The Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast by Marcus Luer
Episodes
Friday Jun 26, 2020
Andrew Collins, Being a Laowai Entrepreneur in China
Friday Jun 26, 2020
Friday Jun 26, 2020
Andrew Collins, came to China as a true Laowai (Alien) and made it, building the biggest Sports Digital Media Consulting business in the country and is now taking it globally. Amazing stories of how he got started, stuck with it despite all the challenges and made it work.
Key Highlights
How Andrew got started as an Entrepreneur winning a University competition and catching the China bug early
Never wanting a full time job, lessons from Jack Morton, sold his small retail business and decided to move to China
Dream was starting a publishing business (in China), bought a company called Mailman in Shanghai which was an old postcard media sales business, losing money and owned by another foreigner
The journey from Mailman’s original business to becoming a powerhouse in Sports Social Media consulting (Mailman & Seven League)
Great examples of Mailman’s work and clients across Leagues, teams, athletes, sponsors
China Social Media and new digital platforms in China from Short form video (from Douyin (Tiktok), IQIYI, Huya, Douyu to Youku)
Demand for long form sports content for the top sports (Premier League & NBA) is safe but there are challenges for everyone else.
The power of Chinese KOL/Influencers and Live Streaming platforms
Esports in China and his views on E-gaming/Esports ecosystem in general
Mobile Only culture
Defining moments of being a Laowai Entrepreneur in China
Raising US$ 30 mil in 2016 for global expansion & future plans & final lessons
A bit about TSA
About
Andrew grew up in Wodonga, where he attended Wodonga Secondary College with his 2 brothers Sean and Liam.
Following high school Andrew moved to Melbourne to study business and media at Swinburne University where he completed his Bachelors degree. While at Swinburne he completed a semester abroad at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. At university Andrew was very active, leading international student excursions, working at the University gym, playing Football, tennis and in his final year setting up a small, yet profitable import and retail business.
Andrew finished his studies with the Swinburne Chancellor Award for most outstanding entrepreneur with a $10,000 award and participated in a global technology summit in Singapore and Shanghai. It was on this trip which transformed Andrew’s view on the world and inspired the passion to build a career in Asia. With studies complete, Andrew began working part time for a global experiential marketing company Jack Morton. Worldwide, where Andrew supported on business development while also continuing to manage the retail business.
In 2005 Andrew sold the retail business, gave notice at Jack Morton and headed on a solo back-packing adventure around the world. He visited North America, Europe and Asia and developed a passion for travel.
Upon returning to Australia, no job, no business - Andrew decided he would explore setting up a company in Shanghai in media and publishing.
After 18 months of travel to China, 100’s of meetings with senior business owners and expatriates in the region he agreed to purchase a small little known media consulting business Mailman Ltd.
In 2007, as the new CEO of Mailman, Andrew moved to Shanghai to begin his next chapter. The company had 4 staff, was losing money, yet Andrew was optimistic he could turn it around.
After several years of trial and error, as Andrew and his new team developed capabilities in digital marketing with a focus on sports. Andrew repositioned the company, refined the brand and began a years long strategy to build credibility with the world’s leading sports organisations.
By 2016, Mailman was considered the leader across China, serving many of the worlds most iconic sports organisations including the NFL, UFC, Kobe Bryant, Cristiano Ronalda, Manchester United and more.
In early 2017 the company raised over US$25m from leading Chinese investors Yao Captial, Kaixin Capital, and WeCapital. With this capital the group continued to grow services, product lines and expansion geographically.
In 2018, Mailman acquired Seven League, at the time Europes leading sports digital consultancy. With this acquisition the group had a strong footprint across Asia and Europe.
Now, in 2020 Mailman is the world’s leading sports digital consultancy and agency. With over 200 staff across Europe, China, USA and Asia, the group serves over 100 international sporting organisations, athletes and teams across 54 global markets now including Chelsea FC, FIFA, NBA, Los Angeles Lakers, Juventus FC and more.
Andrew is considered one of the top 40 digital people in Asia, won multiple awards in entrepreneurship and innovation. He has appeared in Bloomberg, Fox, CNN, Fast Company, and Forbes and is widely recognised as a pioneer in the sports and digital industries in China and APAC.
-----------------------------------------------If you are enjoying the Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast (SEP) series, check out our Sports Entrepreneurs Mastermind (SEM) sessions too.
The SEM sessions are an extension of the SEP series, where we bring experts from around the world together for 1.5-2 hours of brainstorming, learning, discussion and connecting. It’s a live online round table format, moderated by Marcus Luer which includes a short presentation by him to set up the topic of the session and then the members will discuss, share their thoughts, ask questions and debate the topic. The direction of the discussion is truly influenced by the participants of the given session. It’s a fascinating learning experience for everyone involved. Come join us for future sessions by getting on our mailing list. Please register HERE-----------------------------------------------Follow us on our social sites for the latest updatesInstagram: https://lnkd.in/ferKA6NFacebook: https://lnkd.in/fw7Z_9hLinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/fVQzNj5Website: https://marcusluer.comhttps://marcusluer.comhttps://marcusluer.com/mastermind
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Sunday Jun 21, 2020
Rainer Schuettler, From Top Tennis Pro to Entrepreneur
Sunday Jun 21, 2020
Sunday Jun 21, 2020
Rainer has lived the dream of any young boy/girl who grew up playing and loving the sport of tennis. From starting at the age of 10 to going Pro at 18/19, getting to a Grand Slam Final, cracking the top 5 ATP Tour ranking and retiring with an amazing career behind him at they age of 36 and then becoming an Entrepreneur by buying a license for an ATP event. Rainer has lived it and been there and is sharing his thoughts, emotions and learning from his amazing tennis journey.
Key Highlights
Tennis professional by mistake – started playing at age 10
At 16-17 starting to take it serious, playing ITF Junior Tournaments around the world, getting on Junior World Ranking
His coach, Dirk Hordorff was instrumental in taking pressure off him and setting him up for a successful transition from Junior to professional player
Making the ATP Ranking at the age of 18-19
Learning from losing & winning, always look where you want to be 6 months in the future, improved ranking 11 years in a row
Dealing with losing every week (at least once)
Started early to learn other business beyond tennis from Coach
Toughest loss – becomes winning the Silver Medal in Doubles at the Olympics with Nicolas Kiefer later
Learning for business from his tennis career
Taking over the ATP World Team Cup in Duesseldorf, now ATP 250 event in Geneva, partnered with Ion Tiriac
His event also a Covid-19 victim and learning from this
Thoughts on tennis and the rest of the season
Life now, German Fed Cup Captain, his own event, attending the Grand Slams, etc
About
Rainer Schüttler is a retired German professional tennis player. As of 2019, he is the most recent male German player to reach the singles final of a Grand Slam tournament, finishing as runner-up at the 2003 Australian Open. Schüttler also won a silver medal in doubles at the 2004 Summer Olympics and achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 5 in April 2004.
He began playing tennis at the age of nine. He resides in Switzerland.
In 2003, Schüttler became the first German since Boris Becker in 1989 to advance to the fourth round at all Grand Slams. He became the first German to reach a Grand Slam final, at the Australian Open, since Michael Stich was the runner-up at Roland Garros in 1996. En route to the final, which he lost in straight sets to Andre Agassi, he defeated Andy Roddick who would end the season as world No 1.
In 2004, Schüttler reached his first career ATP Masters Series final in Monte Carlo by beating Gustavo Kuerten in the first round, Lleyton Hewitt in the third round, Tim Henman in the quarterfinal and Carlos Moyá in the semifinal. In the final, he lost to Guillermo Coria. That week, he would reach a career-high ranking of No. 5. Schüttler won a silver medal for Germany in men's doubles with partner Nicolas Kiefer at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. 2004 was the sixth straight year in which he finished in the ATP top 50.
