Episode 3
Episode 3 - Working for Eddie Hall, The Rapid Growth of the PDC & Recruiting for Saudi Sports
The Deal Room Sport podcast is now in full swing - as the team return for another episode focusing on the world of Sport Sponsorship and Recruitment!
Radio icon Ed Nell hosts the powerhouse trinity of the Sporting Group International and Sporting Jobs brands - with Adrian Wright (Birmingham's best sport entrepreneur), Ian Dutton (the nicest man in football) and Harry Lynch (the sports recruitment G.O.A.T) all sitting down to share their experiences and opinions of the exciting yet crazy world of sport business.
In our latest episode, the team discuss meeting former World's Strongest Man Eddie Hall, the ever-growing presence of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and how Sporting Jobs are helping Saudi sporting entities recruit top-level staff from across the globe.
The team round off the discussion with naming their choices for the greatest Premier League defender of all time.
Episode 4 is due to be released on the 12th November.
To find out more about the Deal Room Sport podcast, Sporting Group International and Sporting Jobs, check out the website and social links below.
Websites
SGI - https://www.sportinggi.com/
Sporting Jobs - https://www.sportingjobs.co.uk/
SGI - www.linkedin.com/company/sporting-group-international
Sporting Jobs - www.linkedin.com/company/sportingjobs
SGI - https://www.instagram.com/sportinggi/
Sporting Jobs - https://www.instagram.com/sportingjobs/
TikTok/YouTube
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thedealroomsport
YouTube -https://www.youtube.com/@Sportinggi
Transcript
I've already said to the missus, I want to be world's strongest man in 2030. I've started
Speaker:training already. I'm 10 potatoes a day. 300 grams of protein. I'm going for it, Ed. We've
Speaker:placed nearly 30 people there this year in Saudi. The projects are the most exciting things.
Speaker:If you look at football in the Saudi Pro League, some of the players that are moving there now,
Speaker:but even the way the teams are sort of acquiring players is changing. Luke Littler hadn't won
Speaker:that title. You know, something that I've avoiding him for a long, period of time. And as soon
Speaker:as that final dart goes in and he wins, it's obviously all over the media. And the media
Speaker:valuation that comes with that with someone like Luke is big and it's perfect demographic
Speaker:for their brand and their product. It's episode three of the Deal Room with Sporting Group
Speaker:International and Sporting Jobs. My name's Ed, I'll be asking the questions, but as always,
Speaker:the expert analysis comes from Sporting Groups International, Adrian and Ian. Hello, gentlemen,
Speaker:how we doing? How are doing, Ed? You good? Yeah, very good. And then of course, from Sporting
Speaker:Jobs, we have Harry, how we doing? Very well, thank you, Ed. Now, Harry, you might be a little
Speaker:bit redundant for this first part, because we're talking Battle of the Beasts. I feel like I've
Speaker:got to address this elephant in the room, because I keep seeing pictures popping up on LinkedIn
Speaker:of Ian and Adrian with a massive, massive massive man. What is going on? looks like a proper
Speaker:lads holiday that what was going on? Oh, God, you didn't mention the Jorts. He didn't mention
Speaker:the Birkenstaff. absolutely slammed for air in our official Photoshop. So tell us a little
Speaker:bit, you're off in Malta. This is Battle of the Beasts then basically. Yeah, we ended up
Speaker:flying out on a whistle stop tour to Malta. It was Wednesday to came back late Friday night
Speaker:went to see the filming of Battle of the Beasts, which I think when he instructed the deal,
Speaker:we kind of got a view of what we were going to be expecting. You know, there was a belly
Speaker:flop challenge and there was, know, medley, it an eating challenge. But just to be in and
Speaker:around, like literally the world's most strongest people and like compared to me, he was a little
Speaker:short arse. He literally looked very small against them. It was a very, very kind of
Speaker:overwhelming opportunity, but it was beautiful. know, the centre of Montlore on the beach.
Speaker:You know, the weather was absolutely glorious. It was an interesting thing to see and I
Speaker:was obviously in doing the deal and bringing it to fruition and obviously securing Dualbits
Speaker:as the official partner um to sponsor the full event. It was good to get in contact with them
Speaker:as well and meet them and just get um a firm view of whether there's further things they
Speaker:can do in this kind of space or maybe other sports. Yes, Eddie Hall wasn't it? Former World's
Speaker:Strongest Man, 2017 is when he won the title. He is an absolute man mountain as well, isn't
Speaker:he? I mean, you're relatively tall, but you did look... Both of you look pretty horny.
