The Future of Sports: Simon Brydon of Synamedia On The New Emerging Technologies That Are Disrupting The World Of Sports

Technology people should not run content businesses. If you don’t understand content stick to technology. But technology is a commodity and commodity prices get driven down. But content in the age of the internet isn’t king, it is far more important — it is Emperor!

New technologies have changed the way we engage in and watch sports. Sensors, Wearable Tech, Video Assistant Referees (VAR), and Instant Replay, are examples of new technologies that have changed the way we play and watch sports. In this interview series called, “The Future of Sports; New Emerging Technologies That Are Disrupting The World Of Sports,” we are talking to sports leaders, athletes, sports tech experts, and sports equipment companies who can talk about the new technologies that are reshaping the sports world.

As a part of this interview, we had the pleasure of interviewing Simon Brydon.

Simon Brydon has worked as a senior executive in the sports industry for 20 years and joined Synamedia in 2020 from Pitch International, a leading global sports marketing agency. From 2008 to 2014, Simon ran the media and digital business of Racing UK where he was responsible for managing and distributing the media rights for the UK’s top 34 racecourses. Simon led the way with several ground-breaking digital media innovations including the first launch of a live subscription service on iPhone and Cycling TV, the live OTT sports TV channel.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Simon Brydon has worked as a senior executive in the sports industry for 20 years. He joined Synamedia in 2020 from Pitch International, a leading global sports marketing agency.

From 2008 to 2014, Simon ran the media and digital business of Racing UK where he was responsible for managing and distributing the media rights for the UK’s top 34 racecourses. Simon led the way with several ground-breaking digital media innovations including the first launch of a live subscription service on iPhone.

In 2003 he created Cycling Television, the live OTT sports TV channel broadcasting the best professional cycling globally. With over 220 days of racing, Cycling TV was a pioneering business and became a world leader in this emerging sector. In 2007 Simon sold the business to a Canadian media company.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Wow, so many stories. At the start of Cycling TV, I had to convince rights owners to sell me live rights. In an effort to do so, I invited an important rights owner to lunch at the famous River Café in west London. It was a beautiful summer day and we were sitting outside by the River Thames in heated debate about the issues of internet security. Suddenly, she got quiet and leaned forward to whisper, “is that who I think it is?” I looked up, saw who she was talking about — a tall man sitting about two feet away from her — and I said “Yes, it is”. She responded, “Sean Connery is my hero; you can have anything you want!” I happen to also be from Edinburgh, Sean Connery’s hometown, so I owe a debt of thanks to the late great Scottish actor.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I love the quotes of the late great Yogi Berra, legendary baseball player, coach, and manager.

Where to start? “You can observe a lot by just watching”, “It’s like déjà vu all over again”, or “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.”

But if I must pick a favourite, it would be “when you come to a fork in the road, take it.” I’ve taken a few forks in a few roads leading me to a fabulous wife, three wonderful children and a great career, especially here at Synamedia. I’ve lived and worked in two of the world’s great cities, London and New York and had a life that I didn’t think possible 35 years ago. I think they’ve been the right forks.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’ve had a lot of help along the way and met some wonderful people in the sports industry who have helped and supported me. My former boss, Richard FitzGerald at Racecourse Media Group, was very supportive and important to me. We didn’t start out strong, but we eventually came to be great friends and really respect and appreciate our different strengths. He once said to me, “Simon, don’t bring me your successes, bring me your problems, that’s where the money is.” And it’s so true, that’s what great leadership is about: helping teams solve problems for the business and its partners.

Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I am a big film fan and I love the work of David Lean, especially Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, but I am going to go with Fred Zinnemann’s A Man For All Seasons. The brilliant script was written by Robert Bolt (who incidentally also wrote the screenplays for Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia) and won the Oscar for best film and best screenplay at the 39th Academy Awards.

“If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we’d live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all… why then perhaps we must stand fast a little — even at the risk of being heroes.”

Robert Bolt: A Man For All Seasons

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. Desperation — you’ve got to want it or need it. I see desperation as different to ambition.
2. Treat people well. It might sound cliché but be nice to those you meet on the way up because you will likely meet them on your way down. When I see people now that I employed straight out of university many years ago doing well, it gives me great pleasure. And you never know, one day I might need them to return the favor!
3. Build strong mutually beneficial relationships and partnerships. A good deal is only a good deal if it works for all parties.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I’m not sure I would say I have brought goodness to the world in the traditional sense, but I certainly haven’t brought anything bad either and if everyone could say that then we’d have a pretty decent world.

