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Welcome To Mindspring Sport

Mindspring Sport is led by Craig Thompson and Anton Brams, international sports marketing and technology professionals. 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.

Our Management Team

Craig Thompson
Managing Partner
Mindspring Sport

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.

Anton Brams
Managing Partner
Mindspring Sport

Anton Brams

Co-CEO | Mindspring Sport Helped fun the global sports marketing and tech agency since 2022.

Global Head | Genius Sport From 2019-2022, built Genius’ video product from $0 to $25M+ revenue in under 3 years and led video, OTT, and fan engagement product and strategy, including involvement in their NFL live streaming deal

Entrepreneur | Oppia Performance Directed the tech company and its successful exit from Oppia Performance sport video solution to Genius Sport in 2019.

Coach | USA Volleyball Assisted the men’s teams to an Olympic medal in 2016.

Anthony Curci
CFO
Mindspring Sport

Anthony Curci

Managing Principal | Lido Capital Partners, LLC – 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 in his final year he was elected team captain, earned NCAA All-American honors. After school for five years, Anthony played in professional competition on the AVP Pro-Beach Volleyball Tour in the US, and the FIVB World Tour with numerous top-ten finishes in Europe, Australia, and South America.

Clay Smith
Managing Partner
Mindspring Padel

Clay Smith

A long-time leader and advisor in the sport and technology sector with extended leadership roles at Octagon and Genius Sports. Accompanied international brands like Coca-Cola, Sony and Mastercard in their sports & entertainment investments, activations and evaluations. Complimented this experience with business development and customer success expertise within the i-Gaming and sport tech industries.

Sandy Khaund
Managing Partner
Mindspring Capital

Sandy Khaund

Serial entrepreneur/intrapreneur with 25 years experience across engineering management, strategy consulting, product marketing, business development, and entrepreneurship. Held managerial positions in aerospace, semiconductors, software, internet, education, broadcast media, sports venues, and ticketing industries.

• Founder/CEO of UPGRADED, blockchain ticketing platform acquired by Live Nation/Ticketmaster in 2018
• Director/Co-Founder of MediaCamp, corporate startup accelerator of Turner Broadcasting (now Warner Media)
• Director at Microsoft Community Technologies Team, including co-founder of CodePlex open source sharing site
• BSEE and M.Eng from Cornell University and MBA from Wharton School of Business

David Hackett
Managing Partner
Mindspring Capital

David Hackett

David brings 25 years of experience across five continents and a multitude of sports and entertainment properties. Focused on sports, he has worked at both the executive management and executive producer level in sponsorship, rights sales, broadcast production, operations and data collection.

Representative | Hackett Sports: Consults clients in the sports and entertainment industry
Executive manager | Hakuhodo DY Media Partners: Developed new business and company wide projects. Managed sports events division, including operation of events, broadcast and sponsorship rights
Director | Data Stadium: Co-managed team that grew it from start-up to market leader in sports data collection and analytics

Monica Loubet
Administrative

Monica Loubet

For the past 6 years, Monica has been responsible for all day-to-day accounting for Mindspring Sport. She interfaces with clients and vendors and facilitates Investor reporting. She has been a Principal with Dreyfus Real Estate, Inc — a real estate consulting firm — for the past 15 years. Prior to joining Dreyfus, she was with CBRE as their Director of Financial Reporting/Assistant Regional Controller for the Southern California Region. While there, she served as the Single Point of Contact for one of CBRE’s largest clients on all accounting and reporting related issues nationwide.

Monica received a Bachelor of Science degree in Financial Administration from Michigan State University.

Larry Benecke
Creative

Larry Benecke

Larry spent more than a decade in San Diego advertising agencies before setting up his own creative shop. He worked on sports brands including Ektelon Racquetball, the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball team, and USA Volleyball. Larry also did creative work for global brands such as Qualcomm, Sony, and LG. A large portion of his work has been in the technology and telecommunications spaces, including unified communications, internet security, and video streaming.

Prior to his advertising career, Larry was a top level volleyball player, playing six years in an American professional league and a year with the US national team that went on to win an Olympic gold medal. He also spent a year playing in the Spanish first division, winning the title with his Mallorca team.