In a storied career, Academy Award-winning Lee has explored race relations in his film career spanning the 1980s (Do the Right Thing), 90s (Jungle Fever, Malcolm X), Noughties (Bamboozled) and beyond (Da 5 Bloods, BlacKkKlansman).

Now he has used his talents to promote the Gunners鈥� official software partner Airwallex in an advert.

The short film is set in the pub and 鈥榖lends humour, cultural references and sharp dialogue drawn directly from Arsenal culture鈥�.

Rather than discussing football, fans, former and current players speak about Airwallex and its cross-border services.

Among the legends to feature are Thierry Henry, Martin Keown and Rachel Yankey. Current players Kai Havertz, Gabriel and Viktor Gyokeres also make an appearance, as does actor Jasmine Jobson.

鈥淚鈥檝e been riding with Arsenal for years – it started with Thierry,鈥� Lee told Arsenal.com.

鈥淏ut what really stayed with me is what the club stands for, its history, its culture, the way it reflects the world beyond the pitch.

How rugby league鈥檚 unluckiest player had the last laugh

鈥淲颈迟丑 Who Are Ya?, I wanted to capture that real supporter energy鈥攖he passion, the debates, the humour.

“Fans today don鈥檛 just follow the game, they understand everything around it too. Bringing Airwallex into that conversation felt natural, because the film plays on how fans now talk about the business side of football just as much as what happens on the pitch.

鈥淭his film is about that voice, that culture, and that community.鈥�

Matt Jennings, global creative director at Airwallex, said: “Let鈥檚 be honest – most Arsenal supporters haven’t heard of Airwallex, and we didn’t want to be a random logo on a perimeter board; so we decided to introduce our Arsenal partnership in a way supporters couldn鈥檛 ignore.

“Football isn’t just 90 minutes on the pitch – it鈥檚 the talk about money, business, and tactics that happen at the pub every week. We hope our film brings those conversations to life in an entertaining way, and ensures no Arsenal fan will ever have to ask, “Air-who?”

The 2022 signing which sparked Sunderland AFC’s success

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The listed Manchester firm – led by group CEO Mike Maddison (pictured) – is seeing the benefits of a trading update issued late last week.

For the six-month period ended 31st March 2026, NCC鈥檚 board said it expects revenue on a constant currency basis to have increased by 5% compared to H1 2025 to around 拢151.3 million.

Cyber revenue increased by 5.9% to 拢118.4m, while escode revenue increased by 1.9% to 拢32.9m.

Group adjusted EBITDA is expected to have increased by 27.7% to 拢23.5m.

NCC is looking to become a pure-play global cybersecurity and resilience company by selling its escode business – set to complete shortly pending regulatory approvals – to a private equity company for 拢275m.

On 17th April 2026, the company completed a share buyback programme, returning approximately 拢40m to shareholders.

EQT bids 拢9bn for FTSE 100 firm Intertek

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David Richards MBE, founder of Yorkshire AI Labs, is unequivocal in his view of where the legal profession is heading – and intends to be at the forefront of the disruption.

Yorkshire AI Labs operates a sweat equity and cash model. Among the startups being incubated within it is Lexcelerate, a LegalTech which is targeting remortgages initially but has grander plans long-term.

LEXcelerate has been launched by Yorkshire AI Labs and aims to do for conveyancing what Uber did for taxis. Mark Hewitt, architect of the firm鈥檚 proprietary AI platform, has spent the last 30 years helping manufacturing, legal, insurance and property companies to transform their operations using tech.

鈥淭he starting point was a remortgage,鈥� recalls Mark to 老九品茶Cloud for Founder Friday. 鈥淭he whole process, from start to finish, was atrocious: the lack of communication, the lack of interaction, and actually the mistakes that were made.

鈥淪o I decided that I would have a go – connecting to the land registry, allowing AI to read and understand and interpret documents such as a mortgage offer. And that started to work.鈥�

Mark previously led legal software startup Rebmark from concept to more than 拢1 million in annual recurring revenue before its acquisition by Verisk Analytics, a NASDAQ-listed data analytics group headquartered in New Jersey.

