Events and Reports
Welcome to Founders Keepers, the podcast series about entrepreneurship and business building from the Leaders Sport Business podcast.
Two Circle co-founder Gareth Balch is the featured guest on this episode.
Balch represented Great Britain as an 800 metre runner before moving into the world of sports business, first with Goodform, and then in the commercial strategy team at Manchester City.
In 2011, at the age of 28, Balch founded Two Circles alongside Matt and Claire Rogan.
Conceived as a digital agency focused on helping sports rights holders develop direct relationships with fans, Two Circles’ marketing mandate matched its business plan perfectly, and it very quickly established itself as the data driven agency in sport. It’s gone on to hoover up business across the UK and Europe – and latterly in the US and internationally too – and is a serial winner of the Agency of the Year gong at the Sport Industry Awards.
Since inception, Two Circles has generated annual revenue and profit growth of 54% and 42% per year on average. It was also named as one of the fastest growing companies in The Sunday Times 100 for two years in a row, and its global footprint has expanded to 500 ‘Two Circlers’ across six cities.
Two Circles was acquired first by WPP in 2015; and then by Bruin Sports Capital – which took a majority stake for $42m in December 2019 – and since then has made four significant acquisitions to strengthen its rights and sponsorship sales, and marketing offerings: sports rights-sales agency TRM Partners, ticket strategy and sales company Sports Ink, award-winning sports content agency LiveWire Sport, and the Australian digital transformation company Codeware, in a deal that was announced just days before this interview took place in January this year.
Leaders Week London, our flagship in person event experience, is returning on the 16th-19th October. Find out more about how you can connect with those at the heart of the global sports industry.
Listen to the podcast below, and subscribe today on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or your chosen podcast platform.
Events and Reports
22 Oct 2024 • Report
Podcast Series – Convergence: An Executive Summary
9 Oct 2024 • Report
Leaders Report – The Ultimate Venue Experiences
16 May 2024 • Report
Leaders Report – Succession in sport: future proofing through planning and development
11 May 2023 • Report
Leaders Report – WOW! Moments: Making an Impact with Major Events within Major Events
29 Nov 2022 • Report
Leaders Report – What’s an app worth today? Making decisions about digital that optimise ROI
22 Sep 2022 • Report
Leaders Report – Data Engines: The numbers, systems and services driving sport’s next generation technology
1 Sep 2022 • Report
Leaders Guide – How to design the perfect high performance away day
17 Aug 2021 • Report
Leaders Special Report – The super aggregators: sports IP pirates have gone OTT
14 Dec 2020 • Report
Leaders Special Report: Building a better normal
25 Feb 2019 • Report
Leaders Special Report: Opportunity and challenge in betting and integrity
30 Nov 2018 • Report
Leaders Special Report: VC & investment in sport
6 Sep 2018 • Report
Skillsets to supercharge the fan experience
Related articles
9 Apr 2024 • Article
National Basketball Players Association Partners With Leaders
18 May 2023 • Article
Broadcast Disruptors Bulletin: IMG’s production base; the art of football analysis; and what Linda Yaccarino’s new job means for sport
27 Apr 2023 • Article
Broadcast Disruptors Bulletin: LFP Media’s transformative hires; Italy’s sports broadcast market analysed; and does women’s sport coverage need more controversy?
29 Mar 2023 • Article
Broadcast Disruptors Bulletin: Brazil’s latest streaming sensation; how school sports is at the forefront of South Africa’s sports broadcast market; and why Fortnite just got a lot more interesting
27 Mar 2023 • Article
Leaders in Sport lands in India as they announce partnership with world-renowned IPL Franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore
17 Mar 2023 • Article
Broadcast Disruptors Bulletin: Serie A, Premiership Rugby and why we might need to talk about Reddit
23 Feb 2023 • Article
Broadcast Disruptors Bulletin: Apple, animation and the Bundesliga’s VAR broadcast plan
10 Feb 2023 • Article
Broadcast Disruptors Bulletin: Serie A and the Bundesliga contemplate media rights investments; what 78.9% of us are doing on TikTok; and why the Atlanta Falcons built a TV studio
31 Jan 2023 • Article
Diversity Series: Welcome to 2023
27 Jan 2023 • Article
Broadcast Disruptors Bulletin: Defining the metaverse; Roblox’s self-assessment; and the NBA-Meta expansion explained
29 Nov 2022 • Article
The Leaders Sport Business Summit Abu Dhabi Returns for 2023
1 Apr 2022 • Article
Leaders and Deloitte Agree Multi-Year Leaders Under 40 Award Sponsorship