Location: Edgbaston, patient UK

Closing Date: 10th October

Overview:

• – Take the initiative in managing the public-facing recreational business systems and help to improve the overall effectiveness through proactive system and operational improvements.
• – Produce an annual plan for Education & Memberships and Compliance.
• – Manage the ECB Education & Membership systems and databases.
• – Manage the reporting, data & financial management and quality and compliance processes.
• – Production of process manuals and training for Business & Membership Team and locally based administrators and County Cricket Board (CCB) Staff.
• – Work with ECB Information Technology (ECB IT) business systems transformation programme to maintain and develop interfaces to other systems such as eLearning, and other partner and ECB systems / relationships and agreements.
• – Oversee all systems and processes required for the management of courses from production to certification including, resource production, compliance, data management, stock, communication and customer services.
• – Oversee the business processes for all Membership applications and renewals including Direct Debits and cheques.
• – Lead the evolution of Education and Memberships to include online and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) projects, working with ECB IT to bring these projects to fruition.
• – Communicate and engage actively with colleagues and partners to help understand, design and implement business and data systems.
• – Help co-ordinate all Key Performance Indicator analysis and communication.
• – Undertake special projects as and when required by the team.

• – Well developed stakeholder management and effective communication (verbally and in writing).
• – A track record of designing business and data processes from scratch.  Including; needs analysis, process design & testing through to implementation and review.
• – Proven experience of using standard business reporting and analysis tools to a high level (e.g. Excel, Crystal Reports), with experience of relational databases and SQL particularly desirable.
• – Proven experience of using third-party CRM or membership systems, and an understanding and ability to manage data migrations, data quality and data protection in a regulatory and compliance environment.
• – Excellent IT Skills (Microsoft Office Suite to an expert level).
• – Proven administrative, project management, forward planning, prioritisation and organisation skills.
• – Full driving licence.
• – Ability to use initiative and work under pressure to meet deadlines.
• – Capacity to develop relationships widely both internally and with key partners.
• – The desire to want to be the best at what you and we do and a commitment to personal development.
• – Self awareness and flexibility.
• – Clarity of direction.
• – Ability to communicate and engage.
• – Ability to manage and support the development of others.
• – Experience of working with and helping to develop database interfaces with eLearning, CRM and ecommerce systems.
• – Membership management and Direct Debit processing experience.
• – Be in possession of or the desire to achieve formal industry specific / chartered standard qualifications
• How to Apply
• Click to apply HERE

English Championship club Bolton Wanderers have agreed a £7.5m takeover by the Sport Shield consortium.

The consortium, prostate which is headed by ex-Bolton player Dean Holdsworth, there signed the necessary paperwork but it is subject to Football League ratification.

Full story HERE.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has signed a four-year deal with UK broadcaster BBC which will see the BBC Sport website provide coverage of all ICC Events until 2019 in the United Kingdom.

The deal allows the BBC to show video clips, symptoms end-of-day round-ups, ask digital preview programming features and archive material in the region.

The partnership started with the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2016, which began in Bangladesh on 27 January, and will end with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, which will be to be hosted by the England and Wales Cricket Board from 30 May to 15 July.

The Chairman of ICC’s Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee, Mr Giles Clarke, said: “As the United Kingdom will be host to three important ICC Events between 2017 and 2019, this deal confirms the ICC’s enthusiasm and commitment to take its events to all its fans irrespective of where they are in the United Kingdom and how they are following these tournaments.

“I have no doubts that this partnership will take cricket coverage to a completely new level and will benefit both the ICC as well as the BBC with cricket being the ultimate winner.”

Barbara Slater, Director BBC Sport said: “There is a strong appetite among audiences for the sport and we’re looking forward to helping deliver them the best of the action from these major events through to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

The online rights will complement our live radio commentary portfolio and popular online offering, giving audiences video of the best of the action wherever they are.”

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Ryder Cup Europe has announced that six nations have submitted bids to host the 2022 Ryder Cup.

Seven nations initially expressed an interest in hosting the famous golf tournament, ed but Denmark decided not to go ahead with a formal bid.

The six bidding nations are Austria, cialis Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.

