Building a #1 Sports Publisher from the Ground Up with GiveMeSport’s Founder, Jae Chalfin #98
England vs Slovakia drew in between 8-11 million viewers. Impressive for traditional media, but imagine building a reach of 10 times that on a sports news site…
Jae Chalfin is the visionary Founder of both GiveMeSport, and also social media agency Sports New Media. With prestigious clients from Wayne Rooney to Rio Ferdinand to FIFA itself, his impact is absolutely staggering.
Discover the journey that took Jae from a humble football website to listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange as he joins us on this week’s episode of Extrology!
In this episode Lee & Jae discuss:
The catalyst moment that sparked Sports New Media
How Jae leveraged social media platforms for huge growth
Making initial connections with huge names like Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney
GiveMeSport’s incredible reach, capitalising on the social media landscape
The uncertain future of sports and social media
Links & references
Extrology: https://www.extrology.com/
https://www.instagram.com/extrologypodcast/
https://www.tiktok.com/@extrology
Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/
Jae Chalfin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaechalfin/
GiveMeSport: https://www.givemesport.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/givemesport/
Get in touch: lee@extrology.com
Episode highlights:
“I enjoyed working in the industry, but I quickly realised at this particular broker that there wasn't much room for promotion. I realised I was an entrepreneur with that itch.” - 16:10 - Jae Chalfin
“I knew Rio Ferdinand's agent. We approached them because he was the perfect sports personality at that time, because he was very open minded. He understood the power of his brand, so he was keen to jump in” - 23:20 - Jae Chalfin
“There was only one challenge we ever faced, and that was running out of money. Everything else was just opportunities and problems to be solved.” - 25:30 - Jae Chalfin
“I remember in the early days, we struggled to get 100 people to read a football article. When we hit 26m fans on our Facebook page, at that point within Facebook, we were bigger than SkySports, ESPN, you name it.” - 33:30 - Jae Chalfin
“I think a lot of what we were trying to disrupt, you know, 10 years ago, is I start to see some of those foundations now, finally, somewhat crumbling.” - 52:45 - Jae Chalfin
Extrology is sponsored by Progresso Talent Partners who for more than 25 years have successfully delivered interim and permanent leadership talent to transform businesses and to hire the talent you need to enable your business to thrive: https://www.progressotalent.com/