Highlight Reel: YouTuber Makes a Try for Rugby Broadcasting, Acquiring Pro D2 Rights 🏉
Plus, SURJ and Kings League to kick-off a MENA Edition and Airbnb make themselves at home with Tour de France Partnership...
Good morning!
Thanks to everyone who came out for drinks in London last night and to those who joined our first-ever co-working session earlier in the day. A full afternoon of Sports Pundit? Not a bad way to spend a Thursday.
Looking ahead, we’ve secured 20% off for SEG3 on 10th & 11th June, a must-attend for anyone exploring the crossover between sport, entertainment, and gaming. We’ll be there, so let us know if you’re coming along.
Now, on to this week’s stories:
YouTuber Makes a Try for Rugby Broadcasting 🏉
SURJ and Kings League to Kick-Off a MENA Edition ⚽️
Airbnb Make Themselves at Home with New Partnership 🚴♂️
Let’s get into it:
EGG-CELLENT STRATEGY
YouTuber Makes a Try for Rugby Broadcasting, Acquiring Pro D2 Rights 🏉
Tim Cocker, former BT Sport and Virgin Radio presenter, has secured the UK and Ireland streaming rights for France’s second-tier rugby league, Pro D2, and will show the games for free on YouTube on the channel FR-UK Rugby.
The deal was born from a casual conversation in a pub with Brive coach Joe Worsley and took a year to bring to life.
The deal makes Cocker the first YouTuber to officially hold rugby broadcast rights, marking a notable shift in how media rights can be distributed.
The move follows increased interest in Pro D2 from the UK thanks to players like Courtney Lawes, George North, and Jonny May joining the league.
Cocker cited both frustration with fragmented broadcast models and belief in YouTube’s community power as core motivators.
Why It Matters:
This is a genuine turning point in how sports rights are acquired and distributed. Speaking yesterday with Rob Pilgrim, Head of Sport at YouTube EMEA, he called the deal “the tip of the spear for ‘Creator as Media Company’ streaming.”
That framing matters. Platforms like YouTube are now empowering creators to act like networks by giving them the tools and confidence to acquire rights, build production value, and scale audiences around niche or underserved properties.
With more athletes and personalities building loyal followings, and with fans craving more transparent, authentic content, this creator-led model is only going to become increasingly common, either through outright rights ownership or collaboration with broadcasters.
SURJING PARTICIPATION
SURJ Sports Investment and Kings League to Kick-Off a MENA Edition in Saudi Arabia ⚽📲
Kings League MENA will launch later this year in the Kingdom, becoming the format’s seventh global league following expansions into Spain, Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, and Germany.
The league blends competitive 7-a-side football with gamified rules and creator-led teams, engaging under-30 audiences through open tryouts, draft-style team selection, and live-streamed drama.
SURJ Sports Investment, led by Danny Townsend, is backing the venture as part of a broader strategy to grow youth-driven sports IPs and long-term commercial platforms in the region.
With over 7 billion impressions and 400M+ engagements in 2024, Kings League is one of global sport’s most engaging digital-first formats — now aiming to localise that success in MENA.
Why It Matters:
Kings League’s hybrid of sport and entertainment is tailor-made for Saudi Arabia’s under-30 majority, which makes up nearly 70 percent of the population. It makes perfect sense that SURJ would support something that is digital-first, youth-led, and culturally attuned.
One of Kings League’s biggest global opportunities, and a key pillar of SURJ’s approach, lies in participation. This is where the most value can be created on both sides. It is also where the biggest opportunity for meaningful innovation exists.
As I said recently on the Sports Pundit podcast, “[Kings League] have nailed entertainment, but there is still room for growth in how they build a participation base around their version of the sport.” This investment gives them the chance to do exactly that.
🎥 SPONSORED HIGHLIGHT | Brought to you by WSC Sports
You Need to Increase Your Output, Now 📈
The content race isn’t slowing down. It’s accelerating and fast.
A recent survey by 10Fold found that nearly all marketing teams are producing more content than ever. Over half reported a 3–10x increase in output compared to the previous year.
Why? Because the platforms demand it and the fans expect it.
TikTok, once barely a player in sport, now calls itself “the home of sports fandom.” And it’s not just talk. Sports content is now some of the highest-value, most consumed content on the internet.
WSC Sports analysed data across more than 550 top rights holders and found a 97% increase in content output per game since 2020.
If you’re still creating content the way you did three years ago, you’re falling behind. The volume is rising. The formats are shifting. The fan expectations have changed.
The latest WSC Sports report shows how leading organisations are scaling content efficiently, creatively, and in real time.
HIGHLIGHTS
Innovation
Borussia Dortmund have signed a new main sponsorship deal with Vodafone starting in the 2025/26 season. Beyond shirt sponsorship, the partnership will include joint innovation and technology initiatives to deliver new digital fan experiences in-stadium, through the club’s app, and in everyday life.
Adobe and Coca-Cola have launched Project Fizzion, embedding AI-powered brand intelligence into tools like Photoshop and Firefly. The initiative aims to maintain brand consistency at scale without sacrificing creative freedom.
