Pitch International's Twentieth Anniversary

Jon Owen, Paul McGrath and Hans Duikersloot founded Pitch International (Pitch) in 2004 with the simple aim of bridging the divide between rightsholders and broadcasters.

Two decades on, though that goal remains the same, the business has evolved into a full-service sports marketing agency with adjacencies that project its values, culture, and commitment to its clients to every corner of the sporting world.

Strong, enduring client relationships are at the heart of Pitch’s success, but so is innovation. Pitch consolidated its position as a market leader in media rights with the help of its strategy and insights team whose work ensures the business continues to offer more targeted and effective market solutions than its competitors.

This market knowledge equips Pitch with the foresight to respond to the full range of opportunities the market presents. Identifying the emergent demand for sports programming led to the creation of Pitch Productions. Pitch Productions have gone on to produce hundreds of hours of content for broadcasters around the world and the business’s subsequent entry into the world of premium documentaries has been met with critical acclaim. Today, Pitch Productions is known for its biopics including Netflix Original features on football icon Pelé.

In 2012, Pitch launched its events business. As one of only a handful of organisations in the world with the resources, network and expertise to stage large-scale events, Pitch has gone on to organise over one hundred football matches involving the world’s most prestigious club and international teams.

Staging such unforgettable sporting events deepened and broadened Pitch’s relationships with its clients and the establishment of its sponsorship division was the next natural step in the business’s evolution. From front of shirt and sleeve sponsors, the business has gone on to broker major stadium and cup naming rights deals.

Creating and delivering the Arnold Clark Cup in collaboration with The FA in 2022 brought the full range of Pitch’s competencies, from media rights to sponsorship, to the fore. The event served to underscore the business’s commitment to women’s sport, a commitment that has been in evidence since 2017, when Pitch became the first agency to dedicate exclusive resource to this area.

In recent years, Pitch’s innovative nature has led to a further strengthening of its position and influence in the sports industry, through strategic investments. This has resulted in the creation of Pitchside Hospitality; a hospitality division with access to world class bespoke facilities at iconic venues across all major sports. A further significant investment saw Pitch enter a new strategic alignment with the pioneering sports entity Matchroom Sport.

In such a constantly evolving and innovative business its exciting to see what the next 20 years brings for Pitch.