Despite withdrawing over concerns regarding venue, Turkey confirmed yesterday that they would be launching a bid. That bid has subsuquently been accepted by Ryder Cup officials. 

Ryder Cup Director Richard Hills, said: “The Ryder Cup bidding process has a number of important milestones and we very much look forward to working with the six bidding nations, their representatives, and their national golf federations, in developing the specifics of their respective 2022 bids.

“The key criteria we have in place ensure we evaluate each bid equally on both its sporting and commercial merits, while allowing us to judge each bid fairly and thoroughly.”

David MacLaren, a member of the 2022 Ryder Cup Europe Bid Process Team said: “Given the reassuring level of commitment that the six nations have already displayed in terms of the overall process, we feel it is only fair to give them all a slightly longer period to finalise their bids.”

Formal submissions of bids need to be made by 30 April 2015 and in the lead up to that date, the six bidding nations will host a series of meetings and inspections visits by Ryder Cup Europe officials.

By Christian Radnedge

A leading governance expert has called for more action from sponsors in sport to demand a higher level of ethics and transparency in leading sporting organisations.

Michael Hershman, president of Transparency International and now a board member of the International Centre for Sport Security, spoke to iSportconnect in the same week Emirates announced it had ended its $200 million relationship with FIFA.

The airline had said three years ago that the company was restructuring its sponsorships, which also include Arsenal, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Hamburg.

But many suggest the announcement was hastened by the number of scandals surrounding world football’s governing body. Last year, Emirates was quite vocal in expressing concern about the allegations of corruption in the successful Russian and Qatari bids to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

FIFA confirmed that Emirates had decided not to renew their contract which expires next month, and that talks are ongoing with electronic giants Sony about extending their deal.

In June, Sony said the corruption claims should ‘be investigated appropriately’ and called for FIFA to observe ‘its principles of integrity, ethics and fair play’.

The organisation, run by president Sepp Blatter, earned more than £230 million from sponsors and other marketing partners last year.

But Hershman, a former member of FIFA’s independent governance committee, urged the sponsors to stand up for good governance.

Speaking exclusively to iSportconnect, he said: “I’m very frustrated by what I see as a lack of involvement on the part of sponsors in trying to help create a better environment for governance and compliance in the sporting business.”

Asked whether he believed negative publicity to FIFA would ultimately tarnish brands associated with them, he commented: “It does and I understand this protecting the brand concept.

“But sponsors have been much more aggressive when it comes to dealing with individual athletes who have crossed the line, who have made mistakes in withdrawing support from them, in criticising them, in saying they demand a higher standard from them.

“But at the same time they have not said that about the sporting organisations and I frankly think that it has a lot to do with the fact that they have to negotiate sizeable contracts with these organisations and are afraid to be too critical because it might adversely impact their negotiating positions with the organisations.

Read the full interview with Michael Hersman here.

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The iSportconnect Digital Media and Technology Masterclass in association with Sportaccord once again proved to be hugely successful, with around 50 delegates debating best practice.

The second installment of the Masterclass was held in Lausanne at the iconic Maison du Sport International (MSI) building, home to many leading sports federations.

The organisations represented at the event included FIFA, UEFA, AC Milan, Italian Football Federation, IOC, UCI, FEI, ISAF, Sportaccord, IEC in Sports and many more.

The event was staged in two parts with the Digital session taking place in the morning and the Technology session in the afternoon.

The day began with Richard Ayers (pictured below), CEO of Seven League, moderating the Digital panel which featured Gareth Griffiths, Head of Sports Sponsorship at O2 and Alex Stone, Social Media Manager at FIFA.

Gareth and Alex (pictured below) gave their opinions on big events and the changing nature of sporting and entertainment experiences, mobile technologies, real-time communications and the value of social media.

Speaking about the event, Alex Stone said: “It was very informative and very enjoyable. It’s a great opportunity to talk about what FIFA does, and listen to what others are doing.

“You really learn from people in the same fields. We still have a lot to achieve and by mixing with different people from different sports we can learn a lot just like today.”

Gareth shared Alex’s view, adding: “I really enjoyed it, people were coming from all over the world, it was good to hear the different perspectives and how we all try to be innovative.”