Speaker:mean, don't know about that. What measuring tape have you got? This is true, actually.
Speaker:They'll probably be bit generous there, to be fair. Tell us a little bit about the deal then.
Speaker:So what was the deal and how did it all come about? It came about, and this is an important
Speaker:thing actually for us as a business. We leverage our network quite a lot. You know, it's really,
Speaker:really important. We classify as kind of like T1s, don't we, across the group. And we build
Speaker:relationships, not necessarily with people that are going to do deals, but people who can influence
Speaker:deals and they can literally connect you. with other people within businesses, et cetera.
Speaker:And that's exactly what happened here. A chap called Joe Housley, he's friends with one of
Speaker:the guys that works at Camelot Films, connected the dots. We then um obviously had an initial
Speaker:chat to see if we could help, see if we could support, love the concepts. I mean, I've been
Speaker:a World's Strongest Man fan for a while, actually. I've always been fascinated by how these guys
Speaker:and girls can just lift such heavy weights. anyway, awesome. Loved it. the whole concept
Speaker:was they want to try and it's still a serious event, but they want to try and bring the humor
Speaker:side out of the event as well and actually tell the story as to, you know, these guys aren't
Speaker:just huge, unbelievably strong people. They've actually got a lot of intelligence. They're
Speaker:very caring. They're very loving. They're just normal guys and girls that just, you know,
Speaker:that just want to entertain fundamentally. And you know what? That's what clearly came across
Speaker:when we were out there. Some of these world's strongest athletes are just really humble people.
Speaker:You see these huge, huge specimens, but they're just lovely, lovely people. And yeah, Eddie
Speaker:Hall was a great guy and we connected with him. continue that connection to this day.
Speaker:And that's as a result of going out to Malta fundamentally. So who approached you first?
Speaker:mean, did they come to you saying that we need a deal for Battle of the Beasts? Or did you
Speaker:have a sponsor that you were like, we're looking for the right vehicle? It's like everything,
Speaker:and I think we mentioned this in previous episodes. So what we would tend to do is we'll get under
Speaker:the bonnet of what the rights holder is looking for, you know, what the objectives are, what
Speaker:their brand values are, we'll look at the audience figures, social media following. demographics
Speaker:of the sort of like viewership that they're looking to achieve. Is it going to be televised?
Speaker:Isn't it going to be televised? Which territories is it going to be televised in? And then once
Speaker:we've got all of that and much more as well, as we'll kind of as a group, we'll get together
Speaker:and go, right guys, we've got this opportunity. We've got a huge pool of brands, which brands
Speaker:are going to be relevant and which aren't, you know, and that's exactly what we did. We identified,
Speaker:I think it was between somewhere between 15 and 20 brands that we've got a strong relationship
Speaker:with that we know. what their sort of objectives are and when it comes to sports sponsorship.
Speaker:And yeah, we went out to those 15, 20 brands. Just so happens that Jewel Bits came back
Speaker:to us pretty quickly. It was right up their street, exactly what they're looking for. They
Speaker:have brand Jewel, and obviously what this event is all about, is a lot of Jewel, lot of battles
Speaker:to become the strongest person. It just kind of resonated with what they're looking to achieve.
Speaker:as a business and the rest is history. know, was after that it was connecting Camelot Films
Speaker:who were the film producer with Jorbitz bringing the two together and it was just from then
Speaker:really it was like a match made in heaven. It's an interesting proposition because it sounds
Speaker:almost like they're going a little bit like the American wrestling that they want that
Speaker:personality side that show. It's that sort of crossing that line isn't it between entertainment
Speaker:and sport almost. Do you think where a lot of things are starting to go now? Yeah, I think
Speaker:from my perspective going out there, I've watched World Strongest Managing House over the years
Speaker:and, you know, seeing the events and how they unfold and even the injuries, you know, there's
Speaker:one guy that literally did the first event, which is called like the medley, literally
Speaker:have to um take a boat out, row a boat out and then Come back so I rode back into shore
Speaker:jump onto shore They've got three hundred kg chests after then put onto the back of what
Speaker:this cart and then get back into the water and swim out and these guys You know, they're like
Speaker:200 kg some of the guys I'm 200 pounds. Sorry, and they literally were having to swim out
Speaker:into the ocean and there was guys that were literally drowning because of the weight of
Speaker:them. But the whole thing around that what they've tried to do is there was a lot of humor
Speaker:when we were, you know, certainly belly flop challenge, there was a female um athlete that
Speaker:was drafted in to participate. And some of the things they were saying around her doing the
Speaker:belly flop and whatnot was like, you know, it's quite edgy. I don't know whether they
Speaker:her make the camera. em But you know, there was quite a bit of, you know, there was a
Speaker:couple of guys that inserted some implements, stand there, their trunks as well. that made
Speaker:things look a bit interesting. I think the kids that were in the arena and obviously watching
Speaker:that. But they were just trying to get some kind of content really. And I think Eddie's
Speaker:humor but also authoritarian approach. He's quite an imposing gentleman. We just shook
Speaker:his hand and he was like, these guys came up to him while we were talking to him and he
Speaker:just literally was like... wait there, know, we're talking to someone else and this guy
Speaker:was like, okay, if someone tells you, well, strongly spanking move away, you move away.
