Money Games: Profiting from the Convergence of Sports and Entertainment

As former Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America Inc., Perrin oversaw many aspects of internationally recognized marketing and public relations programs. She oversaw all public relations, public and government affairs, investor relations, internal communications, international communications and community relations for the global company. She is a well-known spokesperson and has brought great personality to many of her interviews. Before joining Nintendo, Kaplan served as Vice President for The Rockey Company, a nationally recognized Seattle-based public relations and public affairs firm. Prior to that, Kaplan was in journalism with KING Broadcasting, Seattle's NBC affiliate, and managed political communications for the state capitol and several White House campaigns.

Kaplan craves the constant change of new media and creating 'firsts' on how to meld it with traditional marketing.

Kaplan is deeply involved in numerous non-profit and advocacy activities, including animal rescue, and cancer education. She is a jokester, loves to cook and only exercises because she has to.

Will Kassoy currently serves as Senior Vice President, Head of Publishing at Guitar Hero. In this role, Mr. Kassoy oversees all global brand management activities and contributes to the company’s slate development. Prior to this, Mr. Kassoy has held a variety of leadership positions in global brand management. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President, Global Brand Management for Activision Publishing, leading Activision’s marketing organization inclusive of global brand management, research, marketing communications and business development.

Before joining Activision, Mr. Kassoy was employed by The Walt Disney Company – Disney Consumer Products where he held leadership positions in various business units including Disney Interactive, Disney Publishing, Finance and Brand Management. Before joining Disney, Mr. Kassoy worked in Paris, France as a consultant for a firm specializing in artificial intelligence and expert systems. Mr. Kassoy began his career at Capitol Records/EMI in Hollywood, CA.

Mr. Kassoy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics/Business from the University of California Los Angeles.

Blake Krikorian serves as Chief Executive Officer of id8 Group Holdings. Mr. Krikorian co-founded Sling Media, Inc., in 2004 and served as its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board until January 2009. Mr. Krikorian founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of id8 Group Holdings, where he advised companies such as Microsoft, AT&T, Toshiba and Time Warner on product strategy and invested in new product creation. He started his career at General Magic, which ... created the Magic Cap operating system for mobile intelligent communicators and Telescript, an agent-based network programming language for the emerging electronic marketplace (pre-Internet). At General Magic, Mr. Krikorian assisted industry-leading telecom and consumer electronics companies, including NTT, Sony, Mitsubishi Electric, Sanyo, OKI, and Matshusita/Panasonic, in creating and defining new products, and partnerships. In 1994, Mr. Krikorian co-founded the Philips Mobile Computing Group, which was founded by Philips Electronics. As group Product Manager, he built and co-led the team that defined, created, delivered, and marketed the award-winning Velo 1 Windows CE Handheld PC and its associated product line. Mr. Krikorian then left Philips Mobile Computing Group and served as Senior Vice President at Metis Associates, an information technology consulting firm and incubator of core technology companies. He led the creation of Metis' first incubated company, Mainbrace Corporation, which developed and licensed software technologies and manufacture-able device platforms to system OEMs, service providers, and semiconductor vendors. He served as Sling Media, Inc.'s President for the first two years of its operation. He has been a Director of BitGravity, Inc. since August 2008. He serves as a Director of Clicker Media Inc. He serves as Member of Board of Industry Leaders at Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). He served as a Director of Sling Media, Inc. until January 2009. He received the Technology Leadership award by Broadcasting & Cable, was named one of the 25 most influential people in mobile technology (Laptop Magazine), was recognized as an innovator who has changed the face of travel in the 21st Century (Travel & Leisure) and named to Business 2.0's "50 Who Matter Now" and Forbes' "E-Gang" lists. Mr. Krikorian holds a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA.

Timothy J. Leiweke serves as President & CEO of AEG, a collection of companies owned or operated by the organization considered to be one of the world’s leading presenters of sports and entertainment programming.

Recently selected by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 100 most influential people in southern California, and by Sports Business Journal as their Executive of the Year, Leiweke has acquired or merged more than 50 divisions and companies whose alliances create a global live entertainment organization capable of developing, producing, promoting, marketing and managing sports and entertainment programming in both facilities owned and operated by AEG such as STAPLES Center (Los Angeles, CA), O2 World Arena (Berlin) and The O2 (London) as well as numerous other affiliated venues.

AEG Sports owns and operates numerous franchises worldwide including the Los Angeles Kings (NHL), Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo (MLS) in addition to managing events such as the Amgen Tour of California cycling road race and ING Bay to Breakers annual foot race in San Francisco. AEG LIVE, the company’s live entertainment division, is one of the world’s leading concert promotions and touring organizations.

