Judges 2020

Ben joined DAZN in 2015 as Chief Product Officer. In this role, he oversees all product innovations and new features for the revolutionary sport streaming service that is available on over 96% of devices in all live markets. Prior to DAZN, he was at Amazon as product leader for the Amazon Video Store. Ben has also worked at LOVEFiLM where he was the Digital Product Director launching their streaming video service on web, mobile and TV devices; which was acquired by Amazon. Before this he was at the BBC where he created BBC iPlayer. Ben has been named as one of the top ten technology and Internet innovators in the world by The Observer.

Andrew Hall is Digital Product Director at ATP Media, responsible for the company’s award-winning subscription OTT product, Tennis TV, which offers consumers around the world live HD tennis across mobile, web and streaming devices. The latest incarnation of Tennis TV was launched in time for the 2017 season, and offers subscribers up to 2,000 live matches from 64 ATP tournaments every year as well as on-demand replays, highlights, features and classic matches.

Victoria Cotton is BBC Sport’s Executive Editor for live streaming. She is responsible for the commissioning of content and for further developing the live digital strategy that delivered over 3000 extra hours of live sport to BBC platforms last year. She is also their BBC women’s sport lead and oversees Get Inspired, the BBC Sport’s participation strand.

VP of Strategy & Operations at NFL Media; Gil oversees the Owned & Operated DTC business, including new product development.

Prior to joining the NFL, Gil was a Partner at a top-tier consulting firm in the Media & Entertainment practice, during which he worked with major Hollywood studios, national distributors, major OTT platforms, etc.

Gil’s experience spans internationally having lived and worked in many different countries (UK, Spain, Italy, Israel, Australia, Kenya).

Heading up all content creation for Gfinity, Amanda comes with over 20 years’ experience in the production industry. Prior to joining Gfinity, Amanda was the UFC’s Director of Production across EMEA where she led all original content initiatives and built a world-class production team to deliver every live UFC event across the region.

Prior to that, Amanda was Head of Production Operations for ITV Sport, the UK’s leading terrestrial broadcaster where she was responsible for overseeing the channel’s sports output, including the live coverage of UEFA Champions League, England Internationals, French Open tennis, IPL, Boxing and Motorsport and documentaries including the critically acclaimed Sports Life Stories series.

Guy-Laurent Epstein is the Marketing Director of UEFA Events S.A. set up in 2009 as a wholly owned UEFA subsidiary company; it manages the marketing and commercial interests of UEFA.
In 2002, Guy-Laurent joined UEFA as TV & Sponsorship Manager and soon became Head of Marketing Activities. In 2005, he created the Media Rights unit which is responsible for the overall sales of broadcast rights for UEFA competitions. Thereafter in 2010, he was appointed Marketing Director, responsible for the on-going development of all marketing and commercial activities, including brand, media and sponsorship, across all UEFA competitions.

Sky has appointed Nathan Homer as Director of Trading, Broadband & Sports on the company’s NowTV business.

He will lead the commercial trading team, overseeing customer growth and revenue as well as contributing to the business’s overall strategy on sport and on broadband.

Homer’s previous experience includes work on FMCG, finance and sport brands, after spending 14 years at Procter & Gamble where he ran Gillette’s UK business and the 2012 Olympics campaign, “Proud Sponsor of Mums”. He then moved to Barclays’, heading up the bank’s sponsorship portfolio across sport and entertainment propositions, including the Premier League and ATP Tour Finals.

In her role, Marion establishes and nurtures successful distribution partnerships with publishers across the EMEA region. Prior to joining Roku, Marion held senior business development and partnership management positions at several entertainment companies, including: Orange, MK2 and Musiwave. For the majority of her time at Orange Marion was responsible for all content distribution deals with American entertainment studios and major streaming services. Marion holds a master’s degree in Intellectual Property law from the Bordeaux IV University plus a master’s degree in European Business Law from the University of West England.

Sébastien is Head of Sports at Canal OTT, the digital division of Canal+. After 15+ years in linear broadcasting as a host, announcer and editor in chief he joined in 2015 the digital division as the head of the sports department. In this role, he handles all digital content output on social media and on the proprietary platform MyCanal. Two years ago he launched Canal OTT’s first dedicated social talk show, #LePetitDebrief, reviewing the football week live exclusively on Facebook, Twitter and Dailymotion.

Theo started his career as a truly terrible reporter for BBC local radio but had the good fortune of being let go by the Beeb just as a small Californian outfit called Google launched its UK office. At Google, Theo worked at YouTube managing the Major record labels, bringing Channel 4 onto the platform and launched the Queen’s YouTube channel. Seven years and several stone heavier he left the company to head up Digital at Simon Cowell’s production company Syco before leaving Cowell for the bright lights of Twitter where he heads up the sport partnerships team focussed on video monetization. He has no idea how to verify anyone on Twitter (before anyone asks) but will happily speak to you about video opportunities on the platform.

David Arroyo has led the Dorna Digital team since late 2017 covering MotoGP and the entire portfolio of Championships in Dorna Sports. Since then, MotoGP have radically changed their digital content  strategy obtaining record viewing and engagement figures. Having quickly progressed through the Dorna ranks from web editor, Live Content Specialist and a Media Sales Executive, David was from 2015 to 2017 the Media Director for World Superbike, setting up the entire media team from scratch including Content, Communication, TV Production and Media Sales. From 2011 to 2014, David was also part of the team launching the Mobile Advertising business for Telefonica Digital.

As Commercial Director, ESPN Europe and Africa, Charlie oversees The Walt Disney Company’s commercial activities in sport across Europe & Africa, as well as leading the ESPN team in London. Charlie has been with ESPN since 2013 in a variety of marketing, commercial and strategy roles, and also serves as a trustee of London Sport as well as on the NSPCC Sports Board.

Prior to joining ESPN, he worked for rights owners the RFU and The FA, looking after some of the most iconic brands in English sport including England Rugby and The FA Cup.

After a career spanning e-commerce start-ups and stints in both B2B and B2C publishing, Charlie joined Seven League in 2015, bringing a wealth of commercial digital experience to the sports sector. He has worked with some of the biggest names in sport and entertainment across a variety of projects including devising overall digital strategies; monetising digital channels; selling digital sponsorship; specifying, procuring and delivering digital products; evaluating and improving content performance; devising localisation strategies; planning esports market entry strategies and advising on organisational and team composition.

Clark Pierce is an accomplished, Emmy Award-winning producer and technology industry thought leader who has spent his career in the media and entertainment industries blending business acumen with technical expertise to create innovative digital solutions for his clients and business units.  Pierce spent the majority of his career at FOX Sports, most recently as the architect and general manager of FOX Sports GO.  Pierce is the founder of Emerging Media Technologies, a consulting and service integration company focused on the intersection of live TV, innovation, and technology in the media. He is currently working with sports leagues, startup companies, and larger service providers to maximize the opportunities to help them better connect with their consumers through technology.