Full Name
Rob Shaw
Job Title
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Company
Sports Media Innovation Group LLC
Speaker Bio
Rob Shaw is the Founder and CEO of the Sports Media Innovation Group LLC, where he is consulting with sports broadcast and technology companies on how to adapt to a quickly evolving media landscape.
Prior to launching the consulting firm, Shaw spent nearly ten years at Meta, most recently as the Director of Global Sports Media Partnerships. Shaw worked with sports league, team, broadcast, digital media, real money gaming, and collectibles organizations to best utilize the Meta family of technologies to drive their business objectives, including audience development, sponsorship sales and activation, commerce, and media distribution.
Shaw’s top priorities were to help sports companies drive their business objectives by programming short-form video on Facebook and Instagram, building their businesses on Meta’s messaging apps including WhatsApp and Messenger, and guiding the sports industry’s first steps into the metaverse. In the fall of 2022, Rob led an all-encompassing technology partnership with the NBA that provides fans with many more opportunities to enjoy the NBA in VR experiences. The NBA Arena, a Meta Horizon Worlds experience, featured dozens of live NBA games throughout the season. Fans now can express their fandom through the launch of NBA-licensed apparel in the Meta Avatars Store. The partnership also unlocked new experiences in the Xtadium VR Sports hub. The partnership also renewed the Facebook fantasy game that has surpassed a million players and brought thousands of Reels to the platform.
Shaw played a key role in the launch of Reels, one of Meta’s most important products, by onboarding a wide range of sports partners to the product. Reels have emerged as one of the most important avenues for leagues and media organizations to engage with the hard-to-reach youth audience and is the fastest growing video format on Facebook and Instagram.
Shaw joined Facebook in 2014 as the global head of sports media. Some of his earliest successes were introducing Facebook video and Facebook Live to the sports media industry. In 2018, Shaw led an innovative partnership with Major League Baseball that called for 25 games to be broadcast live exclusively on Facebook. Those games reached a large, global, and young audience and resulted in many learnings that are still being leveraged today in the sports industry.
After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Shaw started his career as sports television anchor in Florida. While in Tallahassee, Shaw launched a fantasy sports website accompanied with a weekly show. That experience, which broadened his scope to the marketing and commercial side of the industry, inspired Shaw to earn his MBA at NYU Stern.
Upon graduation from Stern, Shaw worked at Bloomberg Sports. As the VP of Media, he built out a media business that provided advanced analytics to broadcasters for MLB, NBA, and NFL coverage. Among the ground-breaking analytics that Bloomberg Sports brought to market included pie charts highlighting a pitcher’s pitch selection for baseball, identifying hot zones on the basketball court, and a predictive tool used by CBS Sports to provide the data science behind a coach’s decision to go for an extra point or two-point conversion in football. These analytics are now commonplace during sports broadcasts.
Shaw has two boys, Wyatt and Levi, who he is raising as Mets fans with his wife, Jennifer in Westchester, NY. In the summer of 2023, they were joined by two pugs: Hershey and Reese’s.
Prior to launching the consulting firm, Shaw spent nearly ten years at Meta, most recently as the Director of Global Sports Media Partnerships. Shaw worked with sports league, team, broadcast, digital media, real money gaming, and collectibles organizations to best utilize the Meta family of technologies to drive their business objectives, including audience development, sponsorship sales and activation, commerce, and media distribution.
Shaw’s top priorities were to help sports companies drive their business objectives by programming short-form video on Facebook and Instagram, building their businesses on Meta’s messaging apps including WhatsApp and Messenger, and guiding the sports industry’s first steps into the metaverse. In the fall of 2022, Rob led an all-encompassing technology partnership with the NBA that provides fans with many more opportunities to enjoy the NBA in VR experiences. The NBA Arena, a Meta Horizon Worlds experience, featured dozens of live NBA games throughout the season. Fans now can express their fandom through the launch of NBA-licensed apparel in the Meta Avatars Store. The partnership also unlocked new experiences in the Xtadium VR Sports hub. The partnership also renewed the Facebook fantasy game that has surpassed a million players and brought thousands of Reels to the platform.
Shaw played a key role in the launch of Reels, one of Meta’s most important products, by onboarding a wide range of sports partners to the product. Reels have emerged as one of the most important avenues for leagues and media organizations to engage with the hard-to-reach youth audience and is the fastest growing video format on Facebook and Instagram.
Shaw joined Facebook in 2014 as the global head of sports media. Some of his earliest successes were introducing Facebook video and Facebook Live to the sports media industry. In 2018, Shaw led an innovative partnership with Major League Baseball that called for 25 games to be broadcast live exclusively on Facebook. Those games reached a large, global, and young audience and resulted in many learnings that are still being leveraged today in the sports industry.
After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Shaw started his career as sports television anchor in Florida. While in Tallahassee, Shaw launched a fantasy sports website accompanied with a weekly show. That experience, which broadened his scope to the marketing and commercial side of the industry, inspired Shaw to earn his MBA at NYU Stern.
Upon graduation from Stern, Shaw worked at Bloomberg Sports. As the VP of Media, he built out a media business that provided advanced analytics to broadcasters for MLB, NBA, and NFL coverage. Among the ground-breaking analytics that Bloomberg Sports brought to market included pie charts highlighting a pitcher’s pitch selection for baseball, identifying hot zones on the basketball court, and a predictive tool used by CBS Sports to provide the data science behind a coach’s decision to go for an extra point or two-point conversion in football. These analytics are now commonplace during sports broadcasts.
Shaw has two boys, Wyatt and Levi, who he is raising as Mets fans with his wife, Jennifer in Westchester, NY. In the summer of 2023, they were joined by two pugs: Hershey and Reese’s.
Speaking At
