEAD, LEARN, LISTEN
🗣️ Dr Dan Parnell: The Power of Weak Ties and Challenging the Myth of the “Lone Genius” 🧠
On this week's episode of the Sports Pundit Performance Podcast, Rich was joined by Dr Dan Parnell, CEO of the Association of Sporting Directors (ASD), among other roles.
Through poignant examples and personal experiences, the conversation dives into the impact of meaningful relationships, strategic thinking, effective leadership as well as the importance of, and application of, network theory.
“Within network theory, there’s a concept called embeddedness. It highlights how our decisions, behaviours, and opportunities are shaped by the social networks we’re part of. The people around us influence what we think and do but also, to a large extent, our success. It’s not just about individual skill; it’s also about the quality and depth of our relationships. Embeddedness really stuck with me.”
This is reflected throughout Dr Parnell’s career to-date. From developing the Football Collective, a global network of football researchers, to moving the ASD from 70 members to 900 members globally.
“At the same time, there’s a sociologist called Mark Granovetter, who developed a theory called the strength of weak ties. The idea is that our most valuable opportunities don’t come from our closest relationships, but from more distant or casual connections. These weaker ties connect us to new ideas, more diverse thinking, and often, unseen or unexpected opportunities.
Together, embeddedness and the strength of weak ties are two important ideas within network theory. They challenge the myth of the lone genius and the idea that if you work hard enough, you can make it entirely on your own. Understanding these concepts helped me realise that any meaningful progress or success I’ve had hasn’t just been down to me, it’s been shaped by the people around me.
That mindset has made me think more about how we support other leaders; encouraging openness, connectivity, and collaboration. If people want to succeed, they need to nurture a strong, embedded network, while also staying open to those broader, weaker ties that can bring fresh opportunities.”
HIGHLIGHTS
Innovation
EuroLeague is expanding to 20 teams for the 2025–26 season, maintaining its full round-robin format to increase the number of games and deliver more meaningful moments for fans 🏀
Scottish Premiership Champions Celtic FC have launched “Celtic Mobile,” a club-branded mobile service powered by Acqua Telecom that blends fan affinity with telecom infrastructure in a unique new play 📲
EA SPORTS FC FUTURES has now provided grassroots football access to over 500,000 people globally, with 340,000 participants engaged in year two alone, doubling its year-on-year reach ⚽️
Marketing
David Beckham has launched BEEUP, a new line of honey-powered fruit snacks inspired by his passion for beekeeping and co-founded with brand builder Shaun Neff 🐝
AS Monaco has signed a multi-year partnership with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Sports and Leisure, aiming to deepen cultural and football ties through the “R.D.Congo, Coeur de l’Afrique” initiative 🇲🇨
LIV Golf has announced a strategic partnership with Salesforce to use AI-driven personalisation technology and enhance the fan experience across its global platform ⛳️
Media
ESPN has taken a minority stake in the Premier Lacrosse League as part of a new five-year media rights deal, which includes coverage of the upcoming Women’s Lacrosse League 🥍
Thanks to the FIFA Club World Cup, DAZN’s football YouTube channel has seen 84% of its 93 million views of the past year come in the last 28 days and has added 460,000 new subscribers in that same period 📺
The E1 Series has teamed up with Roc Nation Sports International to grow the all-electric boat racing championship’s global footprint through media, culture, and audience development 🛥️
Finance
Gareth Bale is involved in a consortium that made a formal bid to purchase Cardiff City; while the offer was rejected, interest in acquiring the club remains strong ⚽️
League One Volleyball (LOVB) has sold its first team to an ownership group including David Blitzer, Amy Griffin, and Peter Holt, reflecting growing investor confidence in women’s professional sport 🏐
Shaquille O’Neal has agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle a class action lawsuit related to his endorsement of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, with other celebrity defendants still involved 🏀
FROM TIKI-TAKA TO TIKTOK
Preston North End Cook Up Social-First Partnership with SpudBros 🥔
Preston North End have unveiled local TikTok sensation SpudBros as their new front-of-shirt sponsor for the 2025/26 season in a deal that fuses community roots with digital virality.
SpudBros was founded by Preston-born brothers Jacob and Harley Nelson, who began selling loaded fries from a converted tram in the city centre. Their mix of humour, hometown pride, and eye-popping chip portions helped them rack up 4.2 million TikTok followers, turning their food truck into a viral content brand.
