Experts in Sport podcast

Experts in Sport: In Conversation with Matt Rogan, co-founder of Two circles on how to disrupt the market with innovation

In the latest episode of the “Experts in Sport” podcast, host Martin Foster sits down with Matt Rogan, Co-Founder of Two Circles, the data driven sport marketing agency.

This episode is part of Experts in Sport’s “In Conversation” series, where we will be hearing from a wide variety of athletes, leaders, and entrepreneurs within sports, exercise, and health industries.

This episode tackles Matt’s career, creating and scaling businesses in the sports and entertainment arena, as well as the story behind his most recent book, “All to Play For”. He also discusses the process behind creating, developing, managing, and eventually exiting Two Circles.

During the episode, Matt shares the thought process behind founding the agency: “We couldn’t see that anyone in the sports agency market had the background or the drive to change the status quo, and so we put our foot down and set up Two Circles to do exactly that.

“The premise behind the name of the business was [due to] the sports and the fans sitting as two very separate circles, both frustrated they don’t know more about the other. Our job was to use data to unify the two circles as much as we could. Hence: Two Circles.”

Matt founded Two Circles in 2011, alongside Gareth Balch, leading the business as Chief Executive, before being promoted to Executive Chairman shortly after. The business grew exponentially, serving 100 clients, including the six biggest sports rights holders in the world.

Nowadays, he is a Non-Executive Director of the English Institute of Sport, Strategic Advisor for several businesses, as well as a member of the UK Sport Major Events Panel. He has been published by Harvard Business Review, even appearing in their 2018 'Top 10 Reads' series.

Listeners of the podcast can subscribe and download the latest episode by visiting iTunes, Spotify, and TuneIn. All subscribers will receive an alert once new episodes are published.

The Experts in Sport podcast is a regular series that brings together experts from across Loughborough University with external thought leaders to discuss the latest research and hot topics in sport and academia with new episodes launched regularly.

ENDS

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Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.

It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2022 QS World University Rankings – the sixth year running – and University of the Year for Sport by The Times and Sunday Times University Guide 2022.

Loughborough is ranked 7th in The UK Complete University Guide 2023, 10th in the Guardian University League Table 2023 and 11th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023.

Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’, and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 over 90% of its research was rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally-excellent’.

In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.

The Loughborough University London campus is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities. It is home to influential thought leaders, pioneering researchers and creative innovators who provide students with the highest quality of teaching and the very latest in modern thinking.

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