The software was subsequently expanded into the insurance sector and is now used to manage more than 拢10 billion of catastrophic injury claims reserves.

鈥淚 had a lot of legal contacts and so I started to look at whether it could be a piece of software that could be packaged up,鈥� says Mark. 鈥淏ut the reality was that wasn’t going to work – because you would have to throw away everything that a law firm currently does and start from scratch.鈥�

Thinking bigger

He had known David, a multiple-exit entrepreneur, for more than 20 years. As founder of WANdisco, David had dual-headquartered the data firm in Sheffield and San Francisco but stepped down in 2023 after the actions of a rogue sales employee triggered a fraud scandal. The firm subsequently rebranded to Cirata plc.

鈥淚 knew him in passing – and from the pub! – and saw that he was back in Sheffield and launching Yorkshire AI Labs. I basically made it so that he couldn’t avoid me!鈥� says Mark.

鈥淒ave sent me off to speak to mortgage brokers, and also to have my idea sense-checked by Paul.鈥�

This isn鈥檛 any old Paul from down the pub, but Paul Firth – a highly respected figure in British commercial property law who built DLA Piper into one of the world鈥檚 largest law firms and also served as UK regional managing partner at Irwin Mitchell for almost seven years.

鈥淎fter those conversations, I told Dave that this didn鈥檛 work as a software play. He smiled and said: 鈥業 know – you need to think bigger. You have to 鈥榖e鈥� the law firm.鈥�

So rather than bolting software into a law firm, the idea is to replace the case management and practice management systems themselves, rewriting the whole process.

So starting with remortgages, an established law firm might have 20-25 stages, says Mark: 鈥淲e’re past 150 steps, and a lot of them can be automated.

鈥淪o our starting point is to take the mortgage offer and effectively deconstruct it; then go to the land registry and get the title for property.

鈥淭he simplest check is: are the people that are listed on the mortgage offer the people that are listed as the owners of the property? 99.9% of the time that will be the case. But maybe they’ve got married since, leading to a difference in name; maybe there is a spelling mistake in the name; or an incorrect address or date of birth.

鈥淲颈迟丑in about seven seconds of taking that mortgage offer we can highlight any issues that might come down the line; we can then go through the KYC (know-your-customer) and identity checks.

鈥淭he reality is that the computer is better at validating all this than a human is ever going to be.鈥�

Lexcelerate鈥檚 target market is mortgage brokers who ordinarily suggest a law firm to their clients.

鈥淚f you ask a mortgage broker what their key issue is, it鈥檚 communication,鈥� says Mark. 鈥淭hey are forever chasing up to find out where the law firm is in the process.鈥�

Uber model

David draws a parallel with taxi disrupter Uber. 鈥淢inicabs existed – but what Uber did very cleverly was put it into an app; tell you exactly how much it was going to cost; exactly when it was going to arrive; and exactly where it was going to drop you off. All of it tracked.

鈥淎nd what else did Uber do? They鈥檙e the biggest taxi company in the world without actually owning any taxis.鈥�

He expands: 鈥淪o Lexcelerate is a law firm – but in the same way that you can order an Uber, or sign up as an Uber driver, you can find a conveyancer, or register as one in under five minutes.

鈥淲e think we can become the world’s largest virtual law firm, in the same way that Uber is the largest virtual taxi firm.鈥�

Of meeting Mark, he recalls: 鈥淢ark came in and he had the technology, but he didn’t have the customers. So we went out and signed up mortgage brokers straight away. What we then needed was the deep domain expertise.鈥�

The Three Amigos

Enter Paul. 鈥淎t DLA we had a troubled subsidiary called DLA Direct, that were basically doing remortgages for Halifax, Lloyds Bank and people like that, at scale,鈥� Paul says. 鈥淚t was losing money when I got involved; we turned it round and sold it, ultimately, to Capita for about 拢14 million.

鈥淲hat I learned during that process was how much of remortgaging could be basically done by cutting the process down and breaking it up into the constituent parts. This was way before AI [as we know it], but even then we could find significant cost reductions and efficiency improvements on each job.

