# Attention Game - Team

Last updated: 1 October 2026

Attention Game was founded by Neil Cole in 2024, building on over two decades of
experience in digital content, media and technology.

## The method

Twenty years of this work has produced one repeatable approach: embed in an
operation, work out what it actually does, then build the system that does it
repeatably. It began with media operations built inside other people's
businesses - a club, a governing body, a rights holder - and each time the
durable part turned out to be the system underneath rather than the output it
produced. Attention Game builds that system first.

## Neil Cole, founder

Neil Cole is the founder of Implicitly, agentic intelligence that helps sports
rights holders build sponsorship value. He also runs Attention Game, a
content-focused consulting and product studio.

Neil has spent two decades working in sport on content, media and technology
projects - four years launching Manchester City's digital video output with
Endemol Sport, then as a founding team member and global head of content at
Engage as it grew from 20 people to over 100, expanding into India and
Australia. Along the way he has worked with rights holders and brands including
Real Madrid, the ICC, Kolkata Knight Riders, Goodwood and Mastercard, SailGP,
MLB and Formula 1.

## Background

**Television (c.2005-2009).** Factual and leisure development at Denham
Productions for BBC, ITV and Discovery. RTS Award, 2009.

**Manchester City (2009-2013).** Senior Producer Editor at Endemol Sport,
embedded at the club to launch its digital video output after the takeover.
Digital-first and free at a time when clubs were still charging for video.
Distinctive formats including Tunnel Cam and Inside City came out of that period,
and the channel became the highest-performing club channel on YouTube.

**Agency: Engage (2013-2022).** That Manchester City operation became Engage
Sports Media through a management buy-out, and Neil moved across with the team as
a founding team member. Over nine years as global head of content he built and
led the content side of the business as it grew from under 20 people to more than
100, across London, Mumbai, Melbourne, the Middle East and the US. The agency
took investment from MTG Group and was ultimately sold to Brave Bison. The work
spanned Real Madrid, World Rugby, the Indian Premier League, the ICC, MLB,
Goodwood and Mastercard, Gran Turismo, SailGP, Formula E, HSBC and DHL. He left
in 2022.

**What was built there.** A full content production capability and an in-house
graphics team. An insights department that integrated the leading analytics tools
into the production workflow, so that insight sat inside production rather than
arriving afterwards as a report. A paid media department running ticket-sales
campaigns. Partnerships with Meta and YouTube, including status as a YouTube
multi-channel network.

**Podium.** During Neil's tenure the business built its own product, Podium,
which aggregated data from the social platforms and other sources into a hub for
a rights holder's own data. An early marker of where this work was heading.

**xG Studios (2022-2023).** Co-founder and COO of a football fan-engagement
venture working in athlete-achievement rewards and WebAR. Around 4,000 athletes
were onboarded through the Great North Run, the Hackney Half, the ASICS 10k, the
Oxford Half and the London Triathlon, and the team piloted AR digital wearables
for goalscorers. The venture operated, had successes, and the team moved on.

**Attention Game (2023-present).** Consulting business and product studio.

**Implicitly (2025-present).** Agentic intelligence for sponsorship in sport.

## Contact

- neil@attngame.com
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilcolelinkedin/