Sports Pundit Podcast with Andy Marston

About Sports Pundit Podcast with Andy Marston

The Sports Pundit Podcast Network is multi-show platform designed for sports executives, by sports executives. The network includes interview shows with decision makers across the industry, special domain-specific series on areas like investment and innovation, and The Pitch, a conversational companion show discussing big ideas. Visit our website (sportspundit.co) to dive into our newsletters and connect with other execs both online via the WhatsApp Group and IRL via our social events. Proudly Supported by Summitly, the Conference and Community Calendar for the Global Sports Industry

Publisher

Sports Pundit

Category

news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Nov 2023

Latest episode

6 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

116 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Nov 2026

   Diego Campos [#94]: Building an Investment Thesis Around the Padel Ecosystem

   On today's episode of the Sports Pundit Podcast, Andy is joined by co-host Vansa Chatikavanij for the first official edition of their Investor Series, speaking with the professionals investing in sport. Together, they welcome Diego Campos, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Sunrise Padel Capital, a fund investing across the padel ecosystem. Diego's conviction came from a gap rather than a trend. He grew up playing competitive tennis in Mexico City and arrived in Miami eight years ago to find barely two clubs in town. Sunrise invests across what Diego sees as the sport's three core layers: the clubs, the software that runs them, and the leagues and events that bring people back. By investing in three asset classes with different return profiles, the fund can start returning capital to LPs through its club investments while its venture bets mature. We discuss the overused term "community" and how he's putting it into practice, from software that identifies the "social butterflies" holding a club together to financial mechanisms such as giving founding members real equity. On the technology side, he unpacks Sunrise's seed investments in Taykus, a club operating system built so clubs, rather than marketplaces, own the customer, and Clutch AI, whose automated match recording and AI scoring double as an engagement layer. Timestamps 02:00 - From Mexico City to Miami: conviction from a gap 05:00 - Common misconceptions when first investing in padel 10:00 - What community really means: data, social butterflies and founding members 19:00 - Competition as the engagement flywheel, and the ratings problem 22:00 - The tech bets: Taykus and Clutch AI 30:30 - Fund design: three asset classes, three return profiles 33:00 - The professional game: bottom-up growth, sponsors and the Olympic path About The Hosts Andy Marston is the founder of Sports Pundit, a community and media platform for sports and technology executives. Through a weekly newsletter, podcast network, lively group chat, and regular social events, he shares industry analysis and connects leaders across the sector. Alongside Sports Pundit, Andy leads Corporate Venture at athlete-backed venture firm, The Players Fund, where he works with high-profile sports IP such as Como 1907 and Juventus to design venture strategies and drive innovation initiatives. Vansa Chatikavanij is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Present Ventures, a firm investing in emerging leagues, media, and fan-driven technology, with investments including Togethxr, Unrivaled, and Good Good Golf. Her path into sport has been anything but conventional - from advising on water and climate projects at the World Bank to building billion-dollar web3 infrastructure in Asia as Co-Founder of OMG Network. Vansa hosts the Sports Finance Podcast on the Sports Pundit Podcast Network. About Sports Pundit Sports Pundit is a community-driven platform for executives working in sport, built around content, events, and conversation. Through its weekly newsletter, social channels, WhatsApp groups and podcast network, it connects industry leaders across the globe - "The Voice of the Sports Industry."

2. 

   27 Oct 2026

   The Pitch [#09]: Could Cricket Be Better Packaged as a Tourism Product?

   On this episode of The Pitch, Andy is joined by Edward Fitzgibbon, a cricket business consultant and Wisden writer, to explore what cricket could look like as a tourism product. Sparked by a trip to India with his dad for the 2023 World Cup - staying in Dharamshala, with the Himalayas behind the pavilion - he pitches the idea that cricket's biggest events already function as multi-destination travel experiences, from Ashes tours linking Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney to fans building whole itineraries around a day or two at the cricket. They dig into the economics hiding behind that behaviour: the hotel nights, restaurants and activities that never show up in a sport's accounting beyond the ticket price, and what smarter people in travel could build if cricket packaged it properly. The conversation then turns to cricket's global expansion - World Cups heading to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, new venues in Japan and China, talk of a German World Cup in the 2030s, and the European T20 finishing in Edinburgh - and whether giving new audiences the chance to see, touch and feel the sport is the real growth lever. Finally, they take on cricket media itself: why coverage obsesses over selection dilemmas while the business of cricket goes unreported, how simply translating crore into pounds or dollars would make Indian cricket's money stories resonate, the case for alt streams that welcome the cricket-curious, and what the sport could borrow from UFC's Ultimate Fighter playbook - reality-style formats and creator-led content, perhaps starting with the associate nations. Timestamps 02:30 - Why Cricket Needs Change 05:00 - Taking Inspiration from the FIFA World Cup in the U.S. 09:00 - Developing a Personalised Itinerary App 18:00 - Global Expansion New Markets 20:00 - Como 1907 and Destination Calcio Inspiration 24:00 - Creators Content Discovery 26:00 - Alt Cricket Media Opportunities 35:00 - Reality Storytelling Angle About The Show The Pitch is the conversational show from the Sports Pundit Podcast Network, hosted by Andy Marston, Drew Rauso and Dom Collingwood. It's a play on words, with each host bringing an idea, theme, or provocation that they pitch to the other. Together they react, debate, and explore what's really happening across the sports industry, from shifting media models to the next wave of innovation. Each episode mixes perspective with practicality, with occasional appearances from other Sports Pundit hosts from across the Network. About The Hosts The Pitch typically brings together three hosts - Andy Marston, Drew Rauso and Dom Collingwood. This week it's just Andy, joined by special guest Edward Fitzgibbon, pitching and debating business ideas within cricket. Edward Fitzgibbon (Guest) is the Managing Director at NYZ Consulting, Strategic Advisor at Profluence Capital, and a Board Member at Wisden, the most recognised brand in world cricket. His advisory work spans deal sourcing, due diligence, and growth strategy for sports technology and cricket-adjacent assets across North America, Australia, the Middle East, India, and APAC.He is also the writer of "The Future of Cricket," a long-form series co-published with Wisden that maps where the sport is headed and, critically, where the capital opportunities sit. The series covers everything from calendar reform and venue economics to growth markets like Nepal and the emerging cricket tech stack. Andy Marston is the founder of Sports Pundit, a community and media platform for sports and technology executives. Through a weekly newsletter, podcast network, lively group chat, and regular social events, he shares industry analysis and connects leaders across the sector. Alongside Sports Pundit, Andy leads Corporate Venture at athlete-backed venture firm, The Players Fund, where he works with high-profile sports IP such as Como 1907, Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus to design venture strategies and drive innovation initiatives.

