This Week’s Movers in Sports Media and Marketing

This week in the sports media and marketing ecosystem, Twitch snags Doug Scott as the Amazon-owned streaming service’s new CMO, the XFL adds former MSG exec Dave Michael as CTO, and Daina Gjemre joins rEvolution as VP of Talent.

For job openings and more on who’s moving where, check out the Hashtag Sports Weekly roundup.

FIFA brings in Director of Media Rights Amid Restructuring

FIFA has hired Jean-Christophe Petit, formerly of CAA Eleven, as the international governing body’s new Director of Media Rights. The move comes as part of a restructuring of operations under new CCO Simon Thomas, and the departure of Josh Smith, FIFA’s Director of TV Services, who joined the Premier League this month as Global Head of Media Sales. As it’s currently understood, the restructuring at FIFA will combine the commercial and digital departments, which is seen as a logical development given the evolving nature of the digital marketplace. Merging the two departments also signals the departure of Luis Vicente, who just a year ago was appointed the first-ever Chief Digital Transformation and Innovation Officer.

Petit comes to FIFA after 6 years at CAA Eleven, where he was most recently SVP, Head of Media. In the role, he will lead FIFA’s media rights sales and broadcaster services operations.

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Adds Two Industry Vets for New Esports Teams

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment has added former YouTube and Riot Games staffer Alex Rubens and ESPN Senior Editor Ryan Garfat to head up operations for the Los Angeles Gladiators of the Overwatch League and the Los Angeles Guerillas of the upcoming Call of Duty League. Kroenke’s new esports venture will also include a 6,000-person venue, adjacent to the LA Rams new SoFi Stadium, in which the two new hires will also have operational involvement.

Ruben will continue in his current role as Director of Content Strategy for the LA Rams (which Kroenke owns as well) while working on team operations for the Gladiators and Guerillas as the company develops a more concrete esports strategy. Garfat helped launch ESPN’s digital esports group in 2015 and has headed up the platform since last December. Garfat has a wide range of editorial experience spanning from esports, to action sports and basketball, to local news.

Twitch Adds Zynga Exec Doug Scott as Chief Marketing Officer

Twitch has brought on former Zynga marketing exec Doug Scott as Chief Marketing Officer. The hiring comes amidst Twitch’s platform-wide redesign, which the company just announced through its first ad campaign. Other recent hires at Twitch include former Viacom exec Sarah Iooss as Head of North America Sales and prior Google exec Dan Clancy as EVP of Creator and Community Experience. Scott comes to Twitch from Zynga, a mobile gaming company, where he spent three years as CMO.

XFL Adds Dave Michael as CTO

The XFL announced Dave Michael as the league’s new Chief Technology Officer. Michael was most recently Chief Information Officer at Madison Square Garden Networks, and before that was CIO at GroupM North America. Michael will be responsible for developing and overseeing all enterprise, digital product and football technology strategies and initiatives for the league and its eight teams.

rEvolution Hires Daina Gjemre as Vice President of Talent

Global integrated sports marketing agency rEvolution announced the hiring of Daina Gjemre as Vice President of Talent. With over 15 years of HR experience, Gjemre has worked at startups, fast-growth organizations, and large corporate organizations; most recently, she spent more than two years as Director of Human Resources at HBR Consulting. In addition to developing employee-focused strategies at rEvolution, Gjemre will head up HR operations for subsidiaries rEv Youth, a youth-focused marketing agency, REV/XP, an esports marketing agency, and RGE, a global events consultancy.

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