About Us - Mindspring Sport - International Sports Marketing

Welcome To Mindspring Sport

Led by Craig Thompson, international sports marketing professional, Mindspring Sport consults with clients who wish to take their organizations or properties to higher levels, or develop new properties. Craig’s approach when acting as CEO of major international projects — has been successfully developed and refined over the years on projects such as the UEFA Champions League, the Champions Hockey League, America’s Cup sailing, and USA Volleyball.

Mindspring believes in the intrinsic value of sport as a way for people to “live their passion.” Our mission is to provide the optimal commercial and organisational basis for sport so that people can experience their passion in the best possible environment.

Meet Our Team

Craig Thompson

For more than 30 years, Craig has been intimately involved in the creation and management of some of the most recognized sporting events across the globe:

CEO | 34th America’s Cup Together with Russell Coutts, CEO of Oracle Racing and four-time winner, Craig created and launched the concept for AC34, which included the use of catamarans, racing next to shore, shorter TV-friendly format and the creation of the AC34 World Series.

CEO/Owner | Ovation Sports AG Craig developed the concept and directed the inaugural season for the Champions Hockey League in association with the IIHF in Europe. Also specialized in development and management of sports properties and events for the Juventus Football Club, Spanish Basketball League, and UFL United Arab Emirates National Soccer League.

Managing Director | T.E.A.M. Marketing AG In his role with the exclusive worldwide marketing agency of UEFA for the Champions League, Craig was a management board member for 11 years and key member of the 6-person team responsible for initial creation and subsequent development of the Champions League project. The Champions League generates billions in annual sponsorship and TV revenues and is Europe’s most important club competition in Europe’s most important sport — soccer.

Anthony Curci

Managing Principal | Lido Capital Partners, LLC An investment manager over the last 20 years, Anthony has worked across a number of industries including apparel, footwear, skin care, technology, health care, and sports marketing. He manages a diversified portfolio of direct investments to real estate including: agricultural, industrial, commercial properties, and private equity & start-up. He worked in various capacities with the investments both as principal, entrepreneur, and advisor.

Anthony received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Business from UCLA, has a Master’s degree in Psychology, and an MBA in Finance from Pepperdine University. While at UCLA, as he was a member of two Division I NCAA Championship volleyball teams where he was elected team captain and earned NCAA All-American honors. He also played on the AVP Pro-Beach Volleyball Tour and the FIVB World Tour with numerous top-ten finishes.

Alan Brenner

Alan Brenner has a 25 year career of disruptive innovation and has played key leadership roles conceiving new technology products as well as building up organizations to serve customers profitably at scale.

He served as a Senior Vice President at Sun Microsystems where he led from inception the first global platform for mobile application development, Java Micro Edition, currently deployed in several billion feature phones.

Alan also brings 10 years of mobile platform product development and cloud services general management experience. As SVP at BlackBerry Services Platform at Research in Motion, Alan was responsible for $4B/year BlackBerry services business including P&L, product management, product development and launch. Grew revenues by 2.5x over 3 years and the number of BBM users from 5 to 80 million. Launched BlackBerry AppWorld and grew service volume to 7 million downloads/day and 40 million users. Drove the evaluation and acquisition of key technology companies including Torch Mobile, Cellmania, Tungle.me and Gist that form core application experience of RIM’s BB10 platform.

Bruno Enrich

Bruno began his profesional career at General Electric (GE) developing a strong background in finance. His first contact with the sports industry was with ISL Spain, where he co-developed the strategy for LaLiga and the Spanish Football Federation’s commercial programs. Bruno has worked in sales, managed client relations, governing bodies and TV broadcasters. Among other International Federations he has worked with FIFA, ATP, FINA, and FIS.

On an entrepreneurial side, Bruno co-created Odeco Sports; developing and executing the global sales and marketing strategy for the company, which was the leading European LED traffic sign manufacturer, who launched the first digital perimeter system at Real Madrid’s Stadium. Recent projects include Project Leader for the 34th America’s Cup World Series events in Italy (Venice and Napoli) and Director of Sales for CSM Spain, commissioned by Real Madrid for Global and Regional partners, as well as managing LaLiga’s sponsorship program.

Bruno currently resides in Barcelona, enjoys sailing in the Mediterranean, practices winter sports in the Pyrenees and speaks 5 languages.