Ok wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about the sports technologies that most excite you at the moment? Can you explain why you are passionate about it?

I have to wear a selfish Synamedia hat on this one. Organized criminal piracy involving the theft of the entire live sports catalogue of global broadcasters and rights owners is a major threat to the sports media business as a whole.

Synamedia’s investment in new technology from stopping content from being stolen, such as Synamedia OTT ServiceGuard, understanding the piracy ecosystem and successfully removing stolen content is vital to the industry. If piracy can’t be stopped, the implications for the industry in the age of internet delivered content will have grave economic consequences.

We believe that our new technology capabilities in cyber intelligence and cyber security, including our EverGuard Counter Piracy Security Operation Center, will turn the tide in favor of the media owners and deal a grievous blow to pirates around the world.

Our new solutions and technology — many of them easy to deploy multi-tenanted SaaS services — will also make our technology available, scalable, and affordable to many organizations in need of world class security.

How do you think this might change the world of sports?

I hope it will protect and help broadcasters grow their revenues with consequential benefits for rights owners and the sports involved. The more we invest in sports, the more the quality will improve, and therefore the pleasure, enjoyment and unity sports can bring to people will increase. These antipiracy technologies also help federations further invest in grass roots sports, leading to wider participation which brings many benefits for society, not least improved public health.

Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

No, I can’t. What I can’t believe is how so many people are prepared to embrace illegal services and put their data and security at risk.

What are the 3 things that concern you about the sports industry today? Can you explain? What can be done to address or correct those concerns?

1. Rampant piracy is my overall largest concern, and that’s why I am so passionate about the technologies Synamedia has built to address this massive, expensive problem.
2. A disconnect between community-based clubs, their fans, and the wider interests of money. We recently got a glimpse of what can happen when these two areas clash during the debacle over the formation of the European Super League. The solution is to fine a soccer club owner $10 million if they say the word ‘franchise’!
3. In the OTT world, I worry that a disproportionate amount of revenue in the industry will flow to the big guns, the wealthiest sports organizations and the strong will get stronger, and the weak will get weaker. The solution is innovation and building strong marketing campaigns and sponsorships.

Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. How important business funding is. Always raise far more start-up money than you think you’ll need. Building a new business always takes longer than you might think. It’s a truism of the venture capital world.
2. If you have a great idea, believe in it! Organizations are inherently conservative and slow to change. Believe in your ideas and create a plan to build a great business because many of the major sports organizations are not set up to be innovative. I love baseball for many reasons, one of them being that I admire MLB for its early adopter uptake and innovation in the digital media space with the creation of MLB Advanced Media over 21 years ago; truly visionary.
3. Technology people should not run content businesses. If you don’t understand content stick to technology. But technology is a commodity and commodity prices get driven down. But content in the age of the internet isn’t king, it is far more important — it is Emperor!
4. Put yourself in the customers shoes. Why would they behave any differently to how you yourself would behave?
5. Technology changes quickly, stay nimble, adapt. Always be in a position to embrace the latest innovations and plan how to get out of a technology integration before you get into it.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I am not a fan of macho masculinity in the workplace, we need more women in the sports industry. Though great strides are being made, we have a long way to go. I’d set up a charitable organization and associated fund to assist women to get into the sports business. This organization would identify talent at the University level and work with the sports industry’s employers to properly fund young talent in a multitude of appropriate placements for a period of six months — on condition that each organization participating would guarantee a full time role at the end of the placements. During the process we’d provide mentors and support to candidates and employers. Once in full time employment, each person would commit to repay a percentage of their salary for a defined period of time to the charity in order to invest in further talent recruitment.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

If I said breakfast, a lot of my friends would laugh as I have a reputation for liking a decent lunch. Therefore, I’d choose lunch in New York with Len Blavatnik of Access Industries and majority shareholder of DAZN. He has worked with great friends of mine for many years at Perform and DAZN and I’d like to explain to him the scale of the piracy threat impacting his business and his revenues. I would tell him that he has a very talented team working in security and anti-piracy and exactly how and where he could assist them with additional funding. I’d like him to understand the potential scale of incremental revenues that we could help deliver to his business so that he knows that anti-piracy when done properly, the Synamedia way, is a major return on investment initiative.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Simon Brydon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-brydon-905771129?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3Bt0JdD6fhRhyRzMWOwrfWuA%3D%3D

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!

My pleasure. Thank you!