Under Leiweke’s direction, AEG Development is currently focused on the creation of several multi-faceted sports and entertainment districts worldwide including the newly opened L.A. LIVE, a four million square foot / $2.5 billion sports and entertainment district adjacent to STAPLES Center and encompassing six city blocks, featuring NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE, Club Nokia, broadcast facilities for ESPN along with residential housing, entertainment, office space and (coming in first quarter 2010), a 54-story, 1001-room convention “headquarters” destination (featuring The Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels and 224 luxury condominiums – The Residences at The Ritz Carlton – all in a single tower) and a 14-screen Regal Cineplex.

Anne Meurs
Student Researcher, USC Marshall, 2009
Fox Sports

Anne Meurs earned her undergraduate degree from USC Marshall School of Business in May 2009. She is originally from Fallbrook, CA. During her time at USC, she worked on two projects with the Sports Business Institute, as well as interned with various organizations such as Caruso Affiliated, Nike, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. She currently works at Fox Sports in advertising sales and lives in Manhattan Beach, CA.

Sandy Montag is Senior Corporate Vice President of IMG Sports and Entertainment responsible for the operations of the Clients group.  This unit includes Broadcasting, Speakers, Literary, Coaching, and Talent Marketing.  IMG represents some of the most popular athletes, broadcasters, coaches, speakers and personalities including John Madden, Bob Costas, James Brown, Jim Nantz, Peyton Manning, Pat Conroy, Cesar Millan, Ming Tsai, Eli Manning, Bob Knight, Tom Coughlin and Justin Timberlake.  

Mr. Montag also acts as Chief Operation Officer of Ari Fleischer Sports Communications, a media training and crisis management company in the world of sports and entertainment.

Mr. Montag has spent his entire professional career at IMG, joining the company in 1985.   He started as an assistant to John Madden, traveling the country with Mr. Madden by train and on the first “Madden Cruiser.”  Mr. Montag became a Vice President in 1991 and a Senior Vice President responsible for the day-to day operations of the Broadcasting Division in 1995.  He was promoted to his current position in 2005.

In his free time, Mr. Montag enjoys coaching AYSO Soccer and attending his children’s sporting events. He is also active in several charities, serving as President of the Irwin and Judith Montag Memorial Fund which raises money for research on Amyloidosis and Heart Disease. In addition, he serves on the advisory boards for Madden Charities, Tom Coughlin’s “Jay Fund Foundation” and the Alan T. Brown Foundation.

Mr. Montag resides in Westchester, NY with his wife and two children.

One of the most recognizable names in professional sports, Jeff Moorad brings more than 25 years of sports industry experience to San Diego. In February 2009, Moorad and a California-based group reached an agreement to purchase 100% ownership of the Padres over a five-year span. Moorad was named Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, roles which he fills today.

When Moorad was named a member of the executive team of the Arizona Diamondbacks, he brought a wealth of experience in Major League Baseball on the player side of the table. While with Arizona, Moorad was a General Partner, Chief Executive Officer, the spokesman for the D-backs’ ownership group, and oversaw, along with Ken Kendrick, the day-to-day operations of the franchise.

The founder of Moorad Sports Management, he began specializing in athlete representation in 1983, with his main focus on Major League Baseball. Moorad’s reputation as a knowledgeable and respected negotiator has earned him a spot on The Sporting News’ 100 Most Powerful People in Sports on eight occasions, as he helped revolutionize player representation.

Moorad’s client base took off in 1984 when he was retained by Will Clark and four other members of the U.S. Olympic baseball team, each of whom were Top 10 draft choices. He then joined forces with Leigh Steinberg in 1985 to form one of the most dynamic twosomes in the history of sports representation, covering both Major League Baseball and the National Football League. The successful duo negotiated more than $3 billion in athlete contracts throughout their 18 years together, including representing Pro Football Hall of Famers Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon and Thurman Thomas. Moorad was the negotiator on a number of landmark contracts for a baseball client base that included Manny Ramirez, Eric Karros, Ivan Rodriguez, Mo Vaughn, Shawn Green and Raul Mondesi.

Moorad represented more than 40 first-round selections from baseball’s annual First Year Player Draft in his practice, highlighted by breakthrough deals for No. 1 overall selections Darin Erstad (1995) and Pat Burrell (1998), both draft records at the time.

While sports representation occupied the majority of Moorad’s professional time, it also led to work in the entertainment field as he has consulted and appeared in major motion picture projects involving sports. He was the baseball technical consultant for the Universal motion picture “For Love of the Game” and had a cameo appearance in the movie, and then he and former partner Steinberg both appeared in and served as technical consultants to director Cameron Crowe in the 1996 Oscar-winning picture “Jerry Maguire.”