Speaker:But I think, look, what will happen is, as all these companies do, these film companies, the
Speaker:edit will be unbelievable. You know, it'll kind of like, we'll be like, well, that didn't happen
Speaker:or it did happen, but it wasn't quite like that. They will spend literally four or five months,
Speaker:I think we were told, getting the edit absolutely bang on. And I don't know for a fact they're
Speaker:going to sell that, be it Netflix or an Apple TV, someone or like that will take it up for
Speaker:sure. It's interesting obviously you guys doing that deal, Sporting Group International, you
Speaker:think sport and the question might be is that sport, is it purely entertainment? I'm not
Speaker:sure where that sits necessarily. Do you feel as an agency that's something that you're going
Speaker:to be looking into a lot more? I'll put a post out here, still in LinkedIn, more around football.
Speaker:centric and the fact that I do, I think I said it in a previous podcast actually sorry, is
Speaker:that I do think that sport entertainment are merging. You know, I think a lot of these sports
Speaker:entities want to be more like media creators, content creators than anything else. If you
Speaker:think about it, there is that much to watch across TV, mobile. They've got to, they've
Speaker:got to create something that stands out from the rest. So I do think you'll find that actually,
Speaker:yes, sport and the spectacle is always going to be there. That's always going to be the
Speaker:pinnacle of what the viewership is going to want to see. But they're going to want to see
Speaker:that entertainment factor as well. What more is going on? What behind the scenes stuff
Speaker:can I watch that I'm not normally going to get access to? And I think that's really,
Speaker:important to really grab the imagination of the audience. Eddie Hall as well has grown
Speaker:to fame. more sort of past post his career has any like his YouTube following now I think
Speaker:it's over a couple of million he gets 9 million 9 million he gets loads of views on his on
Speaker:his YouTube and everyone want to see what everyone wants to see what he's eating every day everyone
Speaker:wants to see his training schedule how his life sort of a role evolves around his training
Speaker:plan I know his his little boys training himself isn't he and things like that and his diet
Speaker:is fascinating to watch so again from a content perspective he's so Watchable. He's got a podcast
Speaker:out now that I think I see a load of clips for He just captivating isn't it? I'll be honest
Speaker:ever since I came back from Malta and I'm not afraid to say this is I've been following all
Speaker:these guys all these athletes just literally watching what they do day in day out I've already
Speaker:said to the Mrs. I want to be world's strongest man in 2013. I've started training already.
Speaker:I'm eating 10 potatoes a day, 300 grams of protein. I'm going for it, Ed. I thought he bolted a
Speaker:beer and I thought that. It always works as well from the content perspective, doesn't
Speaker:it? It's like mountains of food and you see Eddie Hawthorne with top off and he's about
Speaker:bending frying pans and all this sort of stuff. It works on the internet. what he's done really,
Speaker:really well. He's used like... influencer so there's a girl called Leah Shukva. She's a
Speaker:challenge eater. So she's got 40 world records where she'll literally, there's one of them
Speaker:where there was a plate of mozzarella, 400 grams of mozzarella in two slices and she's got to
Speaker:do that under a minute and I watched the video, if you get a chance to watch it, watch it and
Speaker:literally there's like a silent pause in the room where she's like I hope everybody felt
Speaker:the tension there. She said, I must admit I was struggling. But Eddie has literally, I've
Speaker:watched some of his videos, he's got, there's a woman that's got the largest mouth in the
Speaker:world, basically in US. Literally shoving stuff into her mouth and he's like doing challenges.
