Sam Jones has been appointed chief executive of OverTier, the joint venture between global sports marketing company Bruin Sports Capital and advertising and public relations giant WPP that runs the OTT business of American football league the NFL throughout Europe.
Jones (pictured) most recently served as group managing director and main board member of Bauer Media Group and was responsible for building the digital operation of 100-plus brands and ultimately the digital transformation of one of the world’s leading private global media companies and largest radio group in Europe.
The Bruin-WPP venture was formed in June in order to drive expansion of the NFL’s Game Pass over-the-top service throughout Europe.
Through the agreement with the league, Bruin and WPP formed a new company that, through its strategic license from the NFL, will evolve the Game Pass business as part of the league’s international growth strategy.
In his new role, Jones will report to George Pyne, chief executive of Bruin Sports Capital, and will also serve as advisor to Bruin on digital business ventures.
Jones said: “Bruin and WPP have built an organisation that will lead the change in how we watch live sports, informing the future of TV over the next five years. The NFL is an iconic and data-driven sport which is perfectly placed to lead all others in the OTT experience for its fans.”
Pyne added: “Sam is a visionary with an outstanding track record of shaping businesses to capitalise on consumer demand across all digital channels to become long-term growth enterprises. His acute perspective on the nexus of the shifting tides of digital consumption and entertainment will be a driving force in taking the NFL Game Pass to completely new horizons.”
Through the venture, sports media and technology firm Deltatre, a Bruin company, will power NFL Game Pass across a combined 61 European countries and territories. This includes the development of a new product optimised for cross-platform viewing. Deltatre will also manage end-to-end technology delivery, streaming, user-facing applications, back-end support, payments and customer service.
Digital media services will be led by data-driven sports marketing agency, Two Circles, which is part of GroupM’s ESP Properties and supported by fellow WPP agencies MEC and Ogilvy. Two Circles will work alongside Bruin and Deltatre to grow NFL Game Pass’ European subscriber base.
The new NFL Game Pass debuts this week to coincide with the start of the new NFL season.