Schüttler reached his first career semifinal at Wimbledon by beating Santiago Ventura, James Blake, Guillermo García-López, Janko Tipsarević, and Arnaud Clément 6–3, 5–7, 7–6, 6–7, 8–6. His match with Clément was over five hours, completed in two days to reach the semifinals, in which Schuettler saved a match point at 6–5 down in the fifth set. He was defeated by eventual champion Rafael Nadal 1–6, 6–7, 4–6. His achievement was a big surprise, since he entered the tournament ranked 94th and with a streak of 13 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments without making it past the second round.
His 2009 season, Schüttler started off at the Chennai Open, beating Prakash Amritraj 6–2, 4–6, 6–1. In the second round, he beat Simon Greul 6–4, 6–2, and in the quarterfinals Björn Phau, 6–2, 7–5. Unfortunately Schuettler had to withdraw from his semifinal match against Somdev Devvarman because of a wrist injury. He also withdrew from the tournament in Sydney. At the Australian Open, he was seeded 30th but lost in the first round to Israeli Dudi Sela 1–6, 6–2, 6–4, 6–4. He also participated in the doubles with Lu Yen-hsun, but they were defeated by Łukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach. In the first round in Rotterdam, he lost to Mario Ančić. He played the Open 13 in Marseille, defeating Laurent Recouderc in the first round 6–1, 6–4.
He competed at the ARAG World Team Cup in Germany, helping his country reach the final, where they lost to Serbia.In the second round at Wimbledon, though seeded 18th, he was upset by Dudi Sela, 7–6, 6–3, 6–2.
He reached the second round of the Australian Open defeating Sam Querrey in four sets. However he lost to Feliciano López in four sets, too. At the French Open, he again suffered a first-round exit, this time against Guillermo García-López in straight sets. He reached the semifinal of the Aegon Championships at the Queens Club in London but lost to Sam Querrey in three sets 7–6, 5–7, 3–6. Despite his good form he was defeated by Denis Istomin in the second round of Wimbledon in five sets. At the quarterfinal of the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles, Schüttler could not manage to close out the match against Querrey despite serving for it at 5–4 and 6–5 in the deciding set. He was knocked out in the first round of the US Open losing to Benoît Paire. At the Thailand Open in Bangkok, Schüttler beat Ricardo Mello in round one for a second round berth against Ernests Gulbis. He lost 6–7, 7–6, 4–6 in a close match.In 2010, Schüttler and his former Davis Cup companion Alexander Waske founded the Schüttler Waske Tennis-University, a tennis academy for professional tennis players.
Schüttler started the tour at the Qatar Open where he confronted Teymuraz Gabashvili in the singles, but lost 3–5, 6–7. He also played doubles with Guillermo García-López confronting Marco Chiudinelli and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to whom they lost 1–6, 2–6. At the Australian Open, he played ninth seed Fernando Verdasco in the first round, but lost 1–6, 3–6, 2–6. He then played several Challenger series tournaments. At Wimbledon, he defeated Thomaz Bellucci in the first round, but lost to Feliciano López in the second 6–7, 7–6, 2–6, 2–6.
Schüttler retired in October 2012 and has coached Sergiy Stakhovsky and Vasek Pospisil.Since November 2018, he coached former world No. 1, Angelique Kerber. In July 2019, Kerber announced they had split on social media.
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If you are enjoying the Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast (SEP) series, check out our Sports Entrepreneurs Mastermind (SEM) sessions too.