The former President and CEO of Moorad Sports Management, his firm did not stop at athlete representation as Moorad guided it into a variety of sports technology ventures, publishing projects and charitable community projects. Consistent with his civic commitment, Moorad helped his clients understand the responsibility of serving as role models in the community, encouraging them to contribute millions of dollars to community programs, including their own non-profit foundations and alma maters. Leading by example, Moorad endowed a $100,000 scholarship to his alma mater UCLA.

He and his wife, Jan, were also the honorary chairpersons for Childhelp USA’s Childhelp Drive the Dream Gala. He has also been very active in the California Coast and Arizona Chapters of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), a worldwide peer network that creates better Presidents and CEOs through education and idea exchange.

Moorad is also active in helping to raise funds to find a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, through Augie’s Quest. The foundation is named after his good friend Augie Nieto, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2005 after he became one of the most successful innovators in the U.S. fitness industry as the founder, Chairman and CEO of Life Fitness. Moorad helped link Augie’s Quest to the Muscular Dystrophy Association as well as assist in fast-track research funding at Phoenix-based Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), where scientists have already made significant research breakthroughs in less than four years.

Moorad currently serves on the Board of Directors for Citizen Sports Network, a sports entertainment company committed to reshaping the way people think about sports through social networking and its unique virtual sports stock market. He also is on the Board of Directors for TGen and is a Vice President for MDA. He formerly served on the Board of Oakley until the sale of the company to Italian manufacturer, Luxottica.

Moorad ventured into the sport of NASCAR, purchasing controlling interest in Hall of Fame Racing from Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman.

A native of Modesto, Moorad earned an Associate in Arts degree from Modesto Junior College in 1976, where he served as Student Body President, a degree in Political Science (B.A.) in 1978 from UCLA, then received his law degree from Villanova University School of Law (J.D.) in 1981. Jeff and his wife have three sons.

Peter Moore
President, EA Sports
Electronic Arts

One of Sports Business Journal‘s Most Influential People in Sports in 2007 and 2008, Peter Moore, 54, has more than 25 years of leadership experience in gaming, entertainment and consumer products. Since taking over as President of EA SPORTS in September of 2007, Mr. Moore has revitalized one of the most recognized brands in sports and entertainment. He is responsible for strategic leadership of the brand, from product development and global product management to marketing and planning for all packaged goods and online offerings within the EA SPORTS brand. Mr. Moore’s global operation of EA SPORTS is anchored by headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, and development studios in Vancouver, B.C. (EA Canada) and in Orlando, Florida (EA Tiburon).

Mr. Moore has driven innovation in the EA SPORTS core games business, with FIFA 10 and NHL 10 netting the highest critical acclaim of any sports products in the current console generation. FIFA 10 has received more than 50 international awards and honors. The EA SPORTS portfolio has also expanded under Mr. Moore’s leadership to captivate a broader audience of sports fans, with EA SPORTS Active having launched in May 2009. It is the most critically acclaimed interactive fitness product available.

In addition, Mr. Moore has lead new strategic initiatives to expand the reach of the EA SPORTS brand throughout the fabric of sports. Mr. Moore was instrumental in the formation of a strategic licensing partnership with IMG, as well as the development of breakthrough technologies such as EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook, an “augmented reality” that integrates EA SPORTS industry-leading video game graphics into real-world television broadcasts on ESPN. EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook was awarded a Sports Emmy Award in 2009 for technical achievement.

Prior to joining EA, Mr. Moore was Corporate Vice President of the Interactive Entertainment Business of Microsoft Corp., where he was responsible for leading both the Xbox® and Games for Windows® businesses, driving games development at Microsoft® Game Studios, as well as cultivating relationships with third-party game publishers and developers around the world. Before joining Microsoft, Mr. Moore was president and COO of SEGA of America, where he was responsible for overseeing SEGA’s videogame business in North America. Prior to his role at SEGA, Moore was senior vice president of marketing at Reebok International Ltd.

Mr. Moore holds a bachelor’s degree from Keele University, United Kingdom, and a Master’s Degree from California State University, Long Beach. Mr. Moore also maintains an executive blog for EA SPORTS fans and followers at http://itsinthegame.ea.com.

