Another trio of good guests on the Columbia University Sports Podcast (the CUSP Show) that we have had in the past few months. Myself and my cohost Tom Richardson just passed our two year anniversary hosting the show from various and sundry places in and around Manhattan, and have tried to come up with a solid mix of leaders, disruptors, innovators, provocateurs and most importantly smart storytellers from projects big and small. Here is the summary and sampling compiled by colleague Jesse Leeds Grant for another three, with more to come.
You can see a list and log on to all of the 130 episodes (three more already in the can for 2019), by clicking here. Take a listen, almost all are 45 minutes or even less.
Blake Lawrence, cofounder and CEO of opendorse.
Blake Lawrence, CEO and co-founder of opendorse, for a conversation on athlete marketing. Blake is the CEO and co-founder of opendorse, an athlete endorsement company. opendorse powers the endorsement process for 3,000+ professional athletes, including all NFL Players and UFC Fighters, as part of their partnerships with the NFL Players Association and UFC. Prior to opendorse, Blake co-founded Hurrdat, a social media agency, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Over four years, Hurrdat grew from two to twenty-five employees, and was acquired in July 2014 by B2 Interactive. He now leads a growing team at opendorse, focused on building a smarter, better, faster solution for the athlete endorsement industry.
Blake talks about how Opendorse is modernizing athlete marketing and endorsements, how he is revitalizing the tech industry in Nebraska, his personal story and much more!
Some key points to listen for
“Entrepreneurship is really about solving problems, and we started a social media agency to work with athletes”.
“The growth of Instagram has been amazing for athletes, the engagement levels and metrics continue to rise. The fans are there and they are adopting the content at a higher rate”.
“Branded content on Snapchat is a challenge for athletes to turn it into monetization because of the lack of visibility and key metrics behind Snapchat”.
Listen to the whole podcast here…
Matt Restivo, the Chief Product Officer at the Action Network
Matt joins Tom to discuss his career from ESPN, NHL Digital and Bamtech Media to leading The Action Network as a pioneer app within the new world of legalized betting. Matt’s story begins with his passion for computer science and building seamless applications for the likes of heavy hitters ESPN and Bamtech Media. Now, as the Chief Product Officer at The Action Network, Matt is revolutionizing the sports gambling app.
Some key points to listen for…
“I’ve been fortunate to always play with the newest toy, I have Google Home, I have Alexa, it’s always important to be seeking and checking out the newest technology”
“API is a way for applications to communicate with a database, where user information is stored. All of these apps are communicating through the same channel, build it once and use it everywhere”.
“Providing that personalization is a big focus for us. From a product utility perspective, we are trying to give you a concise consumable way for you to understand what you should care about in the betting universe in today, a top action, a need to know”.
“If you are trying to scale a business, there needs to be an emphasis and thought about branding and shareability.”
Listen to the whole podcast here…
Peter Pilling, Director of Athletics, Columbia University
Peter talks about his time as Columbia AD, the messages he sends to recruits and their families and the changing media rights landscape for intercollegiate athletics. Learn about what it is like to navigate Ivy League athletics and hear about some future opportunities for the Athletic Department as well as the college marketing and branding business, which he helped pioneer at IMG College.
Some key points to listen for…
Columbia implements a success through well-being initiative – holistic approach to student athletes and prepares them for a career after athletics and creates a mentor relationship with industry professionals.
Collegiate athletic endowments can be used in multiple ways. Program endowment surrounding a specific sport benefits equipment, facilities etc. For example, a $5 Million endowment kicks out 5% annually – capacity to spend interest – $250,000 into equipment, facilities etc. Athletic department endowment takes holistic approach and proceeds spent for athlete resources, coaches, personnel etc.
Future trends of Esports and digital gaming in college will attract talent from Gen Z – but lots of challenges as it’s still the wild wild west, violence and gambling factors will influence the gaming industry.
Media rights process – Brown, Princeton, and Columbia ADs sit on Media Rights Committee and worked in partnership with Ivy League to negotiate media rights deal.
ESPN deal provides simplicity and accessibility of watching games across ESPNU and ESPN+. Provides alums ease of watching games, visibility and exposure for student athletes and recruits. Reach vs. revenue debate is important, goal is to get as many sports on TV as possible.
Columbia working with a data scientist and engineers from an analytics standpoint to provide student athlete support in areas of stress management, performance analytics etc.
Listen to the full episode here…
More to come…keep listening and learning!