The SEM sessions are an extension of the SEP series, where we bring experts from around the world together for 1.5-2 hours of brainstorming, learning, discussion and connecting. It’s a live online round table format, moderated by Marcus Luer which includes a short presentation by him to set up the topic of the session and then the members will discuss, share their thoughts, ask questions and debate the topic. The direction of the discussion is truly influenced by the participants of the given session. It’s a fascinating learning experience for everyone involved. Come join us for future sessions by getting on our mailing list. Please register HERE
-----------------------------------------------Follow us on our social sites for the latest updatesInstagram: https://lnkd.in/ferKA6NFacebook: https://lnkd.in/fw7Z_9hLinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/fVQzNj5Website: https://marcusluer.comhttps://marcusluer.comhttps://marcusluer.com/mastermind
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Monday Jun 15, 2020
Monday Jun 15, 2020
Dr. Elliott gives us incredible insights into the world of Applied Sports Science and how this is a potential game-changer for athlete training, injury prevention and using big data to create a winning formula. This is “Moneyball” with human movement data. Anyone who is involved in managing a team, club or professional league needs to hear this and pay close attention.
Key Highlights
His start after graduating from Havard Medical School, building a career track which didn’t exist
His days with the New England Patriots, how a doctor can win two Superbowl rings, by reducing injuries to the athletes
Waste of a world class education, over qualified personal trainer?
MLB, Seattle Mariners days, solving the next problem
SPORTS with the highest skill component has the most slack in athletes physical development compared to other Olympic sports
Applied Sports Science – the new era of athlete development – the “applied” part is the key
The study of the human response to sport (Physiology, Bio Mechanics, Psychology, skill acquisition)
Most valuable part is studying “athlete movements” – how we move has profound consequences how we perform, which body parts wear out and how long a career will last
Data capture thru motion images
60% of NBA athletes have gone thru the system – very detailed view of the mechanical system of these athletes
Create big data sets and correlation studies – at the core, it’s high school physics applied over and over
James Harden story – he is basically an average player on most performance metrics but has superhuman breaking abilities (hidden performance metric)
Luka Doncic, Slovenian player making a big impact in the NBA because he has the same ability
Identifying new secondary metrics and building up granular data which can have huge impact on performances
Data shows how injuries are related to the player's movement, thru algorithm
NBA program with his company, testing all new players coming into the League
Data protection, fine line and sensitive area
His favorite thing is to work with young talented athletes and guide them through a long career
How to find the next Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt or the next elite NBA defender
Learning from each athlete and his metrics
Olympic sports, ie. swimming is harder to create bigger impact from the data (working at 98% already)
Easier in skill dependant sport to have a big impact (many athletes work below 85%)
Football/Soccer is well behind American sports in athlete optimization
Critical movements in football happen in a fraction of a second which create the game-winning move, that can be measured and trained
Manchester United story – Mr. Mourinho
Massive opportunity to make improvements to athlete movement optimization
German National Team – great executers, innovators but a little conservative
How does the learning from the top athletes can impact the average weekend warrior
It should be all about prevention of injuries and before body parts wear out
How to take the knowledge to another level for the masses – data collection
Athlete coming out after the Covid break – his thoughts on players out coming and going straight into Play-off season
Connect with him on LinkedIn or get in touch with me
About
Dr. Marcus Elliott is a Harvard trained physician who has innovated the use of technology, data, and applied sports science in the care of professional athletes. As Founder of P3, Dr. Elliott has served as sports science director for many of the leading organizations in professional sport. In each case the objective has been to take the guesswork out of athlete development and to find the most actionable data for creating competitive advantages in performance and injury prevention for these teams.Dr. Elliott has served as the first director of sports science in the NFL (2000) and MLB (2008), and has led out the NBA's data-driven approach to caring for their athletes. Additionally, over the past 12 years P3 has compiled the most comprehensive database of professional athlete performance and kinematic metrics in sport, and is utilizing that database across multiple project fronts.Dr. Elliott was awarded the Augustus Thorndike visiting lecturer and professor award at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in 2019 for his contributions in sports medicine and science. As an internationally renowned leader in the field of applied sports science, he also serves on several boards in the sports and performance nutrition fields. He primarily resides in Santa Barbara Ca., with his wife Nadine and three children.
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If you are enjoying the Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast (SEP) series, check out our Sports Entrepreneurs Mastermind (SEM) sessions too.