鈥淭hat’s what first triggered my interest in this. And now, what Mark has produced is highly impressive.鈥�

So impressive, in fact, that Paul agreed to lead Lexcelerate. 鈥淚t’s ready to roll out, and we really do think we can change the market.鈥�

Back to David, the computer scientist who envisions a sea-change of tsunami proportions across industries.

鈥淚n the same way that [large language model] Claude makes a software engineer 25 times more effective, we make lawyers 25 times more effective – which means that there are 25 times too many lawyers,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he disruption is going to be across the entire sphere – most of the tasks are going to be gone.

鈥淏ut what this platform actually does is give lawyers a chance of surviving. It won’t be hard to find a lawyer that’s looking for work – starting now.鈥�

Meet Sheffield founder unlocking healthy device habits for kids

Luddites

Referencing the Luddites who protested against the Industrial Revolution, he continues: 鈥淭here’s going to be massive unemployment. People still live in cloud cuckoo land.鈥�

Yorkshire AI Labs is also looking to build disrupters across orthodontics; journalism; advanced manufacturing; and football scouting.

The next step for Lexcelerate is to buy a law firm, says David. 鈥淲e’re looking at two or three different opportunities. Given what we’re doing, we don’t need to buy something with 100 lawyers in it.

鈥淲e can buy something with zero lawyers, and we will be able to execute. It just needs to be a shell. It just needs the operating license.鈥�

There will be rival startups with the same idea, he admits. 鈥淥ur philosophy is that we’re not bothered about competition. This is a 拢6 trillion global market – I’m okay with the 10% of that! A few hundred billion would be perfectly fine.鈥�

Paul, who acquired tens of businesses at DLA Piper and loves deal-making, says: 鈥淲hat I like about this project is just seeing where we can take it.

鈥淚’ve seen the legal business from the inside and, in many ways, it is very complacent. They think that the chargeable hour is here forever. Big commercial law firms are now charging 拢1,200 an hour for a partner.

鈥淲hy would you want to pay that when you can do it for a fraction of the price and get a better service?鈥�

He adds: 鈥淭his will scale far quicker than DLA, where we were acquiring law firms, trying to integrate cultures from different countries and having to deal with all the regulatory side of international business.鈥�

The shining Dymond at heart of Sheffield鈥檚 tech ecosystem

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The transition, to take place in the coming weeks, will see Simon Badley take up an advisory position.

鈥淭his is the right time for me to step back and for the business to move forward with leadership focused on that next chapter,鈥� said Badley, who joined the Worcester firm in 2019.

Barnard joins Open GI from Aviva General Insurance, where he most recently served as its COO, leading a team of over 1,500 and accountable for technology, transformation and change delivery of the largest general insurance business in the UK.

He previously held numerous senior roles of increasing responsibility within the broader Aviva business and served at the Ardonagh Group, latterly as COO leading the CIO, CISO, transformation and other key operational functions.

The leadership transition comes as Open GI enters its next chapter of growth, having secured new capital from its majority shareholder in 2025 and initiated a strategic plan focused on offering advanced technology solutions, talent acquisition and development, and superior customer service.

鈥楲osing our dads at a young age is what drives incentifi鈥�

鈥淥n behalf of the board, I am delighted to welcome James, a highly regarded and proven leader, to Open GI following a robust search process,鈥� said Peter Thompson, chair of Open GI.

鈥淲颈迟丑 deep sector expertise and a strong background in technological transformation and talent development, James is well-positioned to lead Open GI through its exciting new chapter of growth focused on R&D, data, GenAI, people and our customers.鈥�

Barnard said: 鈥淚 am thrilled to join Open GI, a company I have long admired, at such a pivotal and exciting time in its growth journey.

鈥淥pen GI benefits from a strong suite of technological capabilities, a loyal and quality customer base, and an experienced leadership team.

鈥淎s the sector continues to evolve rapidly, Open GI is on a strong footing to capitalise on the opportunity set and solidify its market leadership.鈥�

Daily Mail owner to sell US data arm in $1bn cash deal

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Trepp was founded in 1979 and acquired by the Daily Mail and General Trust plc in 2004.

