UP450: WTF is Infinite Athlete?

Today's guest is Infinite Athlete founder Charlie Ebersol. Infinite Athlete has been a sports business story since the brand suddenly appeared on Chelsea’s shirt at the start of last season.It's a story with a lot of baggage: Charlie Ebersol is the son of actress Susan St James and Dick Ebersol, the legendary NBC Sport chairman. IA is backed by Andreesen Horowitz, Silver Lake, Endeavour and Todd Boehly, the Chelsea co-owner. Insert the boring but important phrase ‘Associated Party Transactions’. All parties were asked by the Premier League about potential conflicts of interest and whether the sponsorship value of the shirt exceeded fair market value, which is a slippery concept in and of itself. The final sentence of this paragraph is: ‘The Premier League approved the deal after thorough scrutiny’.That story, or a version of it, is how many people talk about Infinite Athlete. Charlie Ebersol’s responses to this narrative are really interesting, and I’ll leave you to have a listen and judge for yourself.We then get to the other question, which is: WTF is Infinite Athlete?Using Chelsea as a use case, Ebersol is good on the big problem of sports tech, which AI is about to make worse.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.