Career Timeline:

1982-92 - Patrick USA

Arte Moreno was introduced as the third owner in Angels' franchise history in May 2003. As owner of the Angels, Moreno's impact has been immediate. He has guided the Angels with a large market approach which led to four West Division championships and six consecutive seasons drawing over three million fans, resulting in a combined home attendance of over 20 million. In just four years, his support of the Baseball Operations Department has culminated in the key free-agent signings of 2004 A.L. MVP Vladimir Guerrero, 2005 Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon, eight time Gold Glove outfielder Torii Hunter, Kelvim Escobar, Orlando Cabrera and Gary Matthews Jr.

Following the 2005 season, Moreno was honored by the Los Angeles Sports Council as Los Angeles Sports Executive of the Year. And earlier that year Time Magazine named him as one of the 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America.

During Moreno's tenure, the Angels have been among the industry's best in the areas of Player Development and Scouting. The Angels minor league affiliates have reached the playoffs 21 times while capturing 14 division titles and four league titles. The Angels' farm system posted winning records in five of the six seasons (2003-05-06-07-08) and was named "Minor League Organization of the Year" in 2003 by The Sporting News and 2007 Farm System of the Year by the Minor League News.

Moreno advanced the establishment of the Angels Baseball Foundation in June 2003. The Foundation focuses on initiatives aimed to create and improve education, health care, arts and sciences, and community-related youth programs throughout the region, in addition to providing children the opportunity to experience baseball and its positive attributes.

In addition to his responsibilities with the Angels and various committees within Major League Baseball, Moreno is also a member of the Little League Foundation Board of Trustees, which assists Little Leagues in all 50 U.S. states and more than 70 other countries with more than 2.7 million participants.

In the mid-80s, Moreno was among a group who owned the former single-A Salt Lake Trappers of the Pioneer League. Under his group's ownership, the Trappers went on to win three championships. He was later an original investor in the Arizona Diamondbacks, and a former part owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns.

A native of Tucson, Ariz., Moreno served his country in Viet Nam as a member of the U.S. Army. After his tour of duty, he attended the University of Arizona, graduating with a Bachelors of Science degree in Marketing. Moreno and wife Carole are active in their own philanthropic efforts. They established the Moreno Family Foundation, which supports non-profit organizations focusing on youth and education. They are the parents of three children.

Dave Morgan is the executive editor of Yahoo! North American Audience, overseeing content across the leading news and information sites on the web (Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, omg!, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! TV, and Yahoo! Music). Morgan is charged with expanding original content at Yahoo! along with developing its overall programming of editorial, video, audio and user-generated content. He has also created a 24/7 news team to support all the properties for programming and development of breaking news.

In his first three years, Yahoo! Sports grew into the industry-leading destination and built a reputation for breaking news and a strong original voice. Yahoo! Sports has had the largest audience in the sports category since February 2008, far more than ESPN, the TV network sites and league sites. The site boasts the industry-leading Fantasy Sports audience as well as Rivals, a network of 150 college and high school sites that provide local touch-points to complement Yahoo!’s vast national reach. In March 2010, Yahoo! announced the acquisition of Citizen Sports, adding the industry leader in social media to its portfolio.

Yahoo!’s emergence as a media power was highlighted by its coverage of the Beijing Olympics, drawing millions more users than broadcast-rights holder NBC. As a BusinessWeek profile noted: “Even with no rights to show video from this summer's Olympics competition, Yahoo! pulled off a medal-worthy stunner in Beijing. Thanks to staff-produced stories and commentary from 15 people on-site, including former Olympians Dominique Dawes and Janet Evans, Yahoo Sports' Olympics Web site upset official broadcaster NBC on the Internet. The upstart drew 31.8 million unique visitors over the three weeks of the Games, vs. NBCOlympics.com's 22.9 million, according to comScore Media Metrix.”

Yahoo! repeated the feat at the Vancouver Olympics, almost doubling NBC’s digital audience and setting a sports website record with more than 40 million unique visitors in February, according to comScore..

BusinessWeek named Morgan one of the 100 Most Influential People in Sports for 2008, a list comprised of commissioners from all the major sports leagues, influential professional team owners, and broadcast and digital network executives.

In his new role, Morgan is applying Yahoo! Sports’ best editorial practices across the remaining Yahoo! media properties in an effort to further engage those audiences. He is credited with building the Yahoo! Sports brand through developing the sites unique voice by hiring award winning reporters and editors, many of whom worked at major networks (CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC), ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and large newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, and the Detroit Free Press.

Another key component of his content strategy includes the creation of a blog network headed by Jamie Mottram, the architect of AOL’s blog platforms who joined Yahoo! in 2007. Yahoo!’s network has editors across all the major properties (News, Entertainment, Sports) with a vast contributor network that curates the voice of the internet. The network produces hundreds of content posts a day, keeping Yahoo!’s programming fresh with unique and timely content.

