Patrick Nally, one of the founding fathers of the sports marketing industry through his agency West Nally, was a true “gamechanger” at the peak of his success. In this episode, we dive deep into Patrick’s journey—from leaving school at 15 to pioneering the commercial architecture behind the Olympic Games, FIFA, UEFA, and IAAF. These programs, now worth billions, were shaped by one man’s vision. Listen to the stori...
Patrick Nally, one of the founding fathers of the sports marketing industry through his agency West Nally, was a true “gamechanger” at the peak of his success. In this episode, we dive deep into Patrick’s journey—from leaving school at 15 to pioneering the commercial architecture behind the Olympic Games, FIFA, UEFA, and IAAF. These programs, now worth billions, were shaped by one man’s vision. Listen to the stories behind the deals, the drama, and the legacy. And if you want more, grab Patrick’s book.
Key Highlights
- Left school at 15, started as a messenger boy in an advertising agency, moved into PR
- Learned brand dynamics, met Peter West
- At 20, launched a new PR division and proposed sport as a “means of communication” — salary: £1,000/year
- Founded West Nally in the early ’70s; early clients included Benson & Hedges, Gillette — across golf, tennis, snooker
- Grew the agency, moved to larger offices, worked with British Olympics (with BP), brought Kraft into athletics — first bib number sponsorship (1972 & 1976)
- Expanded internationally — Australia, U.S. — as brands saw sport as a goodwill platform
- Met Horst Dassler (adidas) in 1974 post–World Cup; FIFA had 5 staff, no money — Patrick found the funding
- Created FIFA’s development program, brought Coca-Cola in — first global media budget in sport
- Launched projects with IAAF, GAISF, and others; 40–50 staff; new offices in Canada, Japan (with Jack Sakazaki)
- Brought Sepp Blatter into Coca-Cola’s FIFA development program
- 1978 Argentina World Cup: protected Coca-Cola’s rights amid political upheaval; Argentina needed to win — and did
- Coca-Cola guaranteed the CHF 12 million budget — first World Cup with a commercial structure
- Olympic stories: began talks with Moscow 1980 organizers in 1976, well before the boycott
- Deals with Levi’s, Wrigley’s — early brand integration into Olympic movement
- Juan Antonio Samaranch begins positioning himself
- Summer & Winter Olympics staggered every two years
- Explored ownership of Olympic rings; signed key National Olympic Committees (NOCs)
- Driven by desire to achieve; chess-player mindset; failure not an option; importance of the company you keep
- 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain: launched Inter-Soccer program to connect FIFA and UEFA events
- Advocated for “clean stadiums” at the Olympics — supported by IOC Director Monique Berlioux
- 1984 LA Olympics: Peter Ueberroth’s commercial breakthrough
- Horst Dassler stories: son of adidas founder Adi Dassler; payments to Havelange, Primo Nebiolo, and Jean-Marie Weber (“the bag man”)
- Golden Series in track & field — precursor to IAAF World Championships
- At its peak, West Nally had hundreds of staff and offices in London, LA, NY, Tokyo, Australia
- Early ’80s: ISL (International Sport and Leisure) enters — “The Billion Dollar Steal”
- Dassler asked Patrick to buy him out of SMPI (Monaco); Dentsu made a better offer — ISL was born
- Hakuhodo worked closely with West Nally in Japan — triggered Dentsu’s move
- After Horst’s death, a war on all fronts; Patrick stepped away
- Patrick’s book: setting the record straight on the creation of the industry and West Nally’s legacy
- What drives him today: Poker Project, UNESCO, World Olympians Association
About
Patrick Nally has often been described as the founding father of modern sports marketing. Through West Nally, the company he founded in 1970 with Peter West, he created the blueprint on which much of sports marketing is based to this day. His vision and innovation have shaped the way the sports business operates. Patrick’s work created a revolution in sports marketing which involved the identification, ownership and branding of rights and assets, which could then be packaged and offered to category specific sponsors.
This seminal advance ensured valuable exclusivity over a defined and protected set of rights for sponsor brands and, in doing so, ensured that rights owners benefited from previously unheard of fee levels while brands were empowered to create powerful and hugely effective campaigns. It was an approach, which demanded a fresh mind-set from governing bodies, and event hosts, which had previously struggled to manage commercial activities. His approach was the foundation of both FIFA’s and the IOC’s long term marketing strategy
Patrick was responsible for bringing Coca Cola into football; first as the corporate backer of FIFA’s global development programme, then as a founder member of the Inter Soccer 4 programme which generated previously unimaginable sponsorship revenues for major FIFA and UEFA competitions.
He continues to work with many of the world’s best-known brands and leading sports properties and Federations to create outstanding commercial value and marketing benefit for all parties. One of his current roles is to support, as President, the International Federation of Match Poker – a Mind Sport in an eSport wrapper. For an activity to be recognized as a sport.
A “sport” must;
- contain an element of competition
- not rely on any element of “luck” specifically integrated into the sport and not rely on equipment that is provided by a single supplier.
Nally pioneered the development of Match Poker as a digital method of playing poker, and specifically designed to offer poker as an official world sport”. To meet the definition of “sport”, Match Poker was designed so that a large part of the luck inherent in poker was removed and was achieved by having the same cards dealt to players in corresponding positions each time the hand is played – followed by the same flop, turn and river. A player’s performance is then judged not on how
much he won or lost on a hand, but rather by comparing his play with that of every other player who had played that hand. To remove any ‘human error’ Match Poker doesn’t use cards or chips and is fully digital.
Nally remains one of the best-connected individuals and most effective radical thinkers in sports marketing and is at the heart of thought-leadership in the sector through his consultancy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Nally
Follow us on our social sites for the latest updates
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportsentrepreneurs/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcusluerpodcast
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sports-entrepreneurs
Website: https://marcusluer.com
Podcast: https://marcusluer.com/podcast
To get in touch, please email us at podcast@marcusluer.com
Feel Good by MusicbyAden https://soundcloud.com/musicbyaden
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_feel-good
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/bvgIqqRStcQ