Speaker:They're like taking bites out of pizzas in America and putting that on video. He's obviously got
Speaker:Leah, he's just taking people that have got like quirks, things around like they're following.
Speaker:So their followers become his followers and he's kind of just made sure that the alliances
Speaker:got with like Leah as an example. He's doing something regularly with her. So it's like
Speaker:Eddie and Leah face off with the burger challenge. everybody's just like, well, Eddie's people
Speaker:are going to watch it. then all of sudden Leah's going to give benefit from Commercially though
Speaker:as well, you could see so many brands that like want to, you know, if you were a big DIY brand
Speaker:or something, you could see him being like used in so many different things. you like
Speaker:even his clothing, his... supplements, nutrition, those sorts of things. You could just say he's
Speaker:so marketable. There's lots of products out there that are beast associated. Interestingly
Speaker:enough, we hooked up with Eddie as soon as we got back and we've actually agreed with him.
Speaker:that we're going to be responsible for acquiring some partners for him. he's got like a he's
Speaker:got a stable of partners at the moment. He's got a couple of own brands that he owns. But
Speaker:I've already got some really good ideas of how I think you could synergize the strength of
Speaker:the products, you know, that potentially would assist him growing his brand with companies
Speaker:in many sectors he hasn't even thought about. So you know, he's gonna got guys crack on give
Speaker:you the green light, you know, I'll pay you on success. I think that's really interesting
Speaker:what you say about how he's collaborated collaborating, creating partnerships with other creators.
Speaker:It's very much what you're doing really with sponsorship deals, isn't it? You're creating
Speaker:partners to basically use audience for other people and kind of push them around. it's not
Speaker:actually that dissimilar really, is it? guess. In terms of the actual deal then for that sponsorship
Speaker:for Battle of the Beasts, is it a very similar deal that you might be doing with a football
Speaker:club or is it structured very differently? I think there's a lot of synergies definitely.
Speaker:know, at end of the day, know, a brand will want Like JorBits, for example, they want exposure.
Speaker:So they'll want to use assets where they're going to get their brand on TV through various
Speaker:different means, whether that be through Amazon, Apple, like Adrian mentioned. Obviously these
Speaker:content creators, wasn't just Lea. I mean, at the events itself, had the likes of, they the
Speaker:guy from Reacher, the 7'2". He's 7'2", isn't he? can't remember his name. The main character
Speaker:in The main character, yeah. 7'2". I mean, he was like towering above Eddie Hall, you know,
Speaker:which is six foot two. Then you've got another guy called The Mountain that's obviously regular.
Speaker:You've got Tommy Fury that was there. So they're surrounding themselves by people that can generate
Speaker:content, which that is only going to benefit the brand Julvets because they're going to
Speaker:be, you know, obviously talking at the events, the brand is going to be in the background.
Speaker:They're all wearing the t-shirts with the logos on the front of them. But then there's a lot
Speaker:of activations. We went there on the Friday. It's where Gladiator was filmed actually in
Speaker:Malta, it like the big Colosseum area. Fascinating, absolutely beautiful setting. But actually
Speaker:there as well, Jorbitz were just doing a load of different activations with the audience
Speaker:that were there. They were doing like a hanging challenge where whoever hangs the longest,
Speaker:you know, they're doing the, I can't forget what it's called, but where you hold out the
Speaker:hammer hold. I think I lasted about three or four minutes.
Speaker:There's lots of different elements that go towards an overall partnership as well. They're just
Speaker:a couple of bits and pieces, but it's similar with football. Football want exposure, they
Speaker:want activations. Did you have a hand in any of the activations or do you ever get the opportunity
Speaker:to suggest anything to brands like we've thought of this or? Oh yeah, 100%. I think that's part
Speaker:of our expertise and is trying to bring an opportunity to life. So if we're talking to a brand, we've
Speaker:got a meeting later on today actually, and it is exactly that. I've already thought in the
Speaker:back of my mind, okay, well how can this particular brand and this particular rights holder...
Speaker:work together to really create something that's going to capture the imagination of the audience
Speaker:that they're marketing to. You know, so we've always got to be throwing out ideas, trying
Speaker:to be a support mechanism really to a brand, to a rights holder to make sure that there's
Speaker:a good marry up from a partnership perspective. And that's interesting because I think perhaps
Speaker:the perception might be that you connect them, you sign the deal, and that's the end of it.
