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Welcome to episode 424 of Sports Geek. Today, I want to share something special with you – the story of who we are and what we do at Sports Geek. Whether you've been listening to the podcast since episode one (thank you!), just found us recently, or we've connected on LinkedIn, this post is my way of reintroducing myself and our journey.

I founded Sports Geek 16 years ago. Before that, I was simply a geek – a coder/developer for many years, but also a frustrated sports fan. I started with a clear mission: connecting fans, sports, and sponsors through technology. While I didn't have all the answers when I began, I found my way. And I believe our industry has evolved alongside us.

Over the past 16 years, I've had the privilege of working with an incredible range of clients worldwide, including professional sports teams in Australia, New Zealand, and North America, as well as leagues, sponsors, industry conferences such as SEAT and SportNXT, and athletes.

Beyond our client work, we've become a trusted voice in the industry through this podcast (now over 400 episodes), our weekly Sports Geek newsletter, keynote speeches in Melbourne, London, and across the US, and the webinars we hosted during COVID to help bring the sports industry together. I'm thankful to have helped shape conversations around sports digital, though the podcast is just one aspect of what we do.

Let me walk you through the Sports Geek journey – how we've evolved as the sports industry has matured in the digital space over 16 years. In the early years (2009-2012), we were at the bleeding edge of social media adoption across sports. We helped teams navigate this new frontier – setting up accounts, securing handles, deciding on hashtags, and training athletes, whether individually or in groups like the Socceroos, Matildas, or Olympic teams.

It was an exciting time of starting conversations with fans and continuous testing and learning. We even tapped into our development roots by building a digital loyalty system with the Minnesota Timberwolves that launched at the NBA draft. It was ahead of its time, rewarding fans for using hashtags, retweeting, and engaging with the team, teaching us valuable lessons about social media behaviour.

After the initial phase of setting up accounts and growing audiences, we focused on mastering social data and driving revenue, particularly in ticketing. We developed data-driven campaigns using Meta advertising to sell tickets. One of our big wins was helping the Asian Cup break ticketing records in Australia through Facebook ads.

We also began developing digital asset rate cards. I was constantly hearing: “Our sponsorship team doesn't know what to do with our social media assets. How do we value them?” This led to the genesis of what is now Digital to Dollars, our framework for building out and commercialising digital assets.

Our Facebook ad work and Meta expertise led to new opportunities. We've even spun off an agency called Callee Digital that applies our sports industry lessons to the property sector, securing leads for new property proposals in the Australian market.

We also took a detour into esports, which we now call our “esports adventure.” We owned our own team, Gravitas – launching the brand, hiring gamers, and doing it all. One of our biggest achievements was launching the team in just nine weeks, compared to the typical 18 months for expansion teams. We learned a lot about the gaming and esports space, including how challenging it is. I'm proud that we helped professionalize the space in Australia and New Zealand, particularly when we helped keep the OPL (Oceanic Pro League) alive after Riot decided to shut it down. We made the smart decision to exit in 2022, especially considering the league finally closed in 2024.

If you ever want to discuss esports and what you can do in that space, I've the scars and lived experience to help you understand it.

Coming out of esports coincided with the industry emerging from the pandemic. During COVID, I'm proud that we stepped up to keep the sports industry connected. With everyone restricted to their homes and unable to network or attend conferences, we started the SportsBiz Zooms – weekly calls that at their peak had 80-90 people discussing common problems. We all face the same challenges, just in different markets and under different pressures.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, we renewed our focus on Sports Geek and expanded our services. Before COVID, our first decade was primarily spent on consulting and project work, supporting internal teams. However, we've since pivoted to offer comprehensive channel management and content creation services. We've been managing NFL content in the Australian market since 2021, just finishing our fourth season of producing all content for @NFLAUNZ across multiple channels, with our terrific digital producer Dylan Parkes doing an amazing job.

I'm still conducting digital reviews – whether refreshes with heads of digital or workshops with digital teams to add rigour around strategic goals. I'm also mentoring the next generation of sports professionals, who bring strong knowledge of new platforms and algorithms for TikTok, Instagram, and other channels. Where we're finding most of the work is needed is in understanding different audience segments and the various types of content that resonate with them – which ties directly into our Digital to Dollars approach.

