SportsPro Live at The Kia Oval

I spent a very sunny and warm day at The Kia Oval for the opening of SportsPro Live 2025 - and fittingly, cricket was a recurring theme throughout the day.

One standout session was ‘Accelerating Growth’ featuring Vikram Banerjee, Managing Director of The Hundred. Considering the tournament is only four years old, its current franchise valuation of over £950 million is nothing short of remarkable. Vikram shared insights into how this capital is intended to be distributed across cricket counties, the MCC, and other key stakeholders. With numbers like that, one wonders how much more ‘acceleration’ is even possible.

Later I sat in on a particularly lively panel focused on sports investment. The audience didn’t hold back - one direct question asked why certain Premier League football clubs are so dramatically overvalued. That certainly shifted the energy in the room with Jason from Raine fielding that tricky one. With Nathan and Danny representing the Saudi-backed SURJ and the NEOM project, the conversation naturally steered toward the continued Middle Eastern investment in sport. While there’s no denying the scale of capital being deployed, a subtle undercurrent of ‘Middle East sports fatigue’ was still apparent. Despite the money pouring in, scepticism clearly remains among many in the industry.

All in all, it was a great day - reconnecting with familiar faces, meeting plenty of new ones, and continuing conversations well into the evening at the informal ‘second conference’ at The Beehive Pub. Networking, insights, and new connections: a successful day all round.