Leaders Sport Business Podcast

Leaders Sport Business Podcast


Ep 44: Tim Shriver & the Abu Dhabi sporting landscape

September 24, 2018

$100m F1 betting deal | UEFA's OTT plans | RMC Sport's OTT snag | Tim Shriver and the Special Olympics (starts at 16.23) | Mike Davis and Abu Dhabi's sporting strategy (starts at 37.56).


Tim Shriver is the Chairman of the Special Olympics, a movement that exists to communicate as well as to play. The son of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Shriver guided the movement into its 50th year in 2018.


Recorded in Abu Dhabi during the Special Olympics Regional Games in March, Shriver sets out with typical passion and articulacy the mission of the movement, which now includes over 100,000 events per year and over five million athletes.The Special Olympics will bring its flagship event, the Global Games, to Abu Dhabi again from 14th to 21st March, 2019.


Mike Davis is the Regional Director of CSM Sports & Entertainment in the Middle East and North Africa. CSM has worked closely with the local organising committee for the Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi, and Davis's experience in the region stretches back across the last decade.


On the agenda:


- The power of the Special Olympics' message during times of fear and suspicion;




- The relationship between Abu Dhabi and the Special Olympics and the expectations and objectives on both sides;




- The event-hosting philosophy of the Special Olympics;




- Abu Dhabi's considered and evolving sports and cultural events strategy.