SportsPro New York 2024 will continue to debate industry shaping subjects, revealing opportunities in the largest sports broadcast and streaming market in the world.
Across the key themes of content, monetisation, technology, and platforms & distribution hear from the industry innovators and digital disruptors who are navigating the challenges and harnessing the unprecedented opportunities in sports media to grow, engage and monetise their audiences.
SportsPro New York will usher in the new age of sports media as we unlock the strategies that sit at its heart and share the executional tactics to thrive within it.
Be inspired and informed to shape the new age.
2024 Speakers
Jennifer Storms
Chief Marketing Officer
Jennifer ‘Jenny’ Storms is Chief Marketing Officer, Entertainment and Sports, NBCUniversal and Chair of the NBCUniversal Marketing Council. In this role, Storms oversees marketing and consumer engagement around premium live, social and digital content across the NBC Sports and Entertainment portfolio. Her responsibilities include marketing strategy and operations, audience growth, CRM, content development and promotion across all distribution platforms for NBCUniversal Entertainment, which include NBC, USA Network, Bravo, Oxygen, SYFY, E!, UniKids, and NBC Sports.
Brett Yormark
Commissioner
Recognized as one of the most dynamic and innovative executives in sports and entertainment, Brett Yormark began his tenure as the fifth commissioner of the Big 12 Conference on August 1, 2022. He previously held positions at Roc Nation, Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment and NASCAR.
In his brief time as Commissioner of the Big 12, Yormark has elevated the Conference to new heights. Yormark executed a media rights deal with ESPN and Fox, a deal that will run through 2030-31. Additionally, Yormark has placed an emphasis on marketing, brand building and storytelling that has resonated across the college athletics landscape. In the first year of his tenure, Yormark has overseen the early departure of Oklahoma and Texas as well as the integration of four new Big 12 members. Additionally, he led a revamping of the Big 12 Football and Basketball Championships that resulted in revenue and digital engagement highs. Yormark has taken an innovative approach to ensure the Conference resides in places it never has before, creating the first-ever Big 12 Business Advisory Board, executing a partnership with the National Football League to operate a conference-wide Pro Day, teaming up with New York City Parks Department for a summer activation at historic Rucker Park, and bringing celebrity talent such as Fat Joe, Ashanti, Shaq and DJ Khaled into the Big 12 marketing fold.
Yormark served three years as the COO of Roc Nation and Co-CEO of Roc Nation Unified before moving to the Big 12. Roc Nation is a full-service entertainment company supporting a diverse roster of talent via artist management, music publishing, touring, production, strategic brand development and more. The client list includes some of the world’s most recognizable names in the entertainment and sports worlds, such as Rihanna, Alicia Keys, DJ Khaled, Robin Thicke, Megan Thee Stallion, Christina Aguilera, LaMelo Ball, Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne. The company was founded in 2008 by JAY-Z and has offices in New York City, London and Los Angeles.
Yormark joined the company in the fall of 2019 and in his role as COO, focused on optimizing operational resources and building company infrastructure to support continued growth. Yormark also supervised sponsorship, licensing, content partnerships, and brand strategy. In addition, he spearheaded Roc Nation Unified, the organization’s commercial and consultative arm that works with artists, athletes, leagues, teams, and brands.
Prior to Roc Nation, Yormark spent 14 years as President and CEO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE) Global, which manages and controls Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Nets, and the Nets’ NBA G League team, the Long Island Nets. During his tenure, he also expanded BSE’s venue footprint by leading the renovation, reopening and subsequent operation of NYCB LIVE, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island, and Manhattan’s iconic Webster Hall. While at BSE Global, Yormark had oversight for all facets of Barclays Center and NYCB LIVE, including operations, event programming, sales, and marketing.
After joining the Nets in 2005, Yormark led the team’s 2012 move to Brooklyn, including the rebranding that established the Nets as a global lifestyle brand. In overseeing the transformation from New Jersey to Brooklyn, Yormark led the team to placements in the top tier of every major business matrix, including ticket sales, merchandise and sponsorship.