Speaker:Goodbye, we've done our bit sort of thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's... probably is
Speaker:the case when it comes to lot of agencies, if I'm perfectly honest. don't want to be like
Speaker:that. And I think actually the fact that me and Adrian have gone to Malta, you know, after
Speaker:the deal's done, we don't necessarily need to. We can move on, go to the next. But we don't
Speaker:want to. We're actually very, very interested to see it come to life, to build further relationships
Speaker:with Camelot Films and hopefully future Battle of the Beast episodes, to continue to support
Speaker:Joel Bits and their journey and look at what they're doing. How can we support you further?
Speaker:You know, Are there any other territories or any other objectives that you want to look
Speaker:at from a sponsorship perspective? That's really important for us because without that relationship,
Speaker:without that network, and we've seen the benefits of it. Agents just mentioned that we've already
Speaker:been on jumps on a call with Eddie Hall. You know, the reason we wouldn't have been able
Speaker:to do that unless we were, you know, shaking his hand, you know, looking at the whites
Speaker:of his eyes, you know, just building that relationship. Yeah. Similar with the brand itself. And that's,
Speaker:that's what we do. We did exactly the same at the PDC at the weekend. Well, I was going
Speaker:to lead on to that because that's the next big thing. It's been a big interesting couple of
Speaker:weeks. mean, very diverse in terms of the range of things that you've covered. So Battle of
Speaker:the Beasts to PDC. Are they kind of interlinked in a way then? mean, how did that all come
Speaker:about? What's that situation? I don't think they are specifically interlinked. They are
Speaker:from a sponsorship acquisition perspective. You know, think Ian mentioned in the first
Speaker:podcast that Gary Newbaud had connected us to Barry Hearn. to try and assist Max Roon
Speaker:with acquisition of sponsors. There are various events, they've got World's New Couture, they've
Speaker:got the darts. And it was quite clear for us that we wanted to break into that. Arena
Speaker:because it is literally, if you look at darts 20, 30 years ago and snooker compared to what
Speaker:it is now, know, I went, went to the semi-finals, I went to the finals, you I hadn't been to
Speaker:darts probably for 10, 15 years. And it's like, still I remember, you know, people, everybody's
Speaker:dressed up, everybody's having a great time. This was a Sunday night as well. And it was
Speaker:just like, even me, was, you I don't drink and it was like, I was bopping around to like the
Speaker:entrance music for the players and you know, put it my wife as well. She was like, Come
Speaker:on, you're taking me to the darts. That is just and I was like, come on, we'll just go. Let's
Speaker:just go and see what it's like. And she came back, she said, you know, I've had a really
Speaker:good night. But the thing you've got with that, know, hire who's been acquired and put into
Speaker:that arrangement, you know, they are leveraging a huge exposure from that event. And, you
Speaker:know, they have an activation on the night interested in the guy who we struck the deal with. He's
Speaker:probably one of the highest paid activators, you know, in sports sponsorship, because he
Speaker:was actually on the stand on the night of the final. And he read references, he said, can't
Speaker:believe I'm doing this, but I'm doing it because I want to do it. you know, that they will
Speaker:be seen around the world. know, Luke Littler hadn't won that. that title, know, something
Speaker:that I've been kind of avoiding him for a long, period of time. And as soon as that final
Speaker:dark goes in and he wins, it's obviously all over the media and the media evaluation that
Speaker:comes with that with someone like Lula, you know, is big and it's perfect demographic for
Speaker:their brand and their products. So yeah, they are now. Have you seen those opportunities
Speaker:rise then? Because we've talked about it with Eddie Hawke, that those personalities becoming
Speaker:bigger. And it's actually more about them than it is the sport to a certain degree. And I
Speaker:guess that's probably true in darts. And you look back, you mentioned snooker as well, Adrian,
Speaker:that, you know, 20 years ago, they were they were focused on snooker, and then they do their
Speaker:job and they go home. But there's so much more to it. Now it is that crossover, isn't it to
Speaker:entertainment, which we've keep coming back to, I know, but that seems to be the big thing,
Speaker:doesn't it moving forward? Yeah. And I think, you know, we're seeing the brands move with
Speaker:the product. So it's just been announced that darts will actually be featuring in Saudi Arabia
Speaker:in January, which we knew was coming. It's happened with boxing, you know, it's happened in football,
Speaker:it's happening with, you know, Harry has done a lot of work in Saudi Arabia from recruitment
Speaker:perspective on a multi-sport arrangement. know, Saudi's strategy is literally to, you know,
Speaker:demand that kind of level of excellence around sport. And if that means I have to buy in.