Morgan joined Yahoo! in January 2006 after more than 20 years at the Los Angeles Times, the last six as deputy sports editor running day-to-day operations for the largest sports section in the nation. Morgan was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from Pepperdine University.

David Neal
Executive Producer, NBC Sports
Executive Vice President, NBC Olympics

David Neal has a storied reputation as one of sports television’s leading producers and executives. Over the course of his 30-year career with NBC Sports and Olympics, Neal’s innovation and creativity have been recognized with 30 Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.

Hired as a Production Assistant in 1978, Neal rose rapidly, producing NBC’s NFL studio show in 1981 at the age of 25. Since then, he has been involved with nearly every NBC Sports property – encompassing live events, studio shows, documentaries, and anthology programs. In his three decades at NBC, Neal has produced nine Olympics, four NBA Finals, two World Series, and a Super Bowl pregame show.

In 2001, Neal was named Executive Vice President of NBC Olympics, and is responsible for the production, programming, and technical engineering departments of NBC’s Olympic division.

In July 2005, Neal added the role of Executive Producer of NBC Sports, giving him additional responsibility for all NBC Sports productions

Most recently, Neal produced the Primetime show and the Opening Ceremony during NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, generating an audience of 190 million viewers. The Opening Ceremony drew an audience of 67.5 million, making it the most-watched non-U.S. Opening Ceremony in American television history.

Prior to Vancouver, Neal produced the Primetime show and Opening Ceremony for NBC’s historic (215 million viewers, most-watched event in U.S. television history) coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as he has since the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. NBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics was honored with four Sports Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Live Event Turnaround.

Neal led NBC’s record-breaking coverage (35.7 million viewers) of the spectacular Opening Ceremony, following two years of detailed planning and meetings with the legendary Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. NBC’s coverage of Yimou’s Beijing Opening Ceremony was recognized with a prestigious Peabody Award, which described the broadcast as “an exponential magnification of what once was known as a television spectacular”. The Opening Ceremony also earned Primetime Emmy Awards in three categories, including Outstanding Special Class Program.

In addition to the Opening Ceremony, Neal produced NBC’s Primetime coverage of the Beijing Olympics – and was the chief architect of the strategy to move host Bob Costas out of the studio to broadcast from iconic locations around Beijing – including a historic live broadcast from Tiananmen Square.

In 2006, Neal captured his first Primetime Emmy Award for producing NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Torino Olympic Winter Games, along with 6 Emmy awards for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Those honors followed a record total of 11 Emmy Awards for NBC’s coverage of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games. Neal has won 20 individual Olympic Emmys in total.

Beyond the Olympics, Neal has produced many other memorable NBC Sports live telecasts, including Game Six of the 1998 NBA Finals – Michael Jordan’s dramatic final game with the Chicago Bulls, and the thrilling extra-innings win by the Florida Marlins in Game Seven of the 1997 World Series.

In 2001, Neal combined entertainment with sports, producing live appearances by U2 and Destiny’s Child featuring Beyonce’ at halftime of the NBA Finals match-up between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers.

Neal’s first Emmy Award was for producing and writing the acclaimed documentary retrospective “February 25, 1964: The Championship,” celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the first heavyweight championship fight between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston. He also won an Emmy Award for his edited show opening to NBC’s coverage of the 1988 World Series, in which he intertwined Kirk Gibson’s game winning home run in Game One with the climactic scene in the motion picture “The Natural”. In addition, Neal was honored with a National Headliner award for Sports Journalism for his production of “The Great Communicators of Sports” documentary in 1986.

A leader in the drive to incorporate new technology into NBC’s Olympic coverage, Neal received an Emmy Award for his role in the development of the innovative “Dive-Cam” underwater camera, which debuted on NBC’s coverage of diving at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Neal has expanded the use of virtual graphics – beginning with the creation of virtual names and flags superimposed in swimming lanes at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Speaking at the 2007 HD World Conference in New York City, Neal predicted that the Beijing Olympics would be “a signature moment for the adoption of high-definition as a mainstream delivery medium for consumers”.

In September 2008, Neal was ranked #13 in the Mediaweek 50 recognizing “the overall impact executives have on their industries, in terms of setting new industry standards or best practices”.

Neal graduated from the University of Southern California in 1978 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. Neal’s father – the late Roy Neal – was a much honored and respected NBC News correspondent, producer and executive from 1948-86. Neal was born in Newport News, Va., and raised in Woodland Hills, Calif. He now resides with his wife Jen in Manhattan.