Preston North End (PNE), one of England’s founding football clubs, finished 20th in the Championship last season, narrowly avoiding relegation. Like many clubs outside the Premier League, they face financial pressures and are increasingly reliant on creative commercial partnerships.
To mark the partnership, SpudBros are offering free potatoes to the first 2,000 fans who buy the club’s new home shirt at Deepdale this weekend, a nod to their roots and a smart, shareable stunt that could go viral.
Why It Matters:
It’s a mistake to see SpudBros as a local food brand. They’re better thought of as a content engine with national reach, and that makes them a valuable partner in today’s attention economy.
Their digital following rivals the club’s own, and they speak fluently to Gen Z and Gen Alpha on platforms where traditional football content often falls flat.
Not every club has the in-house firepower to become a viral content machine. But by partnering with creators who do, they can unlock a different kind of growth.
For SpudBros, it’s new assets to play with, from TikTok challenges at the training ground and behind-the-scenes club access, to giveaways, stunts, and meme-ready moments. For PNE, it’s a ready-made media partner and a massive amplification boost they’d struggle to build on their own.
🎥 SPONSORED HIGHLIGHT | Brought to you by WSC Sports
How RSNs’ Struggles Are Reshaping Team Economics
Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) are crumbling under the weight of cord-cutting. Teams are increasingly launching their own direct-to-consumer platforms.
The traditional RSN model, once a cornerstone of revenue for MLB, NBA, and NHL teams, is disintegrating.
Cord-cutting has cut cable subscriptions by more than half in the past decade, leaving RSNs like Diamond Sports Group bankrupt and forcing teams to rethink their media strategies.
With local broadcast deals under threat, teams like the Dallas Stars are already pivoting to new models like Victory+, a free, ad-supported streaming platform.
Why It Matters:
This has major implications, particularly for the likes of Major League Baseball, for instance, where local media accounts for nearly a quarter of revenue.
The solution, WSC Sports suggests, lies in building direct-to-consumer relationships and not simply putting games online, but building intuitive, reliable, tech-driven ecosystems that keep fans engaged and paying.
As Brian Rifkin, Co-Founder & SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Sports Video Group (SVG), wrote, “The key to winning the hearts and streaming minutes of loyal sports fans is to take a customer-first approach, prioritizing a seamless experience wherever they want to consume their favorite sports content.”
P.S. This is a sponsored link. Clicking it helps me show the lovely people at WSC Sports how great the Sports Pundit readership is.
GROUP CHAT
That’s a wrap for this week - huge thanks to everyone who’s part of our growing community.
A special shoutout to Soraya Selinger for her contributions this week, notably kicking off an interesting discussion around social tennis clubs emergence across London. This earns her our title of Contributor of the Week 👑🙏
Welcome to all of our new members, too:
Chad Wilton (PEAK)
Matt Williams (PEAK)
Mayowa Balogun
Not part of the group yet? What are you waiting for? Apply to join us by filling out a simple form on the website. Feel free to share this link with (your favourite) colleagues.
P.S. You can see a full list of all the current members, here.
ON THE PODCAST
#58 Rob Pilgrim: Making YouTube the Best Digital Destination for Sports Fans
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Rob Pilgrim, Head of Sport & Primetime at YouTube EMEA.
Rob has spent the last eight years leading YouTube’s end-to-end sports business across the region, from commercial deals and product launches to strategy and societal impact. He’s helped build a team that’s landed global rights deals, launched paid products like Primetime Channels, and championed the platform’s role in accelerating the growth of women’s sport.
In this conversation, we explore what that future looks like — through the lens of YouTube CEO Neal Mohan’s four big bets: AI, Creators as Studios, The Living Room, and Protecting the Creator Economy. If you care about how sport is being reshaped by platforms and creators, this one’s a must-listen.
SPORTS BUSINESS CONFERENCES
What’s Coming up This Month? 🤔 And How to Get a Discount 🎟️
This month has plenty of major conferences, from MAD// Fest, to Athlete Investor Summit, and iGB…
We’ve created a calendar featuring over 125+ industry events across the year that you can access for free here 📆
Even better, we’ve agreed discounts with many of these leading conference organisers if you book via the Sports Pundit website.
JOBS BOARD
We're not a recruitment agent, but we have created a custom search on LinkedIn to help to you to find some the most exciting job opportunities within the sports industry a little bit more easily…`