Sanjeev Katwa (pictured above), former IT Director at City Football Group, moderated the Technology panel which was the second session of the day, featuring Daniel Marion, Head of ICT at UEFA, Roberto Garcia Riopedre, Head of Sales and Marketing at Atos MEV and Guy Horne, General Director of IEC in Sports.

Daniel, Roberto and Guy (pictured below) discussed fan experiences, connected stadiums and venues and what new technologies they see emerging in the coming years.

Roberto Garcia delivered a great presentation introducing Atos Major Events and how they impact the sport industry through business technology services, such as connected stadiums and digital fan engagement.

He introduced the delegates to the Atos SMART player (Sports Media Application in Real Time) which allows fans to stream any Olympic competition with real-time graphics.

Giving his thoughts on the event as a whole, Roberto (pictured above) said: “It was amazing; I enjoyed it very much, in the morning with the more technical debate and in the afternoon with my colleagues. We can never stop speaking about all this and we really need to develop this, for the fans.”

UEFA’s Daniel Marion said: “It was good to be in Lausanne surrounded by all our colleagues from the sports federations and clubs. The whole crowd was asking questions, everyone was participating, it was fantastic.”

Guy Horne (pictured above) was impressed with the quality of the speakers at the Masterclass. He said: “The conference was really good, really thought-provoking. We had two of the leading exponents, with both O2 and FIFA, how humble and modest and sensible their opinions were, it was really worth listening to.”

iSportconnect would like to thank all of our panellists, delegates and partners for another fantastic Masterclass session. Video highlights will be available through iSportconnect TV soon. We look forward to seeing you all for the iSportconnect Stadia Masterclass in association with Populous.

Delegates enjoying the Technology panel featuring Daniel Marion, Guy Horne and Roberto ‘Tito’ Garcia.

Andrew Meikle (CEO & Co-Founder of Sportlobster, left) Nick Cook (Marketing Manager, Sportlobster, centre), Shay Sasson (Visual Domains, right)

Networking session in full flow at the Masterclass

Dominique Gobat (Head of Marketing and Communications, AISTS)

Delegates in the MSI building for the Masterclass

Richard Ayers (CEO Seven League)

The exclusive, invitation only Masterclass series, is a unique gathering giving sports technology executives the chance to learn from other top level executives, hear industry insight based, join in on group debates, network in a relaxed environment and book one on one meetings with our top quality panellists.

iSportconnect will have three Digital Media and Technology Masterclass events in 2015, to be held in London, Lausanne and New York. Dates will be announced at the end of the year.

By Steve Moorhouse

The CEO of Aviva Premiership champions Leicester Tigers has said that the new European rugby competition formed by English and French clubs does not need teams from the Pro12 in order for it to be a success.

English and French clubs confirmed their exit from the Heineken Cup and the creation of the Rugby Champions Cup last week, cheap cheap arguing that clubs in the Pro12 had an advantage in qualifying and during the tournament itself.

Despite this, clinic many believe that teams from the Pro12 should participate in the new tournament and have made them welcome to join.

Speaking exclusively to iSportconnect, Tigers CEO Simon Cohen said he would like Pro12 teams in the Rugby Champions Cup, but the tournament would be a success with or without them.

“No I don’t think they need to be there,” said Cohen. “I think it would be nice if they were able to compete. You have to remember that if the clubs and provinces were left to their own devices then undoubtedly they would want to participate in the competition.

“The only reason that they may not participate is because the unions will not permit them to. That seems unfair and smacks of inequality.

“Clubs should be free to run their own competitions and develop their own playing programme as they see fit.”

Level playing field

Cohen also spoke about the Champions Cup and how the new competition would be “equal” across the board.

“I think the new competition will be very successful indeed,” he added. “It will be run as an equal competition. The qualification processes will be equal as will the revenue split. I think it holds great hope for the future.

“Everybody would like to see a European competition but there is no point in being a part of that where the playing field is not level.

“The old ERC competition cannot be the competition for the future of English and French clubs.”

Cohen spoke exclusively to iSportconnect in depth about the subject, why the organisers of the Rugby World Cup 2015 are “removed” from the fans and the importance of sponsorship deals for the club. Read more here.

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