James Pope to lead new events division at Play Sports Group

Play Sports Group (PSG), the company behind Play Sports Network (PSN), has appointed James Pope as events director.

In this newly established role, Pope will focus on developing the events division within the business.

Having spent over 15 years in the cycling industry, he has previously served as CEO of Face Partnership and founder and managing director of the Nocturne and Revolution Series cycling events in the UK.

He said: “I’ve been incredibly impressed by the growth of Play Sports Group so I’m delighted to join the team at an exciting time in the development of the business.

“GCN has had a massive impact on the cycling media landscape over the last few years so I’m looking forward to emulating this in the events sector.”

Global Cycling Network (GCN) has an audience in excess of eight million cyclists and there are over 2.77 million YouTube subscribers across the portfolio of channels, including Global Mountain Bike Network (GMBN), Global Triathlon Network (GTN) and Electric Mountain Bike Network (EMBN).

Simon Wear, founder and CEO of PSN, said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be able to welcome James on board Play Sports Group.

“The senior management team here have long since admired his abilities, insight, ideas and style and look forward to applying them to to the brilliant brands and amazing audiences that we have here across GCN, GMBN, GTN, EMBN and the tech channels.

“His experience and success with cycling events over the last two decades is second to none, and we look forward to how these will apply to our brands.

“In line with the rapid and sizeable growth we’ve seen across our channels, we have ambitious plans over the coming months and years for Play Sports Group’s new events division which James is heading up.”