Cricket Australia has launched CrowdCatch, a new fan activation platform that enables sponsors to run targeted campaigns across its digital ecosystem, engaging audiences where 70% of marketing spend now takes place.
Finance
Major League Baseball has invested over $10 million in Athletes Unlimited’s new softball league, helping drive visibility for women’s sports and expanding youth engagement ahead of its June 7 debut season.
Supertri is in talks to raise $65 million to acquire up to 50 additional events in the US, Europe and the Middle East. Half of that money is understood to already be assured with the remaining $30 million expected to be secured by September.
The Red Bull Italy SailGP Team has officially been acquired by a consortium of investors and sports industry leaders, including Hollywood royalty, Anne Hathaway.
Marketing
Formula 1 has named PepsiCo as an official global partner in a multi-year agreement, bringing brands like Doritos, Gatorade, and Sting into the sport's commercial ecosystem.
Lewis Hamilton partners with AI search startup Perplexity to champion curiosity, speed, and precision in a collaboration bridging sport and emerging tech.
Chelsea FC Women have partnered with British jewellery brand D.LOUISE, becoming the club’s first official jewellery partner. The collaboration has arrived fresh from the team’s domestic treble-winning and unbeaten campaign.
Media
Amazon Prime Video attracted over 13 million viewers across the UK and Ireland for the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League season, signalling its growing influence in live sports broadcasting.
On the back of playing a starring role in MrBeast's latest 1v1 challenge, Formula E driver Dan Ticktum has launched a personal YouTube vlog series.
MrBeast's recent YouTube video, featuring challenges between professional athletes like Serena Williams and Neymar and amateur participants, has garnered 37 million views in its first 24 hours.
GRAND TOUR
Airbnb Make Themselves at Home with Tour de France Experience-Focused Partnership 🚴♂️
Fresh off the global relaunch of its Experiences platform, Airbnb has signed a three-year deal with the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as official partner through 2027.
The partnership will activate hundreds of curated Airbnb Experiences along the Tour route, from local food tours and heritage workshops to behind-the-scenes access with cycling legends like Thomas Voeckler and Stephanie Scheirlynck.
Airbnb Originals will feature one-off events, including a cycling masterclass and VIP final stage ride hosted by Mark Cavendish at Paris’ Grand Palais.
With 100,000+ listings along the route and 10 million roadside spectators, Airbnb is positioning itself as the go-to trip-planning platform for race fans.
The initiative supports rural tourism and grassroots communities, aligning with Airbnb’s strategy to drive economic value across France’s 29,000+ communes.
Why It Matters:
Experiences and hospitality have long been part of sports sponsorship, especially on the B2B side. But what stands out here is the flexibility shown by the Tour de France and its organiser, ASO, in co-creating inventory that aligns directly with Airbnb’s brand priorities rather than simply slotting the company into a pre-set package.
This isn’t about media value alone. It’s about designing bespoke activations that speak to Airbnb’s core value proposition: connecting people to local culture, travel, and community.
It’s a sign of maturity in rights-holder strategy: moving from fixed assets to fluid collaboration, where the platform and the sponsor work together to create shared value. In a noisy sponsorship landscape, that kind of integration is increasingly what separates meaningful partnerships from forgettable ones.
GROUP CHAT
That’s a wrap for this week - huge thanks to everyone who’s part of our growing community.
A special shoutout to Tom Murton for his contributions this week, notably for helping to organise our first Sports Pundit co-working event ahead of the evening social in London. This earns him our title of Contributor of the Week 👑🙏
Welcome to all of our new members, too:
Alessandro Gramaglia (Portas Consulting)
Joachim Maiye (DAZN)
Tom Fox (53Six)
Sam Postlethwaite (Edelman)
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
#55 Rich Buchanan: Bridging the Gap Between the Boardroom and the Dressing Room
On today’s episode, I’m joined by Rich Buchanan, a leading voice in performance strategy and one of the most thoughtful minds working at the intersection of elite sport, data, and leadership.
Rich spent nearly two decades in the trenches of professional football, first as a physio, then as Performance Director for Swansea City during their Premier League run. He’s since held roles with the Premier League, DC United, and Zone7, and now advises sports tech companies and delivers leadership masterclasses on how to embed high-performance cultures that actually work.
Today’s episode is a little different. It’s not just a conversation - it’s an announcement. Rich will be hosting a brand new spin-off of this podcast, The Sports Pundit Performance Podcast, a five-episode mini-series bridging the gap between the boardroom and the changing room.
In this episode, we introduce the series, unpack Rich’s journey through performance, and talk honestly about where the industry is heading next and what needs to change.
SPORTS BUSINESS CONFERENCES
What’s Coming up This Month? 🤔 And How to Get a Discount 🎟️
This month has plenty of major conferences, from Middle East Sports Investment Forum in London, SXSW, SEG3, and SportAccord
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. For example, we’re offering 20% off SEG3 in London! Use the link below to view and book.
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…`