It has grown into a provider of data, insights and technology for the structured finance, commercial real estate and banking industries.

Rothermere Continuation Holdings, parent company of DMGT, agreed the sale to Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services.

The timing of completion is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including regulatory clearance.

Lord Rothermere, executive chairman, commented: “We acquired Trepp more than two decades ago and I am immensely proud of Annemarie DiCola (pictured) and her team for building a world-class digital information business.

鈥楲osing our dads at a young age is what drives incentifi鈥�

鈥淔itch will be a brilliant long-term custodian for Trepp. It has the pedigree and experience to drive the next stage of Trepp鈥檚 growth.

鈥淚 have no doubt that Trepp鈥檚 employees and customers can look forward to the future with confidence under Fitch鈥檚 ownership.鈥�

Centerview Partners and Goldman Sachs acted as financial advisers and Baker McKenzie as exclusive legal adviser to RCHL during the disposal process.

Version 1 swoop for CreateFuture 鈥榗reates 鈧�500m powerhouse鈥�

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Having collectively spent over two decades building businesses from the ground up across recruitment, travel and high-end hospitality, it was not their first rodeo. Yet incentifi comes from a very personal place for them both.

鈥淚 lost my dad suddenly when I was young, and in recent years my mum has been living with dementia. It really does change your perspective on life,鈥� Paul tells 老九品茶Cloud. 鈥淵ou start to think much more about your own health and how important it is to make the most of your time.鈥�

After turning 40, he built an online community around a series called 鈥楲ads & Dads鈥� which saw him share a video a day highlighting how men his age could look after themselves – and ultimately have more time with their families.

鈥淭hat is our goal is with incentifi – to create a platform that rewards employees by simply getting their steps in each day, looking after their health and, in return, being rewarded with discounts on their travel and next holiday,鈥� Paul explains.

鈥淢y co-founder James and I unfortunately share a mutual pain of both losing our dads at a very young age. It is what motivates us everyday with building incentifi.鈥�

Rewinding back to 2013, he founded recruitment-to-recruitment agency Madison Warner, with offices in London and Manchester. He then pivoted during the COVID pandemic to become a luxury travel consultant. Madison Warner was dissolved in 2023.

James, meanwhile, spent 15 years in Las Vegas building a VIP hospitality and corporate events company. He still runs London 2 Vegas today, but has returned to the UK to build incentifi.

鈥淲hen we met in 2022, we realised we were both watching teams become dramatically more productive, engaged and energised when the reward wasn鈥檛 another bonus or voucher, but something experiential such as travel,鈥� says Paul.

鈥淲e come from very different industries, but both have taught us the same thing – it is all about putting people first.

鈥淔rom running our own businesses, we saw first-hand that prioritising the wellbeing of your team is essential to success, as people work harder, smarter and more creatively when they feel heard, rested and healthy.鈥�

James says the UK is the best place to start and grow their startup – contrary to the common narrative that entrepreneurs are desperate to leave the UK. The startup has raised more than 拢150,000 pre-seed funding under the SEIS scheme and is targeting 拢500k.

鈥淟ondon is the right place for us to build and grow incentifi: the city has a vibrant startup ecosystem with attractive financial incentives such as the SEIS and EIS schemes which our investors have benefited from,鈥� says Paul.

鈥淭he UK also makes sense for us as a market because it has always been at the forefront of employee wellbeing compared to the US. We get a lot more annual leave, parental leave, health insurance – there is just a much bigger emphasis on wellbeing in the UK, so it makes sense to start here and go from there.鈥�

Being your own boss means there鈥檚 no off switch

incentifi users earn i-Points through daily activity tracked via existing health data from the likes of Apple Health and Google Fit. These points then get converted into i-Coins, which unlock real cash back when booking travel through the incentifi platform.

Coins can be used to reduce the cost of future travel or redeemed for digital gift cards.

鈥淒elivered through employers, we are building a platform that is accessible to every level of the workforce, making wellbeing genuinely motivating and inclusive – and not just a benefit for the few,鈥� explains Paul.