The SEM sessions are an extension of the SEP series, where we bring experts from around the world together for 1.5-2 hours of brainstorming, learning, discussion and connecting. It’s a live online round table format, moderated by Marcus Luer which includes a short presentation by him to set up the topic of the session and then the members will discuss, share their thoughts, ask questions and debate the topic. The direction of the discussion is truly influenced by the participants of the given session. It’s a fascinating learning experience for everyone involved. Come join us for future sessions by getting on our mailing list. Please register HERE
-----------------------------------------------https://marcusluer.comhttps://marcusluer.com/mastermind
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
Dominik Schmid, FIFA in the 90s & its Legendary Agencies
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
Dominik takes us back in time, what happened in the 1990s and early 2000 in World Football. How Fifa and its powerful agencies from ISL, Prisma to later Infront controlled the game and the commercial rights. And his trials and tribulations as an Entrepreneur. Fascinating stories, enjoy.
Fifa's report into ISL scandal is just window dressing:https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/22355455
About ISL:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Sport_and_Leisure
Key Highlights
Getting a job at the Goliath of Sports Agencies in the early 90s, ISL Marketing
ISL Marketing’s rights portfolio from the FIFA World Cup, Olympics, UEFA, African Nations Cup, etc
Creation of new licensing (EA Sports deal with FIFA) and sponsorship programs, big money coming into sports
Two parts to ISL. One side ran the business, the other ran the politics with the Federations
“Foul”, money destroys the beautiful game
FIFA had no clue about marketing or the commercial side of the sports
FIFA TV rights battle – 2.8 billion guarantee (2002 & 2006 World Cup) – creation of Prisma Sports – Kirch Group getting into the game
Creation of HBS (Host Broadcasting Services) – JV between ISL & Prisma
Big rights gamble paid off for Kirch
FIFA’s future, 2026 World Cup, 48 teams, is too much of a good thing
From ISL, Prisma, Kirch Sports to Infront
Biggest lesson: Global Sports Federations need to separate the Administration vs Commercial side of the business. Too much conflict of interest otherwise. US sports got that right.
Dominik’s move into Entrepreneurship and tough learning (first a no from Bernie Ecclestone)
Start-up experiences, streaming Platform (Zattoo), Augmented Reality (Augmara),
Start-up success hangs on the right time, right people, right funding and a good dose of luck
Schmid Media Solutions (SMS) – consulting project in social media, digital strategies
Looking into the future of sports & tech – Esports, AR
About
Dominik is an entrepreneur/general manager in the digital (media) space and is always looking for interesting projects to assist in an advisory but hands-on capacity. He is a digital strategist, who grew up in the analogue world and knows how to build bridges between the 'old' world and today's reality. He understands both sides and can easily facilitate communication between them. Dominik is also interested in all aspects related to the area of digitization and the paradigm shift it brings about, the new opportunities it creates and the broader impact on society.Very broad industry background, in particular in sports and music, with substantial experience in the electronic media (digital media, IPTV, rights licensing, broadcast operations), marketing (sponsorship, licensing) and legal (contract negotiation and drafting) and social media fields. Strong leadership skills and proven track record of delivering results under difficult circumstances in varying cultural environments. Experienced negotiator. Strong social skills. Team builder and integrator.
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If you are enjoying the Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast (SEP) series, check out our Sports Entrepreneurs Mastermind (SEM) sessions too.
The SEM sessions are an extension of the SEP series, where we bring experts from around the world together for 1.5-2 hours of brainstorming, learning, discussion and connecting. It’s a live online round table format, moderated by Marcus Luer which includes a short presentation by him to set up the topic of the session and then the members will discuss, share their thoughts, ask questions and debate the topic. The direction of the discussion is truly influenced by the participants of the given session. It’s a fascinating learning experience for everyone involved. Come join us for future sessions by getting on our mailing list. Please register HERE
-----------------------------------------------https://marcusluer.comhttps://marcusluer.com/mastermind