Speaker:the sport to get the eyeballs and create maybe a visceral economy or, you know, they're prepared
Speaker:to do it. You know, they're prepared to put the money in. And I think where we are, you
Speaker:we're fortunate that most of the sports that we consumed down there, we were accustomed
Speaker:to and we've invented, you know, football, snooker, know, darts. They've all come from
Speaker:our great nation, you know, so we've just been that used to having them on our TV screens,
Speaker:whether that be once a week on matchday day or whether or not it's like every or every
Speaker:minute. think that's going to be the challenge as well for Matchroom isn't it? I've just been
Speaker:watching the documentary of Matchroom on Netflix which is amazing by the way. Really really
Speaker:great and recommend anyone to watch it because it gives you a real good understanding of the
Speaker:business but the people behind it too. Snooker and Darts are really kind of like there's a
Speaker:lot of heritage to them you know Ali Pali isn't a massive arena I think you get 4,000 people
Speaker:in there on the finals night. The Crucible, I think is like 1500 seated, but steeped in
Speaker:history, know, lots of people have won the Crucible and value it as an arena. But I think that
Speaker:switch to Saudi is that there's money all of a sudden, you know, they're offering a million
Speaker:quid for a golden ball and a 147 and these sorts of things. And the same with darts. I'd imagine
Speaker:that there's going to be certain things around crazy finishes and Riyadh season will push
Speaker:those sorts of things. But it's that balance between keeping the heritage of the sport and
Speaker:the people going to Ali Pali and the traditions with it. but also the big checks and prizes
Speaker:that could occur in Saudi, I I that would be really tough for them to sort of navigate,
Speaker:it? It's a nice point to bring you in, Harry, in terms of recruitment, because you must be
Speaker:seeing that, I guess, from a recruitment side. The different kind of roles and skill sets
Speaker:that sporting organisations now want because they're making that crossover into the world
Speaker:of entertainment. Are you noticing that? Yeah, so Saudi's a great point for us. We've placed
Speaker:nearly 30 people there this year in Saudi. And I think a lot of people's kind of... understanding
Speaker:of it is that look, there's so many to be had their tax free salaries, but that's not necessarily
Speaker:the the whole point here. I think the projects are the most exciting things. If you look at
Speaker:football in the Saudi Pro League, some of the players that are moving there now, but even
Speaker:the way the teams are sort of acquiring players is changing their profile and demographics
Speaker:of players are changing. There's 10 amazing stadiums being built. Have a look at the
Speaker:new stadiums that are going to be there for the World Cup. Look at the Aramco Stadium in
Speaker:Kobar. It's going to be an amazing sort of journey there. And I think the big thing and
Speaker:the reason that people are looking to navigate there is actually there's a huge opportunity.
Speaker:Um, commercially when we're placing people from the premier league out there, they're not going
Speaker:there for more money. They're going there for an opportunity to grow and build a commercial
Speaker:department and leverage brands. then maybe in a couple of years, come back to the UK with
Speaker:that book of contacts that they could use in the premier league and things like that. So
Speaker:yeah, it's a hugely exciting time there. It has its challenges, you know, working in Saudi.
Speaker:And I think. The time scales can be quite difficult. The visa and AQAMA process is quite difficult
Speaker:at times and we're having to fly people into Bahrain to get a visa and getting family across.
Speaker:We've had people that won't accept the job unless they take the pets across with them. These
Speaker:sorts of things that are always funny about recruitment, but as projects go, the sort of
Speaker:switch to multi-sport projects, big e-sports projects in Saudi, it's a hugely exciting time
Speaker:from a recruitment standpoint. Yeah. And is that... different world in terms of the hiring
Speaker:brief that you've kind of experienced or is it very similar? I mean, is there a standard
Speaker:set process, hiring brief, we look around, or is it a whole different ballgame? Depending
Speaker:on the client. There's a big push for Saudiization in Saudi. So initially, and what you've seen
Speaker:over the last couple of years is that a lot of expats have gone out there and we've taken
Speaker:them from like high performance Olympic environments in Australia, New Zealand, the UK. Whereas
Speaker:now there's a real emphasis about finding the best Saudi national talent. Which can be difficult
Speaker:because you won't find a paddle coach from a Saudi background because it didn't exist
Speaker:there. But the best Saudi national Arabic speaking talent is really important right now. And we've
Speaker:grown a huge network there after a lot of hard work in the last couple of years. Because that's
Speaker:the interesting part, I suppose, really, that you go, okay, you put an advert out for a job,
Speaker:but quite often it's not the people who are looking that you actually might be after. So
Speaker:how do you make sure you find the right candidates? It's quite similar to sponsorship, really.