Under his leadership, Barclays Center and NYCB LIVE were consistently named among the industry’s top venues worldwide in ticket sales by leading industry publications such as Billboard, Pollstar, and VenuesNow. Yormark brought the hottest names in music to the venues under his purview, including opening Barclays Center with eight consecutive nights of sold-out shows from legendary rapper JAY-Z. Barclays Center and NYCB LIVE also welcomed legends including Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Billy Joel, Elton John, Coldplay, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Pearl Jam, and many more.
On the sports side of the business, he brought professional boxing back to Brooklyn for the first time since 1931 and saw Barclays Center host dozens of world championship fight nights. College basketball also became a mainstay in Brooklyn, with Yormark securing agreements to host the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament, and the Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Tournament, alongside matchups between many of the nation’s top programs such as Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, and North Carolina, among others.
Before BSE Global, Yormark worked for NASCAR for six years, where he helped build the stock-car racing company into a major sports property. Yormark was named the maximum three times to the “Forty Under 40” list by Sports Business Journal and was selected twice to the “40 Under 40” list by Crain’s New York Business. He is also on the board of the City Parks Foundation, the TJ Martell Foundation and NYC & Company.
Yormark is the proud father of Madison and Drake, and is married to Elaina Scotto.
Mollie Marcoux Samaan
Commissioner
Mollie Marcoux Samaan is the ninth Commissioner of the LPGA since its formation in 1950. Her journey to the LPGA started at Princeton University, where she was a two-sport varsity athlete in soccer and ice hockey before graduating cum laude in 1991. In her senior year, she was awarded the Otto Von Kienbusch Sportswoman of the Year Award given to the University’s top female athlete. Following graduation, Marcoux Samaan served as assistant athletic director, assistant dean of admissions and coach of girls’ ice hockey and soccer at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.
Lara Krug
EVP & CMO
Lara Krug was hired as Kansas City’s Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer on June 29, 2021 and begins her third season in the National Football League in 2023.
As the first CMO in franchise history, Krug oversees all club marketing functions, including brand marketing; community outreach; digital, social and website operations; influencer activation; event entertainment; content production and the Hunt Family Foundation. Krug is also responsible for all consumer products as well.
Seth Bacon
EVP, Media
With the League since 2014 as Senior Vice President, Media for Major League Soccer and Soccer United Marketing, Seth Bacon is responsible for developing and executing the direction of the League’s media and digital properties; overseeing the creation and distribution of content; and managing media partnerships on international, national and regional levels through advanced multimedia agreements.
Bacon and his team work closely with all MLS/SUM media partners, including ESPN, FOX Sports, and Univision in the U.S., TSN and TVA in Canada, a host of international broadcasters around the world, as well as digital and social partners.
Robert Gottlieb
President, Marketing
Robert Gottlieb serves as President, Marketing, FOX Sports, a position he was elevated to in September 2022.
As the company’s head of marketing since 2014, Gottlieb’s team consists of strategic planning, marketing services, consumer marketing, in-house and out-of-house creative and is responsible for all aspects of the network’s on-air, off-air and consumer marketing efforts including television, print, online, radio and outdoor creative for FOX Sports, FS1, FS2, FOX Deportes and FOX Sports Digital assets.
Midge Purce
Soccer Player
Midge Purce is a professional soccer player for the US Women’s National Team (USWNT) and New York’s Gotham FC. Off the field, Midge served on the collective bargaining committee that negotiated the historic equal pay agreement for women in sport. She also serves as the youngest member on Harvard’s Board of Overseers, the university’s second highest governing board. She is a founding member and served as the Executive Director of the Black Women’s Player Collective (BWPC), a non-profit that works to establish equity in sport. Currently, she is executive producing a new soccer focused docu-series that covers athletes in a way sports media never has before.
David Gandler
Co-Founder and CEO
David Gandler is Co-founder and CEO of Fubo (NYSE: FUBO), whose global mission is to aggregate the best in TV, including premium sports, news and entertainment content, through a single app.
Under David’s leadership, Fubo aims to transcend the industry’s current TV model. The company’s sports-first live TV streaming platform, Fubo, is live in the U.S., Canada and Spain. In France, Fubo operates Molotov, the market’s leading live TV streaming platform.
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