鈥淢ost wellbeing platforms track behaviour and offer token rewards; a discount here, a voucher there. incentifi does something structurally different: it turns consistent healthy habits into real financial value, not symbolic gestures.

鈥淩ather than a one-off yoga class, employees are working towards something tangible and aspirational – a more affordable holiday.

鈥淭he second differentiator is the travel layer itself: incentifi gives employees access to closed user group pricing with wholesale hotel rates unavailable anywhere publicly.

鈥淏efore a single point is earned, the platform already delivers exceptional value. Add cashback on top, and the proposition becomes impossible to ignore.鈥�

So what are their growth plans over the next 12 months?

鈥淲e are looking to launch our pilot soon, with the aim of fully launching soon after,鈥� says Paul. 鈥淲e want to ultimately expand into the insurance, healthcare and consumer space, positioning incentifi at the intersection of health, rewards and commerce.

鈥淥ur growth strategy is all about scaling through employers first. We recently announced our new partnership with Healf, which we are really excited about, as it will allow incentifi users to take part in Healf-branded challenges such as run clubs, movement challenges and lifestyle activities.

鈥淲e want to continue to partner with brands such as Healf to grow incentifi into the best platform available for employee wellbeing.鈥�

Ben McKay: A week in the life of a founder

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The independent co-educational day school in Oldham, founded more than four hundred years ago, is to fully integrate AI through everything it does.

From September 2026, every pupil will be taught AI as a subject in its own right. In addition, all subjects will explicitly consider how AI can be effectively incorporated within the established traditional curriculum to further enhance the outcomes and prospects of all students.

The announcement marks the next phase for the Brenda Mills Institute of Innovation and Technology (BMIIT), Hulme鈥檚 dedicated STEAM hub launched last year. The BMIIT has already become a beacon for regional collaboration, recently hosting a 100-student cross-borough hackathon supported by mentors from University of Manchester, Imperial, AMEX GBT, Koder.ly and Purple AI.

AI will change the world more profoundly than any technology in living memory. Hulme Grammar says schools that shy away from that reality will be doing their pupils an injustice.

Rather than treat the technology as a threat to be policed, Hulme will teach pupils to use it, question it, and build with it from Year 7 upwards.

Lessons dedicated to AI will cover how the technology actually works, its limits and risks, how to prompt and evaluate outputs, and how to combine machine capability with human judgement. Instead of shying away from using AI to support homework, the AI curriculum will support students in how best to use modern tools in order to increase creativity and critical thinking, rather than hinder it by rudimentary AI prompts.

鈥淥ur pupils will graduate into a world still being defined. Our responsibility is to prepare them for it with clarity and purpose,鈥� said Kirsten Pankhurst, principal of Hulme Grammar School.

鈥淭hat means teaching AI explicitly, embedding it across the curriculum, and placing even greater emphasis on the human capabilities 鈥� judgement, creativity, and collaboration 鈥� that will endure.

鈥淎t Hulme, preparing young people for what comes next has always guided our approach. In 2026, this is what that looks like in practice.鈥�

Hulme has secured industry partners who will work directly with the school to shape course content, deliver masterclasses and mentor pupils.

Purple – smart spaces, better experiences

, the enterprise company founded by chair of governors Gavin Wheeldon, will be the founding partner. Further partners from industry will be announced in the coming months.

鈥淚 have spent my career building businesses in AI, and I can tell you that the world is about to change faster than most people realise,鈥� said Wheeldon.

鈥淪chools have a simple choice: lead or hide. Hulme is choosing to lead. By combining more than four hundred years of academic tradition with direct, active partnership from industry, we can give young people in Oldham a genuinely world-class preparation for the world they are walking into.

鈥淏y 2030, an estimated 85% of jobs that will exist haven鈥檛 been invented yet. Our partners will make sure what we teach stays relevant and keeps pace with the pace of change.鈥�

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Based in Wolverhampton, the firm is a data and insights platform serving the top 30 operators in the purpose-built student accommodation sector. It has helped over 14 million students find accommodation to date.