Speaker:There's two big things. Meetings are really critical for us. in sponsorship. We really
Speaker:want to understand our clients' wants and needs. And I think by going and spending time at a
Speaker:stadium, visiting a training ground, visiting multiple members of a team, you can establish
Speaker:what the culture's like, what the team fit is, what the objectives are of your client. Same
Speaker:in sponsorship. But equally, what we're finding out there as well is that the brief can change
Speaker:all the time. again, we've had sort of requirements across commercial, across partnerships, across...
Speaker:men's football team, women's football team, and it's led by the clients wants and needs.
Speaker:So at times they need Premier League experience or they need a head grounds person that's worked
Speaker:in certain environments and certain climates. Whereas equally then at times they may be looking
Speaker:for more of a cultural fit and a team fit in terms of we want someone that's really enthusiastic,
Speaker:that's looking to come in and achieve this, is willing to learn and actually our team
Speaker:isn't as big as what you'd expect in the Premier League, but you may have these things to work
Speaker:with and different options like that. I always think fit and culture is critical for us,
Speaker:I suppose, from a recruitment point. the other side of that, then, so if somebody's not in
Speaker:a sport role at the moment, but they built up a good skill set, they're thinking, actually,
Speaker:I'd love to change and are my skills transferable? How do they become that higher? How do they
Speaker:get in that picture? Again, we need the right clients to be willing to see those sorts of
Speaker:people. So we've just done a couple of CFOs, one in the Premier League, one in the championship,
Speaker:and particularly in the championship appointment. They were, the club are really forward thinking.
Speaker:They're really kind of looking for candidates that weren't from a football background. I
Speaker:think sometimes, you know, if you've been Aston Villa's commercial director for 10 years, and
Speaker:then you get the commercial job at Birmingham city for the following five years, it loses
Speaker:its kind of credibility at times really, you know, whereas actually, if there's somebody
Speaker:that's worked in a finance capacity for a really big conglomerate, big company that's down the
Speaker:road, is aware of... the region and the sort of nuances of maybe working in the Northeast
Speaker:or down in the Southwest, that's hugely valuable to a client. So again, it's led by us meeting
Speaker:them, taking a really great brief, getting an understanding of the support that the team
Speaker:around them is. So if the rest of the finance department are all solid with football backgrounds,
Speaker:they've got their head and sort of geared around PSR and football finance, then actually they
Speaker:could maybe afford this new CFO doesn't need to have. great football experience, but they
Speaker:could have led a brilliant team of a multi-million pound organisation and have that sort of strength
Speaker:to it. So if someone was looking to do that, and if somebody are watching or listening now,
Speaker:I guess you'd welcome somebody reaching out to you going, look, I'd love to make that move.
Speaker:This is my career. It's not sport related, but can you see something for me? Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah. I think it's really important that the industry needs to have fresh ideas and new
Speaker:people in it all the time. You guys will probably vouch for that in football clubs. Sometimes
Speaker:it's... People that have been there for so long and they get the next job because they've been
Speaker:there and been at the club down the road. We want new people that have worked in maybe like
Speaker:affiliated and associated industries, entertainment, know, stadia venues, events, those sorts of
Speaker:things are natural kind of easy switches. But yeah, I mean, I just put two great commercial
Speaker:people into a football club down south this week. One was a recruiter like myself, you
Speaker:know, and I think what recruitment gives you is hard sales experience and they wanted somebody
Speaker:that's going to go and Find them regional partners, you who's going to come and join our networking
Speaker:club, our business club at the football club. Who's going to take hospitality from us. And
Speaker:that recruitment sort of background that my candidate had was, well, really hard sales
Speaker:experience. You know, he's been out, he's attended meetings, he spoke to lots of people and finding
Speaker:things that are kind of associated and assimilated to the job. And I used to find, sorry to go
Speaker:across, that when it came to recruitment, I found that if you did take people out of another
Speaker:industry, so, you know, we've got someone in SGI at the moment, Taylor. He's our head of
