FIXTURE Weekly: Launch Week

Hey!

Welcome to Issue #001 of FIXTURE Weekly.

Every Sunday at 11am, we'll be in your inbox with what's happening across athlete marketing, brand partnerships and the business of sport. We track the deals, the campaigns, the cultural shifts and the business moves shaping the athlete-brand space globally. Whether you're an athlete, a brand, an agent, a marketer or just a fan of the game behind the game - this is for you.

Now let's get into it.

This week, we officially launched FIXTURE.

We build athlete brands. Strategy, content, commercial, talent management and PR. All of it, as one team, built around the athlete. The career is the foundation, and the brand is what lasts.

We wanted a name that felt like it belonged in sport. A fixture is a game - something that matters, something that's locked in. But for us it goes deeper. We are a permanent fixture in every athlete's team. The constant. The one that's always in their corner.

The new era of athlete marketing is here. And we're building it.

We went to Google HQ

This week, Ellie and Lewis headed to Google's London headquarters to meet with the Head of Sport at YouTube. The conversation covered the rise of athlete-driven content on the platform, our work with athletes including Dani Gibson's behind-the-scenes content from The Hundred, where commercial opportunities on YouTube are heading and what we're building with FIXTURE. Athlete-owned content on YouTube is a serious business and this was a conversation that confirmed we're thinking about it in exactly the right way.

Connar Mackay x Nike

Big news from inside FIXTURE this week. Our athlete Connar has partnered with Nike as part of their NIL program. NIL continues to reshape the landscape for the next generation of athletes and a Nike partnership is about as strong a statement of intent as it gets. This is exactly the kind of commercial opportunity we're here to build. Watch this space.

The UK women's sport sponsorship opportunity just got harder to ignore

Fresh research from the Women's Sport Trust this week puts some serious numbers behind what many in the industry have been feeling. Awareness of women's sport sponsorship has reached a new high, with 28.9 million UK adults now aware of at least one partnership. Meanwhile, 9.96 million consumers say they are more likely to buy from a brand that sponsors women's sport - compared to 8.38 million for men's sport. And here's the stat that should reshape every brief: 30% of consumers feel more positive about a brand that has ambassador partnerships with female athletes, versus 23% for male athletes. The commercial case is no longer emerging - it's undeniable.

Shake Shack makes its first long-term athlete bet

Shake Shack has partnered with US Amateur Champion Mason Howell in the brand's first long-term athlete partnership, with Howell set to wear the Shake Shack logo on his sleeve while playing alongside Rory McIlroy at the Masters this week, kicking off a two-year sponsorship. It's a smart, culturally sharp move - a consumer brand stepping into sport not through a mega-deal, but through a genuine, story-driven partnership built around a rising name. The kind of activation that performs well beyond the tournament. UK brands, take note.

Athletes as media companies - and the industry is catching up

Leagues, teams and athletes are increasingly acting as media companies, using technology to reach audiences directly. This conversation is happening at the highest levels globally right now, from broadcasters in Las Vegas to our own meeting rooms in London. The question has shifted from "should athletes build audiences?" to "how do we structure deals now that they have?" That is the question FIXTURE was built to answer.

The gambling ban is forcing Premier League clubs to get creative

A quiet but significant shift is underway in UK sport. From 2026/27, gambling companies face a ban on front-of-shirt sponsorships in the Premier League. With eleven clubs currently relying on gambling shirt sponsors, a significant gap in commercial revenue is opening up and brands across every other sector are being handed a once-in-a-generation opportunity to step into the most-watched football league on the planet. For athlete marketers, it is also a reminder that the landscape shifts quickly. The brands building genuine athlete-led narratives now will be the ones clubs want when the reset comes.

Creator-first is the new default - everywhere

Nearly half of all US sports fans and 57% of Gen Z sports fans follow sports influencers. The picture in the UK is no different. The glossy, hyper-produced campaign is being consistently outperformed by content that feels native to the platforms people actually use. Athlete partnerships that generate genuine content rather than polished brand assets are delivering meaningfully better engagement. The brief is changing: "be in the campaign" is becoming "be in the conversation."

Women's sport is past the 'emerging' stage

Can we retire that framing? Women's sport has arrived on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, viewership records continue to fall and sponsorships of women's sport are growing 50% faster than men's, with 86% of sponsors reporting their investment met or exceeded expectations. The smarter question now isn't whether to invest - it's where and how to do it well. The brands getting it right are the ones building long-term relationships with athletes, not swooping in at peak cultural moments for a quick halo.

Thanks for being part of Issue #001. Genuinely means a lot.

Know someone who'd be into this? Send it their way. And if you've spotted something we should cover, hit reply.

See you next Sunday.

— The FIXTURE Team