Manager Media Partnerships

Role Overview

Manager Media Partnerships at Esports Foundation, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Full-time position reporting to Senior Manager Media Rights Operations.

Role Purpose

Support the global media rights strategy across selected territories and lead key commercial relationships with major streaming, social, and digital platforms. You will own selected media rights territories outside China, managing the full commercial lifecycle from market assessment and prospecting through negotiation, contracting, renewal, and post-event review. Act as a key commercial point of contact for global platform partners and media rights agencies, helping maximize value across licensing, distribution, marketing support, audience growth, data, and other commercial or value-in-kind opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

Global Platform Partnerships

• Serve as the main day-to-day Commercial point of contact for major global streaming, social, and digital platforms including YouTube, Twitch/Amazon, TikTok, Meta/Facebook, X, KICK, Snap, and other relevant current or future platforms.
• Develop and manage strategic platform frameworks covering content distribution, official platform status, marketing support, promotional inventory, audience development, data/insights, commercial rights, and value-in-kind commitments.
• Support or lead commercial negotiations with platforms, ensuring licensing fees, minimum guarantees, revenue-share structures, performance-based models, marketing value, and other commercial opportunities are properly assessed before agreements are concluded.
• Coordinate internally with Distribution/Product, Fan Marketing, Broadcast, Legal, Finance, and other teams to ensure agreed platform commitments are executable and fully activated.
• Track platform performance and identify opportunities to deepen, expand, or restructure partnerships over time.

Media Rights Sales & Territory Ownership

• Support global media rights strategy development, including regional assessments, packaging logic, pricing, and deal playbooks.
• Own selected territories directly, developing relationships with broadcasters, streaming services, digital platforms, and other potential rights buyers.
• Manage the full sales cycle across assigned markets: prospecting, proposals, negotiation, internal approvals, contracting, renewals, and post-deal follow-up.
• Maintain the global media rights pipeline, tracking leads, deal status, key terms, timelines, commercial value, and risks/issues.
• Prepare negotiation materials, benchmarks, business cases, and internal approval documents for priority deals.

Fan Monetization Business Modeling & Pricing

• Build and maintain financial models for D2C and fan monetization products including pricing, penetration, ARPU, revenue projections, and sensitivity analysis.
• Support the design of pricing and tiering structures (freemium vs premium, bundles, regional pricing) to balance scale and monetization.
• Partner with Finance and Data teams to set KPIs and track performance of D2C and fan monetization initiatives against targets.

Agency Management & Partner Coordination

• Act as the day-to-day Commercial point of contact for EFG and other media rights/distribution agencies supporting EWC and ENC.
• Manage agency pipelines, market plans, deliverables, deadlines, reporting, and follow-up against agreed commercial objectives.
• Ensure agencies work from the approved Media Rights and Strategic Distribution framework and escalate conflicts, missed opportunities, or execution risks early.
• Support agency performance reviews and recommendations on scope, incentives, renewals, and future market coverage.

Market Intelligence, Forecasting & Planning

• Conduct market, broadcaster, platform, and competitor analysis to identify priority territories and commercial opportunities.
• Build and maintain media rights forecasts by market, partner, and competition, including scenario and sensitivity analysis where relevant.
• Support the development of territory strategies that balance Media Rights revenue, exclusivity, strategic reach, and Hours Watched considerations.
• Provide benchmarks and data-driven recommendations to support annual planning, target setting, pricing, and investment decisions.

Reporting, Performance Analysis & Post-Event Reviews

• Consolidate Media Rights and platform partnership performance for leadership, including revenue, pipeline, partner delivery, audience contribution, and other agreed KPIs.
• Prepare post-event reviews and partner/market assessments, identifying what worked, what did not, and recommendations for the next cycle.
• Support steering documents, board updates, senior management presentations, and ad-hoc strategic analyses.
• Maintain a clear source of truth for key rights deals, agency activities, platform partnerships, forecasts, and market status.

Cross-Functional Deal Execution & Governance

• Coordinate with Broadcast, Product/Distribution, Marketing, Legal, Finance, Procurement, and other relevant teams to ensure rights and platform obligations are understood and executable.
• Help ensure major distribution and platform agreements receive appropriate commercial-value review before signature, while material exclusivity decisions are assessed for their audience and distribution impact.
• Support contract renewals and post-mortems, incorporating learnings into future rights, platform, and agency strategies.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Media, Economics, Communications, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in media rights, platform partnerships, digital distribution, business development, or media partnerships, ideally in esports, gaming, sports, entertainment, or a major digital platform.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong understanding of media rights, content licensing, exclusivity models, digital distribution, and how audience scale translates into rights and commercial value.
• Demonstrated experience managing or negotiating partnerships with major streaming, social, video, or digital platforms; existing platform relationships are a strong advantage.
• Strong commercial negotiation skills, with the ability to assess fixed fees, minimum guarantees, revenue share, performance-based models, marketing commitments, data value, and value-in-kind components.
• Experience in media rights sales and/or business development, including direct ownership of markets, partners, and revenue opportunities.
• Strong agency-management skills and ability to manage external partners against clear targets, timelines, deliverables, and reporting requirements.
• Advanced analytical skills (Excel/Sheets, forecasting, market analysis, KPI dashboards) and the ability to translate data into clear commercial recommendations.
• Strong project management skills: able to structure complex workstreams, manage multiple stakeholders, and deliver against tight timelines.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills; able to work across Commercial, Product/Distribution, Broadcast, Marketing, Legal, Finance, and external partners/agencies.
• Very good written and verbal communication skills in English; additional languages are a plus.
• Fluent in written and spoken English and Arabic.
• Passion for esports and digital culture, with strong awareness of the evolving global streaming, social, creator, and platform ecosystem.
• Prior experience working in KSA and an understanding of local nuances.

Additional Information

• Relocation support provided.
• Transportation allowance provided.
• Housing allowance provided.
• VIP medical insurance provided.
• Competitive compensation offered.
• Opportunity to work on a new exciting project with a group of passionate professionals with freedom to excel and make a real impact.