The round was also backed by the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II, through fund manager Mercia Ventures.

Founded by Paul Humphreys and Pete Sisson, StudentCrowd provides a vertically focused platform combining sector data with verified student insight. The business supports operators, investors, developers and advisers across the PBSA market with tools designed to inform pricing strategy, competitive benchmarking, market availability, letting incentives and asset-level decision making.

StudentCrowd鈥檚 platform combines two complementary product lines. Its subscription data products provide pricing, incentives, availability and benchmarking data for the purpose-built accommodation sector, delivered through dashboards, portfolio analytics and structured data feeds.

Covering 770,000+ PBSA beds across 457 cities in nine countries and drawing on over 200,000 reviews and 4.3 billion data points, these tools help operators, investors, developers and advisers make informed decisions on pricing strategy, competitive benchmarking, market availability, letting incentives and asset performance.

Alongside this, marketing profiles enable student accommodation operators to host verified student reviews and manage feedback through public-facing property pages. These profiles help drive student engagement while capturing valuable sentiment data at asset level, further strengthening the underlying dataset.

Since launching its data platform, StudentCrowd has evolved from its origins as a verified student review platform into a fast-growing B2B subscription data business. Underpinned by 4.3 billion data points, the company has built 100% coverage of the UK PBSA market and is now focused on expanding its dataset and commercial footprint internationally.

The investment will support its next phase of growth, including continued product development and expansion into new markets as the business scales its data platform across Europe and the US.

fu3e appoints ex-Gleeds CEO to board

Oliver Wheatley, investment manager at YFM Equity Partners, said: 鈥淲hat has really stood out to us is that Paul, Pete and the team consistently deliver on what they say they will do.

鈥淭hey have built a genuinely impressive business on limited capital, and the quality of the product shows in the way customers talk about it and the impressive company metrics. The international expansion is not a speculative bet 鈥� existing customers are already pulling them into new markets, which tells you everything about the strength of the underlying proposition.

鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to partner with the management team and Mercia to support the next chapter of that journey.鈥�

Paul Humphreys, co-founder of StudentCrowd, said: 鈥淥ur mission has always been to bring transparency to the student accommodation market 鈥� both for the students and for the sector.

鈥淥n the student side, we want every student to be able to choose where they study and live with confidence, powered by authentic, verified reviews from people with real experience.

鈥淥n the industry side, we have built a dataset that gives operators, investors and advisers the independent, accurate data they need to make optimal decisions.

鈥淲hile researching mainland Europe and the US, we discovered similar challenges and are working with launch partners to expand the platform into these geographies. In the UK, we are further innovating the platform to enhance data-driven decision making.鈥�

Bethan Bannister, senior investment manager at the British 老九品茶 Bank, said: 鈥淭he Midlands Engine Investment Fund II supports innovative businesses across the Midlands, and this investment in StudentCrowd will help accelerate the company鈥檚 expansion into international markets across Europe and the USA.

鈥淪ince the first round of funding in 2023, the business has made significant progress in its growth journey, and we look forward to seeing it achieve even greater success in the years ahead.鈥�

Rafael Joseph of Mercia Ventures said: 鈥淲e first backed StudentCrowd in 2023 and the team have impressed us at every stage since. They have delivered consistently against their targets, bolstered the business with some important hires, and grown the platform into something the sector genuinely relies on. We are delighted to be continuing the journey alongside YFM.鈥�

Deadline extension for 叠耻蝉颈苍别蝉蝉颁濒辞耻诲鈥檚 Founder 250 list

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fu3e, a regular on 叠耻蝉颈苍别蝉蝉颁濒辞耻诲鈥檚 PropTech 50 ranking, is an enterprise SaaS platform transforming operational workflows for the real estate and investment industry.

Harle has joined fu3e鈥檚 board to support commercial strategy, institutional client engagement and international expansion.

Harle served in senior roles at Gleeds from 1995. He most recently led the company as CEO from 2019-26, driving significant growth, digital and ESG transformation as well as global expansion across Europe, the United States and Asia.

