Sporting superstars get behind new athlete media company

Unscriptd, an athlete media company that aims to help professional athletes create and publish their unfiltered personal stories in short-form video format, has launched with the backing of some of the leading stars of world sport.

Unscriptd is seeking to expand the reach and engagement that athletes have with their fans in existing and new markets on a global scale. The technology delivers video content to social media channels and media publishers through a content distribution platform, and will, in the coming months, enable athletes to deliver their video content into China.

Unscriptd, which holds offices in Barcelona, New York, London and Melbourne, has been in development and testing for the past 12 months. The company was founded by Brent Scrimshaw, former vice-president and chief executive of US sportswear giant Nike’s western European operations; along with Ben Crowe, formerly Nike’s Asia Pacific director of sports marketing; and Todd Deacon, a leading sports researcher in the Asian market.

The company is also backed by a roster of high-profile athlete investors, including married tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, along with six-time world surfing champion Stephanie Gilmore, and advisory from executives with strong digital and content publishing credentials, including the former chief commercial officer of Buzzfeed, Andy Wiedlin. In addition, the former head of international partnerships for Red Bull Media House, Peter Northing, joined the team as chief commercial officer last year.

Unscriptd said it is already working with a roster of more than 30 top athletes with a combined social media following exceeding 500 million fans, including the world’s most followed athlete, Real Madrid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, plus Barcelona duo Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique, India cricket captain Virat Kohli and British Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah.

Scrimshaw said: “Unlike anything else in today’s sports media landscape, Unscriptd delivers athletes unfiltered content directly to their fans utilising video as a means to tell their personal stories. Unscriptd is also designed for athletes to unlock and eventually monetise their social footprint, and engage with their fans on a global scale. Not only does Unscriptd provide custom video content optimised for today’s social and mobile world, we will offer a new way for brands to directly align with global elite athletes who share their values. We believe this model is the future of sports publishing.”