Vizrt redoubles its commitment to sports with the signing of Sam Leadsom

Sam Leadsom, responsible for major sports productions in Europe and Asia, joins the Vizrt team as commercial director of global sports.

Leadsom has extensive sports production experience with IMG Media, Fox Sports and Sail GP, where he has been responsible for major sports productions in many parts of the world including the Premier League, Sail GP, Bundesliga, US Masters and Moto GP. He also spent several years in Asia, where he focused on rebranding channels and producing a wide range of award-winning and sustainable content. While in Asia, Sam was also responsible for overseeing the production of FOX Sports across multiple platforms in the region and was a member of the senior team that led the 2014 rebranding of the four sports channels.

Prior to his time in Asia, Sam spent over two decades working in the UK on various sports with IMG Media as Executive Producer, Head of Premier League productions. Sam launched the Premier League’s 24/7 TV channel and oversaw the day-to-day running of all editorial production. In addition, Sam has worked with Sky, BBC, ITV, the European Tour, UEFA and HBS as a producer and director of athletics, tennis, football, cricket, snooker and darts.

Leadsom now joins Vizrt at a very important time for the company, which sees 2022 as a pivotal year for the development of its sports division. “I am delighted to be joining Vizrt at this exciting time for our industry and am looking forward to helping the Vizrt Group bolster its position as the market leader in broadcast technology and continue to support our customers and partners’ aspirations to deliver highly creative sports content,” said the new commercial director in his first statement as part of the Nordic company.

2022, the year of sports

Vizrt will focus much of its 2022 on sports, a year largely marked by sporting competitions such as the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics and the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year. The company expects to “expand and enhance”its sports solutions throughout the year. To this end, it will present a “solid product roadmap” and a “go-to-market strategy” in the near future.

Daniel Nergard, CEO of Vizrt, also welcomed the addition of Leadsom: “We are constantly innovating and want to continue to strengthen our market position in sports. We are doing this through several investments, with the appointment of Sam Leadsom being an initiative that I am particularly excited about. Sam has extensive experience in live sports production. He intuitively thinks like a sports storyteller and will be a vital component in our strategy to develop our sports output in close collaboration with our customers.”