Rory McIlroy, Gout Gout and the search for sport’s elusive heroes April 16, 2026 Rory McIlroy’s back-to-back Masters triumphs have triggered the inevitable mythologising. Destiny fulfilled, demons banished after previous heartbreak, a journey not only completed but now extended. If he was merely the Hero of Hollywood before (that’s Hollywood, County Down not Los Angeles), to many the golfer has now donned the mantle of universal sporting hero along [...]
New insurance products for female sports stars must cover fertility care April 12, 2026 With changes to insurance products for female sports stars incoming, Dr Mireia Galian says women can’t be undermined though a lack of consideration for fertility support Maintaining good health and wellbeing goes hand in hand with performance for elite athletes. But for women, there’s an added layer. Women’s health and biology – such as natural [...]
Fury: The real fight is not in the ring or ad spend, but brand alignment April 11, 2026 Tonight, when Tyson Fury steps back into the ring, the spectacle will be available live on Netflix to 300m customers worldwide. It is a knockout for audiences. And it will be a showcase event for brand partners too. However, in high-profile environments like this where brands want to make an impression, it is not just [...]
Padel’s growth phase is largely behind it, so what comes next? April 10, 2026 Padel hasn’t taken off in the UK by accident. It has grown quickly because it arrived at exactly the right moment. Like many sports, it benefited from Covid-19. At a time when people were looking for ways to stay active and social, padel offered something simple: it was easy to pick up, played in small [...]
Football clubs are starting to build out their legal benches April 9, 2026 As they say, if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. With the popularity of sports ever-growing, it is no surprise that lawyers are flooding into legal work involving sports. Even the driest M&A deal can be a little more exciting when it involves deals for your favourite [...]
Woods to McIlroy: How Tiger Slam at Masters reshaped economics of sport April 7, 2026 Ahead of the Masters, Nick Keller marks 25 years since Tiger Woods won the Tiger Slam and sports consumption changed forever. When Tiger Woods completed the ‘Tiger Slam’ in 2001 – holding all four major championships at once – it wasn’t just a sporting achievement. It was a cultural marker for how modern sport would [...]
Newcastle United and Everton stadium sales are not solutions, they are delays April 5, 2026 There is a growing sense that elite football is attempting to outmanoeuvre its own reality. Not by solving its structural financial challenges, but by creatively working around them. The recent moves involving Newcastle United and Everton’s stadiums are not clever innovations, but symptoms of a system still unwilling to face the truth. Newcastle’s move to [...]
Back of the Netflix: Sports content is fuelling wave of ad-funded streaming April 4, 2026 Owning live rights is no longer the only way for streaming platforms like Netflix to capture sports audiences, writes Chris Keenan. Could there be a way to engage sports audiences without the billions spent on traditional broadcast rights? It’s this thinking that appears to be shaping Netflix’s latest moves. Over the past year, the streaming [...]
World Cup no longer has global audience – and that’s a marketers challenge April 4, 2026 The domestic football season is hurtling towards its conclusion and, despite England’s drab international break and talk of boycotts, World Cup fever is starting to build. Soon, wallcharts will be pinned up, vintage England kits pulled out from the back of the wardrobe, and Three Lions will find its way onto office playlists. However, this [...]
Investec Champions Cup organisers should meddle with knockouts April 3, 2026 On Wednesday the amount of tickets still available for Harlequins’ Investec Champions Cup round of 16 fixture against Sale Sharks was well over 6,000. Against their registered capacity of 14,800, that could result in an attendance of less than 9,000 – or around 40 per cent empty – come Saturday night. It is a better [...]