Lookin’ After No.1

Sport inc. by the numbers

If you’ve snuck away from festivities for a slug of ‘me time’ on your phone, if your annual Christmas morning run is already a distant memory and - whether Australian or masochist - settling down for the start of the Boxing Day Ashes Test is still hours away, this one’s for you.

25 December 2025 is just another Thursday for Sport inc. This week’s edition is #234 in an unbroken run and, as in previous years, a chance for me both to reassure you that you’re not its only reader, and to thank you for sticking with me.

• The first edition of Sport inc. back in July 2021 was sent to a list of 259 people I knew from sport and business and was read 366 times.

• The number of free subscribers has grown by 16% over the past year to 2,221. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of you are just email addresses to me. I’m delighted when readers get in touch to reveal themselves, whether by email or comments on Substack or LinkedIn. Do keep your views coming!

• The open rate for each Sport inc. email is consistently over 50%, which experts assure me is a more than decent level of engagement. The number of reads is typically around 3,000. No sign of it going viral yet though…

• The most read edition this year - by far - was May’s Dazed and Confused in which I discussed the review of the governance of the RFU that I am taking part in. In case you were wondering, our review group has moved onto its second stage of work in which we are fleshing out the details of our recommendations. More on the review in the coming months, but for now you can read that original newsletter here

• Second most popular was If you know your history in February. This love letter to heritage sporting events highlighted the threat to them posed by cash-rich challengers. I suspect the link to archive footage of the 1923 FA Cup Final may have pumped up the number of reads that week. If you’d like to take another look, you’ll find it here

• Sport inc. appears every week in City AM newspaper and on its website CityAM.com. Any readership on these platforms isn’t included in the above stats. Thanks once again to Frank Dalleres and Matt Hardy for publishing my columns. Do yourself a New Year favour and subscribe to their own newsletter, The Turnover. Here’s the sign-up link

And now for a polite request that has become a seasonal tradition. I’d love to expand the list of people who receive Sport inc. So, if you know of friends, colleagues, casual acquaintances or random strangers with an interest in the business of sport, please forward them this email and recommend that they click on the ‘Subscribe’ button.

Thanks very much in anticipation! And thanks too for your feedback, ideas, encouragement and simply for reading every week. Here’s to a Happy Sporting 2026!

PS: in case you were wondering, 35 of this year’s Sport inc. headlines have been song titles (plus a fair few of the sub-heads). Today’s is the second from the Boomtown Rats.