3. 

   19 Oct 2026

   Carolina Chiappero [#93]: How Juventus Approaches Innovation Holistically

   On today's episode of the Sports Pundit Podcast, we're joined by Carolina Chiappero, Innovation Manager at Juventus. Carolina traces her path from opening Juventus soccer schools around the world and managing the academy project's international development to leading the club's innovation function - a role she raised her hand for after working on projects beyond football, from food formats to a travel business. She shares her definition of innovation: anything that makes the club work better or creates new value. That makes innovation a cross-functional activity at a club that operates as a proper corporate, and makes her an enabler and translator between departments - identifying internal needs through assessment and discussion, scouting outside for solutions, and testing them with internal champions. She then unpacks Juventus Forward, the club's external-facing innovation programme, and its "squad" of startups running 12-month pilots built for adoption, not pilots for their own sake. Batch after batch, more departments are getting involved - from performance and digital marketing to facility management and communication - and the value is stacking up in layers: the brand attracting technology at net-zero cost, each pilot generating time savings, cost optimisation or new revenue, and a next step of partnership-driven innovation, where startups can serve club partners too and innovation becomes activation. The conversation also covers where Carolina looks for inspiration - the UEFA innovation hub, Italian sport-tech accelerator BitnMatch, and Politecnico di Milano's Open Innovation Observatory - and why being first in the Italian market meant looking beyond football and beyond sport altogether. It closes with Juventus Forward's new squad announcement (https://www.juventus.com/en/news/articles/juventus-forward-squad-2026-27), which has since been made on stage at Wave by Vento, formerly known as Italian Tech Week. Timestamps 01:00 - Carol’s Juventus Journey 05:00 - Finding Innovation Mentors 08:00 - Defining the Role of Innovation within a Football Club 12:30 - What is Juventus Forward and Why Does it Exist? 15:00 - How Pilots Get Adopted Across the Organisation 19:00 - Innovation as Commercial Engine (The Revenue Opportunity) 24:30 - Roadmap and Next Steps About The Host ⁠⁠Andy Marston⁠⁠⁠ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-marston/) is the founder of Sports Pundit, a community and media platform for sports and technology executives. Through a weekly newsletter, podcast network, lively group chat, and regular social events, he shares industry analysis and connects leaders across the sector. Alongside Sports Pundit, Andy leads Corporate Venture at athlete-backed venture firm, The Players Fund, where he works with high-profile sports IP such as Como 1907 to design venture strategies and drive innovation initiatives. About Sports Pundit Sports Pundit is a community-driven platform for executives working in sport, built around content, events, and conversation. Through its ⁠⁠⁠weekly newsletter⁠⁠⁠ (https://sportspundit.substack.com/), social channels, WhatsApp groups, and podcast network, it connects industry leaders across the globe. At the heart of the platform is the ⁠⁠⁠Sports Pundit Podcast⁠⁠⁠ (https://sportspundit.substack.com/p/sports-pundit-launches-global-podcast), The Sports Pundit Podcast Network is a multi-show platform designed for sports executives, by sports executives. The network includes interview shows with decision makers across the industry, special domain-specific series on areas like investment and innovation, and The Pitch, a conversational companion show discussing big ideas. Together, they deliver insider perspectives that live up to Sports Pundit’s mission to be “The Voice of the Sports Industry.”

Who has been a guest on Sports Pundit Podcast with Andy Marston

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Misha Sher
• Rob Pilgrim
• Dr Daniel Parnell
• Vansa Chatikavanij
• Tareq Nazlawy

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

7,279

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 56 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

58

Social presence

0

YouTube

68

Engagement

68

Contact Sports Pundit Podcast with Andy Marston

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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