Footballco adds Nigel Leigh as CTO

Footballco has hired Nigel Leigh as its CTO. 

Leigh joins after just over three years as chief information officer at XL Media PLC, and has also held roles as chief digital technology officer at Johnston Press and head of commercial platforms (digital) for Telegraph Media Group.

At Footballco, he will be responsible for the product design, development and engineering for the company’s portfolio of football media brands, which include global football brand, Goal and leading women’s brand INDIVISA, as well as local market titles, including Mundial (UK), Kooora (MENA), Voetbalzone (Netherlands), Spox (Germany), and Calciomercato (Italy).

Leigh join Footballco’s leadership team and report to Footballco CEO Juan Delgado.

Delgado said, “Since Footballco was spun out of DAZN in 2020, with backing from TPG, we’ve seen significant growth, with 2x revenue as well as revenue diversification, making Footballco less reliant on the traditional ad media model. This has been aided by significant progress across affiliate revenue as well as growth in new markets, such as the Middle East and US.

“Nigel represents an important hire for the company to take this progress to the next level, as demonstrated by his time at XL Media PLC where he played an important role in growing the company’s affiliate business.

“Similarly, his time at Telegraph Media Group and Johnston Press demonstrated his ability to lead large teams across global offices and bring publisher brands together into single tech stacks.”

Leigh said: “I’m excited to join Footballco and look forward to working across the company’s suite of football media brands at a time that is both exciting for the company and football in general.

“Footballco’s scale in football is unmatched, but there’s also huge room for growth, in terms of new revenue streams, affiliates and new markets, whether they’re geographical or demographic, such as women’s football.”