Speaker:sponsorship. I took him out of the car industry. He'd been very, very conditioned to a sales
Speaker:environment. It's literally numbers game. I've done it with recruiters. I've taken people
Speaker:out of recruitment and put them into sport. And I think the difference behind that is that
Speaker:I do believe there's a movement within sport. If you're going on the upside, so if you're
Speaker:going from one role, you've proven yourself at entry level, you've hit your KPIs. you've
Speaker:proven yourself for three or four years in that or maybe less in that role, then you can move
Speaker:up into maybe a high grade position. So I do think the transfer of skills across sport within
Speaker:sport, as in people are still in it and working it, but bringing new people in with fresh perspective
Speaker:was like a big thing for me. So whenever I was in a club, I always thought, you know what,
Speaker:I'm looking for a hospitality sales executive. I don't want to bring someone from another
Speaker:club because They're going to be used to the way they sell it, the way that and I don't
Speaker:want them to be the way they sell it. It's the way we sell it and how we achieve our numbers
Speaker:is based on a method. And having people that don't have any preconceived ideas is sometimes
Speaker:a really good thing. My next question was going to be that on the surface, you might think
Speaker:recruitment and sponsorship and partnerships don't necessarily sit together, but we've talked
Speaker:about it in a previous episode and I think it's kind of proven today actually, they niche very
Speaker:well together, don't they really? Yeah, 100%. You know, uh I don't You know, the process
Speaker:is very, very similar. You know, it's a human based environment, you know, people buy from
Speaker:people. Um, and as Ian has just mentioned about your bits, was no way on this planet, they
Speaker:would have known anything about battle of the beasts unless we alerted them to it. And it
Speaker:could be exactly the same for Harry. He might have a candidate sat in a football club that's
Speaker:quite happy in what they're doing, but there's another £20,000 available because they could
Speaker:potentially move up a level based on what they've done, their experience, background. And Harry's
Speaker:saying, look, I'm backing you for this role. I think you should be considered for it. And
Speaker:then Harry would sell the reasons behind it. I've looked at your background, I've looked
Speaker:at your track record, hopefully your CV, you know, echoes what you've done. And I'm to
Speaker:put you forward to my client because I think you're a really good prospect. So they're
Speaker:very, very similar. I was going to finish on our final thing of we've got to work out
Speaker:who the best Premier League defender is now really, because we've done the goalkeeper,
Speaker:haven't we? Do you remember who we went for in the end? Who was it? Defender or goalkeeper?
Speaker:Who was the best goalkeeper? It was David Seaman.
Speaker:So we're building from the back then. Best defender we've got to go for. Adrian, I'm going to start
Speaker:with you. Kyle Walker or Sol Campbell? Sol Campbell. Sol Campbell. Okay. Sol Campbell or Gary Neville?
Speaker:Sol Campbell. No hesitation. Okay. Fair enough. Sol Campbell or Nemanja Vigic? Tough one. I
Speaker:still think Sol Campbell. Sol Campbell goes straight. Right, Harry, on to you. Okay. Sol
Speaker:Campbell or Vincent Company? Oh, that is difficult. Vincent Company. Vincent Company. Okay, Vincent
Speaker:Company or Tony Adams, It just slightly falls outside of my era, but I'll stick with Vincent
Speaker:Company. Vincent Company. Okay, last one for you then Harry. Vincent Company or Rio Ferdinand?
Speaker:Vincent Company. Vincent Company. Oh, no hesitation. Okay, Ian, here we go. Vincent Company or
Speaker:Virgil van Dijk? Van Dijk. No hesitation. All right. Van Dijk or Ashley Cole? Come on, Ian.
Speaker:Ashley Cole for me is one of the best left backs in the world ever. to be fair, I'm going
Speaker:to do Ashley Cole. Agonizing. Okay. And finally, this will be the winner, Ashley Cole or John
Speaker:Terry? Good question that is, Isn't it? God, that's a tough one that is. Ashley Cole. Ashley
Speaker:Cole's won it. Do we have agreement from... Both Premier League Hall of Famers, those two.
Speaker:Yeah, happy with that. Any other honourable mentions that we've missed out? you think?
Speaker:Paul McGrath. Paul McGrath. Unbelievable. Best central defenders Aston Villa have ever seen.
Speaker:Martin Granger. oh think we're scraping now, we're reaching aren't we? Paul Martin if you're
Speaker:listening I apologise. Yes sir Martin, he's a hard man, I'm worried now. Okay it's a nice
Speaker:place to leave it. Thank you gentlemen, we'll catch up again in episode four but if you want
Speaker:to reach out or find out more about what Sporting Group International do or sporting jobs for
Speaker:that matter, do find them on LinkedIn. that way and we'll catch you in the next episode.
