Rotimi Pedro on commercialising sports

It was a sunny Thursday morning in February when I arrived at the Ladipo Bateye office of the Optima Media Group. The white building was enveloped in the quietness of the government residential area. A security man was at the door. He had to get an authorisation from the boss. After the security clearance, I was ushered in.

“He will be here in a moment,” a woman told me. “He is held up in traffic.” That explained the short delay in the commencement of an interview scheduled for 10am. Before long, his secretary announced his arrival.

It was the first time I had met Rotimi Pedro, whose works have preceded his name. He is the franchise owner of Nigerian Idol and has been the brain behind its execution. I was not surprised to learn later that he has also been the one securing rights for the airing of the World Cups and other sports on TV.

“Good morning,” he said, as he walked to the head of the long table. He stretched out his hand for a handshake. We both took our seats. I placed the tape between and the tape started to purr.

Since he graduated from school, Pedro has been walking his passion and he tells me he has no regrets doing so. He is a qualified lawyer with educational background both in Nigeria and the UK. He qualified in the UK as a solicitor in 1994. Since then, he has been working both in the UK and Nigeria. He worked about four or five years in the UK before he set up his own company, Optima, a sports management initiative. He later ventured into entertainment and now news media.

“We are monetising and commercialising news media,” he tells me confidently. “I felt that it is important the sports media industry be made to function properly. Before we came in, the sports media was dominated by piracy. Given my legal background, I thought that it is important that global best practices obtain in Nigeria as it is in other parts of the world. The jurisdiction I was coming from, the UK, where media rights are respected, that is one of the reasons I went into sports media.”

And so, Pedro started acquiring the rights in the country to ensure that the right amount is paid for the intellectual property (IP). He worked to make sure the rights are properly commercialised and that the investors in the IP, be it FIFA World Cup or the Champions League, are actually properly monetised. The returns are made to the IP owners.

Aside from the IPs for sports, Optima has moved into other international IPs like reality shows. It is also currently doing financial services for Bloomberg. Says Pedro: “We have the challenge of monetising, commercialising and localising the Bloomberg IP on the African continent both in Nigeria, South Africa and East Africa. That is the task before us now. We have moved from sports to general media and entertainment.”

Funding a business of this nature is not a mean feat. And Pedro confesses he had it tough convincing banks to buy into his vision. “When we first started,” he explains, “it was difficult. People would ask where your containers are, where is the property you are financing? At the initial stage it was difficult.”

It took a while for the banks to understand the nature of managing and commercialising sports. But Pedro found answers to his concerns at Keystone Bank as the bank bought into his dream.

“They understand the business,” adds Pedro. “They understand they have to stand as guarantors for the purchase of the intellectual property right. We believe we are in a right place. We have been with Keystone Bank since 2006 to 2010. The benefit of all our dreams was funded by Keystone. People did not understand the dynamics of how to fund assets. This was why Nigerians did not see us going to the African Nations Cups. The 2010 World Cup was financed by then BankPHB, now Keystone Bank. The bank stepped in between us and the Federation Cup. They stood as a guarantee for us. This is how we have been having a good financial system. The bank has been supporting us.”

For the last African Nations Cup, Pedro says the Nigerian market in terms of revenue made a total loss of about $6,000,000. “Majority of Nigerians could not see the African Nations Cup because no bank was willing to put down money to pay for the IP right upfront about four or five months before the game began. The game did not show on terrestrial TV. The funding of the World Cup was done two years ahead by BankPHB then. That was 2008 and the match did not begin until 2010.”

Before the World Cup began, Optima had to sell the sponsorship a year ahead. Hence, Optima is a middleman between sponsors and the right owners, the FIFA. “That is the benefit of having a good finance system behind IP ventures. The direct loss to Nigerian property owners would be $2,000,000. You can’t quantify the indirect loss. Because for the younger ones to watch the match live is a form of mentorship.

“Back then when I was growing up, after we watched a match we saw people going to the field to practice the skills that they had seen. That was the mentorship. But it is not so now. People have to pay to watch the skills, meaning that it is only those who can pay that get to improve their sport skills.”

Pedro says the challenges facing sports management and IP right commercialisation are huge as Nigeria is a country that would normally come late to the dinner table. “Nigeria has been quite slow to get on this mark,” he adds. “Everything in Nigeria is always close to the deadline. We hope the Nigerian station will be the most sought after in the next few years. We are planning to introduce a new station in addition to Bloomberg.”

FUNKE OSAE-BROWN