This month he moved into a NED role at the international construction and property consultancy. He also serves on boards in the real estate and investor community.

鈥淲e are delighted to welcome Graham to the board as non-executive director,鈥� said Gavin Gleave, founder & CEO of fu3e.

鈥淗is extensive leadership experience across global markets, strong commercial perspective and deep understanding of enterprise customer needs make him an outstanding addition to fu3e鈥檚 strategic leadership.

鈥淕raham鈥檚 insights will be invaluable as we scale our platform, accelerate revenue growth, and deepen engagement with institutional clients in the UK, US and APAC.

鈥淕raham has a proven track record of guiding organisations through growth and transformation, and his appointment reflects our commitment to disciplined execution and value creation.鈥�

fu3e. 鈥� The AI-Powered Real Estate Software Platform

fu3e says it has recently demonstrated strong commercial momentum with a high-quality pipeline and long term institutional contracts, positioning the company for accelerated growth and future liquidity.

Harle commented: 鈥淚 am excited to join fu3e鈥檚 Board at this stage of the company鈥檚 evolution. The platform has clear product strength, strong retention metrics and a compelling institutional pipeline.

鈥淚 look forward to working with the executive team and shareholders to support fu3e鈥檚 strategic ambitions and to help unlock long-term value in the global real estate ecosystem.鈥�

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They come back every time, despite the occasional heartbreak. It鈥檚 a masterclass in brand loyalty; but there are other teachable moments for businesses beyond legions of die-hard fans.

Behind the chants, rivalries, last-minute goals and dramatics from players looking to delay and distract, sits an increasingly complex business operation.

Elite football clubs are producing huge amounts of data. Recruitment, performance analysis, ticketing, marketing, retail and hospitality all generate huge volumes of information. Turning that data into something that genuinely shapes decisions is still a challenge for many clubs, and many businesses.

In football, and the ‘real world’, data still often sits inside IT departments or analytics teams, treated as something specialist and abstract rather than something central to decision-making. With such a huge amount of focus in football, the consequences of ignoring information are immediate and highly visible.

If a club signs the wrong player, misjudges fan demand or fails to plan matchday operations effectively, the impact is felt quickly on performance, revenue and reputation. And your fans will be quick to let you know, probably with some choice language.

Like a top signing, accessible, cohesive and responsive data can change your game entirely. Our work with Sunderland AFC is a good example of how data can take you from the underdog, to snapping at the heels of the best the Premier League has to offer.

Over the past four years, the club has brought together information from customer systems, ticketing, hospitality, retail and performance analytics into a single governed data environment.

Coaching staff use real-time insight to support training and tactical preparation. Commercial teams can monitor matchday performance and adjust activity quickly and marketing teams operate with a clearer view of fan behaviour, allowing them to deliver more personalised engagement and targeted campaigns.

In opposition to the current AI zeitgeist, the transformation wasn鈥檛 about AI implementation at any cost. In an age where AI is heralded as a universal solution to growth challenges, Sunderland AFC recognised that AI is only as powerful as the data beneath it. If that data is fragmented, inconsistent or poorly governed, advanced tools will simply amplify those problems.

Before exploring AI-driven forecasting or advanced fan experiences, Sunderland AFC has focused on getting its core data foundations right. Governance, integration and accessibility come first.

In football, marginal gains can make the difference between promotion and relegation, and the same principle applies in business. Small improvements in customer insight, operational efficiency or commercial strategy can compound over time to create a meaningful competitive advantage.

Ultimately, football may be decided by players and coaches, but the organisations behind them should be powered by information, combining sporting ambition with commercial intelligence.

If you don鈥檛 follow football, Sunderland AFC has rebuilt itself after falling to the third tier of English football. In 2022, it returned to the Championship, the second tier, before earning another promotion to the Premier League, the top flight. So, where does data fit into that story? While we can鈥檛 take credit for the goals, I鈥檒l simply say our relationship with the club began in 2022.

For businesses looking to do the same, treat your data like Sunderland AFC treats matchday preparation. Because in both cases, better information leads to better decisions 鈥� and better decisions create the conditions for success.

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