The Brisbane Heat have the biggest social media following of any team in Australia and Oceania- more than double the Broncos, more than quadruple Collingwood. They’ve just won the BBL- and were WBBL finalists- with crowds and TV numbers almost doubled season-on-season. Heat Commercial Partnerships Boss Hugh Raleigh takes us inside his current pitch to the major sponsor market. 

Only 16% of Australia’s STEM workforce are women. That figure in the United States is only slightly better at 27%. 

American sports executive Marilou McFarlane founded not-for-profit Women in Sports Tech (WiST) in 2017 to help drive industry change. WiST works with the NBA, Nike, NBC and some of the biggest names in sport to create gender equality.

Emma Henzes works with sports performance tech company Teamworks- who’s clients range from NFL team to the US military. Emma is a product of the WiST family. 

Marilou and Emma tell us how far we’ve come, how far we have to go, and how we’ll get there. 

Data is power, and it is profit. It has made some of the richest companies and the richest people in the world. The game is about to change. Third-party cookies are about to be wiped forever. What comes next? Sportradar’s Vice President Mike Falconer tells us now. 

NRLW star Andie Robinson is one of the most exciting players in the country. The Cronulla Sharks 21 year-old has been described by Phil Gould as an “X-factor player”. Robinson is also a journalist, working with Fox League. Today we discuss the business of women’s sport, a passion for role modelling, brand building, her media career and the challenge of social media bullying. 

Gabriela Knutson became a prodigious Collegiate athlete, dominating courts across America.

She left the sport age 19 to pursue her passion for Climate Science. 

Gabriela moved to the UK completed a Master of Science and Marketing, and then a Master of Sustainability, Energy and Environment. 

She came back to Washington DC for a position with the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions.

But the passion for tennis that burned bright in her childhood began to flicker again, and at the start of 2022 she entered a minor league tournament “just for fun.”

Less than two years later, Knutson has climbed from being ranked 700 in the world, to now 150, and is on the eve of making her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open.

Today, Gabriela opens up with a real and raw insight into the life of a pro tennis player grinding on tour, and how she’s building a tennis career, a brand, a business, and a career as a journalist. 

Craig Tiley is a world-leading sports CEO.

He revolutionised the Australian Open- upending its old business model, by bringing media rights, sponsorship and merchandise in-house.

Media rights and sponsorship revenue has tripled, and attendance revenue has more than doubled.

The 2023 Australian Open broke the all-time world record for the most attended tennis event in history. 

Naomi Osaka says the AO is one Slam where “players feel like they have a voice.”

Tennis Australia is on the way to becoming a billion dollar company, now with its own venture capital fund, and a huge focus on world-leading tech.

Craig Tiley tells The Ministry of Sport Podcast he wants to see complete convergence between augmented reality and virtual reality, where “We're going from a million people coming on site to a billion people that feel like they're on site.”

Tiley takes us inside his approach to make the Australian Open the “master of its own destiny”, he shares his passion about gender equality, and his own journey from serving in the military, to sleeping at a train station, to daring to dream, and now running a globally iconic brand. 

Paul Roos is the transformative figure of modern Australian sport. He re-wrote the rule book on being a coach. 

Today- sport is all about culture, values, authenticity and vulnerability. Paul Roos started that- 20 years ago- and mastered it. 

He coached the Sydney Swans to their first AFL premiership in 72 years, then saved the Melbourne Football Club- taking a perennial on-field loser, and building a premiership-wining organisation. 

Roos now works with the biggest sports teams and corporates all over the globe, with his company Performance by Design.

Today, Roosy gives us a look under the hood of how we can all find that winning formula. 

Stirling Mortlock says Dan Herbert is the right person at the right time to lead Rugby Australia. 

Mortlock has also told the Ministry of Sport Podcast, out-going boss Hamish McLennan deserves credit for bringing the game from the financial brink.

The former Wallabies Captain gives us an insight into his old team-mate, Herbert, his take on the shake-up, as well as the Eddie Jones tenure, and the future hopes of our Wallabies side.

Mortlock is also co-founder of XV Capital, venture capital and advisory firm, helping to shape the future of sport with world-leading technology. 

He’s behind the hottest sport tech product on the planet- the Smart Ball.

The Smart Ball has now been adopted by the AFL, is used in global rugby union, being pursued by soccer in Europe, and pushing into American Football. 

Mortlock gives us a rare insight into the future of sport.

In an Australian exclusive, the world’s biggest sports tech company, Sportradar has given The Ministry of Sport Podcast behind the scenes access to the NBA’s latest tech revolution. 

The NBA and Sportradar have joined forces to launch human tracking technology that three-dimensionally captures 29 data points on each player live on court. 

Previously, each player was a single two-dimensional dot.

The skeletal tracking is created by artificial intelligence and computer vision, with 14 cameras placed around the playing arena extracting high performance data.

The technology also launches a major opportunity for avatar building, gamification, fan engagement, and broadcast properties.

Sportradar Global Basketball boss Ben Turner takes us behind-the-scenes of how the tech was created, how it is now unfolding in the new NBA season, and where it can go next.