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Published by Pitch Publishing Ltd
OUT JANUARY 20th 2025
Gamechangers and Rainmakers is the story of how sport became big business, along with 40 pivotal moments that helped create a trillion-dollar global entertainment industry. The growing relationship between sport, television and the advertising industry has been key to this development – as have the boundless ambitions of influencers such as Bernie Ecclestone, Billie Jean King, Rupert Murdoch and the founders of Adidas and Puma and their 30 year family feud. The 1980s was the defining decade when sport morphed into primetime entertainment, the Olympics found its mojo, and Nike invented the playbook for brands. Ten years later, Sky won the inaugural Premier League TV contract, UEFA re-launched the European Cup, and a global fan base got hooked on the real-time jeopardy of football, fantasy league, videogames and online betting. As the value and profile of sport soared, new investors wanted to own teams, and ambitious nations wanted to host events - releasing a firehose of unregulated cash and rogue behaviour by some of sport’s top bosses.
Gamechangers and Rainmakers analyses how and why this happened, exploring the new challenges facing sport, such as how it must adapt to stay relevant to young people. Whether the TV money will continue to flow. If sport peaked at the Paris Olympics in 2024, or if the best is still to come?
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- 'FIFA was created in a small room rented out by Pierre de Coubertin to the founding executive committee who wrote the following manifesto for their new organisation: ‘To develop the game; touch the world; build a better future.’ When Sepp Blatter walked up to the FIFA podium in Zürich on 2 December 2010 it was, however, clear that the Class of 2010 had not read the memo as he uttered the following 11 words which would eventually cost him his job, his reputation and send the world of football into freefall: ‘The winner to organise the 2022 FIFA World Cup is … Qatar.’ Blatter looked uneasy when he opened that FIFA-branded envelope but not as uneasy as Bill Clinton did, sitting in the audience that day as part of the USA bid team and fully expecting to walk on stage and lift the World Cup triumphantly above his head. Like Clinton, the media were gobsmacked and with the USA having lost decisively by eight votes to 14 were asking how a country with a population half the size of Yorkshire and an average temperature in July of 43 degrees could get chosen to host a summer World Cup...'
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- David spent the first decade of his career working in television at ITV and Channel 4. The last 25 years have been spent advising some of the world’s top brands, governing bodies and sporting properties on how to unlock value through sports marketing. He wrote this book for two reasons.
- First, to tell the untold story of how sport morphed from being an amateur pastime played on Saturday afternoon - to killer content for modern day brands and broadcasters.
- Second, to provide a rallying cry to sports leaders to create a roadmap for their sports which excites the next cohort of fans: A restless generation who see the world (and consume content) very differently to their parents.
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First published by Pitch Publishing
© 2025, David Stubley