I've been proud to be part of SEAT's reboot since Salt Lake City in 2023 with Josh taking over. I'm looking forward to being in Nashville next week. If you're attending SEAT, please don't hesitate to come say hello!

Over the past 6-9 months, I've dove headfirst into AI and how it can help both me and Sports Geek. I've returned to my geek roots with AI and no-code solutions. I consider myself a “vibes coder,” but AI has enhanced my superpower: helping teams deliver more through efficient processes and smart tools.

We're applying these improvements to our own processes at Sports Geek. Just look at our Sports Business Daily podcast, the Sports Geek Rapid Rundown. It's produced five days a week, and if I did it manually the old way, that would take 5-10 hours of my time (or my staff's time). Now, this 2-3 minute daily podcast is entirely automated using my clone voice and requires only 5-10 minutes of our time per day.

The possibilities for sports organisations, leagues, and media companies are endless in this space. Today, our offerings include AI strategy, workshops, and implementation. That last part is crucial – there's no such thing as an “AI strategy” on its own. It's really about your strategy and how AI can be implemented within it.

We're doing strategic work to identify where AI can be implemented, but then comes the important part: what are you going to do? What implementation steps will you take? What automations will you run? What AI-powered tools will you use? This has become a significant part of our digital strategy work.

Over the past 16 years, I've written numerous long-form strategy documents. If I'm honest, I'm not a fan of writing them. I prefer the implementation part – seeing the plan get executed rather than watching a strategy report collect dust. But I understand the need for both.

Whether I'm working with your team to develop strategy or you're handing it over to us, implementation is key. I enjoy seeing the success that comes from proper execution. We're continuing our content channel management work, building and growing engaged audiences for B2B clients in the sports and sports technology space, as well as geo and location-based accounts like NFL AU and NZ.

The Australian market is particularly enticing for North American organisations. There are many Australian sports fans who love American sports and teams, and you can achieve good cut-through with the right strategy and partner (which I believe Sports Geek is).

We're also doing bespoke campaign work, helping teams and commercial departments develop more effective campaigns and pitches for sponsors. But it always comes down to execution: How does it get built? How does it get promoted? How do you get results? Many ideas fall flat because they lack the execution component – marketing the campaign and securing results. Too often, awesome, creative ideas don't go viral or succeed, but you can mitigate those risks with quality execution.

Additionally, we're expanding into the B2B/B2C content development space, leveraging our expertise in podcasting and video series. I can help as a host for your content or podcast, design a bespoke podcast with you, or work behind the scenes in a producer role to build something compelling for your customers.

When people ask who listens to the Sports Geek podcast, I say: “My past clients, current clients, and future clients.” And I mean it. I love working with podcast listeners because they reach out, having already built trust. They understand me, my philosophy, and what we're trying to do. Then it's up to me to understand you, what you want, and how we can help – whether that's implementing AI to improve team performance or developing content that resonates with your fans.

We can work together in person or, as we've all learned post-COVID, via video calls. I'd love to connect on Butter (our video platform – think of it as Zoom but more fun). I get tremendous satisfaction from seeing clients succeed, whether in their personal careers or watching their content initiatives hit their goals.

Before wrapping up, I'll be at SEAT next week, so there won't be a new episode. We'll be back the following week. I want to extend special thanks to Jess, who has been instrumental in producing the podcast over the past two years. This will be her last podcast as producer. I deeply appreciate all her efforts, especially on the Throwback series, dealing with my constant process changes, and testing new tools. She has done a terrific job as a podcast producer.

If you're attending SEAT in Nashville, please come say hello!

I'll be looking for people who've been on the podcast and those who will be future guests (if you've asked before but haven't booked a time, expect to be chased down a bit harder in Nashville).

And if you're simply a listener who wants to say hello, please do! I love meeting podcast audience members.

I truly appreciate your time and attention. Until next time, I'm Sean Callanan, and thanks for reading (or listening).