Approach
Insight before assumption. Governance before platform.
Every engagement runs the same four steps, in the same order, whatever the size. The method is the same one I used inside the leagues, and it is built so that each step pays for the next.
How an engagement works
Four steps01
Diagnose
Score first-party readiness across the six dimensions and find the gap that matters most. The First-Party Index is the front door.
02
Architect
Design the identity spine, data foundation, and governance the strategy actually needs, sequenced so each step pays for the next.
03
Activate
Turn audiences into real-time, cross-channel action, and stand up the measurement that ties it back to revenue.
04
Monetize & govern
Build the clean-room and partnership models that monetize first-party data, with consent enforced by default.
The stack decision
Independent of all of itEvery rights holder now faces the same choice. Buy a sports-native activation platform. Extend an enterprise CDP. Build warehouse-native. Or accept a vendor’s identity graph and rent your own fans back.
Sports-native activation platforms
Good at
Speed to market, brand demand already attached, and signals built for sport.
Where it breaks
You are activating on somebody else's graph, and the fan relationship stays theirs.
Enterprise CDP suites
Good at
Journey orchestration, mature consent tooling, and support a board recognizes.
Where it breaks
The cost curve at profile scale, and slow to model a federated club estate.
Warehouse-native stacks
Good at
Full ownership, the lowest marginal cost, and no vendor lock on the data layer.
Where it breaks
You are buying an engineering team, not a product.
Commercial intelligence & agentic layers
Good at
Fast operational wins and strong internal demand.
Where it breaks
An agent layer over unresolved identity produces faster wrong answers.
I have been on the buying side of all four. I wrote the requirements, ran the RFP, negotiated the contract, and then owned the implementation. I do not resell anyone’s platform and I take no referral fees. Any product advisory I do for a vendor is disclosed in writing.
Most stack failures are not technology failures. They are governance failures that only surface eighteen months in, when two clubs disagree on what a fan is.
There is no right answer, only a right answer for your ownership model, your club autonomy, and your appetite to run engineering.
What I hear first
In the first conversationIdentity
We spend heavily to acquire fans and customers, but once they are in we cannot recognize the same person across ticketing, the app, and email. We are marketing to ghosts.
Governance
Every market and every team built their own data setup. Legal, marketing, and analytics each work from a different version of the truth, and our consent is a patchwork we could not defend.
Monetization
Our first-party data is obviously an asset, but when a partner asks to collaborate in a clean room we cannot say what we can offer, what to charge, or what we are allowed to share.
AI & operating model
We piloted AI in marketing and it demoed well, but nothing shipped, because the data underneath it and the operating model around it were not ready.
Different words, one root cause: a business sitting on real audience value without the identity spine, the governance, and the operating model to turn it into revenue.
The operating model
What I diagnose and build againstFoundations first, then activation and commerce, then the applied AI and operating model that ship it, all applied to the business of sport and media.
01
Connected Identity & Data Foundations
The plumbing everything else depends on, built for a privacy-first world.
- Identity resolution
- CDP architecture
- Clean rooms
- Consent & governance
02
Audience, Activation & Commerce Media
Turning first-party audiences into addressable, measurable revenue.
- Audience strategy
- Cross-channel activation
- Retail & commerce media
- Measurement
03
AI-Enabled Marketing & Operating Models
Where applied AI meets the commercial and org design to actually ship it.
- Applied AI
- Commercial model design
- Operating-model design
- Tier 1 client partnership
04
Sports & Media Business
Rights-adjacent data strategy and stakeholder work, league to club.
- League & club strategy
- Partnership negotiation
- Live-event data
For leagues, clubs & rights holders
The most under-monetized asset in the buildingRecognize the fan everywhere
One identity resolved across ticketing, the app, email, and the stadium gate, so every message reaches a known person.
Make sponsorship measurable
Clean-room collaboration that proves activation value to partners and lets you price inventory on data, not just reach.
Value rights and catchment
Fan catchment, market selection, and rights valuation grounded in real audience data.
Start here