Sports Media Report
RealResponse, (@RealResponseHQ), the award-winning safe and secure feedback, monitoring, and anonymous reporting platform for athletic teams and organizations, today announced an expansion of its leadership team, naming Blake Davidson to the newly created position of Vice President, Emerging Markets. Davidson has several decades of experience on the partnership and business development side, most recently at NASCAR before starting his own consulting business. He will focus on the most rapidly growing aspect of RealResponse’s business, the development and implementation of partnerships with professional sports leagues and national governing bodies. Davidson’s input and leadership was critical in securing agreements with several NFL clubs, the NWSL, USA Track & Field, and the recently announced relationship with Major League Baseball to implement the RealResponse Anonymous Texting system for reports of player, staff, or employee issues.
“Blake has been a trusted advisor for RealResponse for over a year, and he will now take on a much larger role, using his deep relationships and experience to help us rapidly expand our professional sports division,” said David Chadwick, RealResponse Founder and CEO. “His level of expertise was critical in having Major League Baseball and a growing number of Olympic NGBs and NFL teams join our platform and take on our services, and that upward tick will now accelerate as he joins us in this newly created and much needed full-time role.”
“Professional sports, not just in the United States but around the world, is now starting to see the tremendous long-term value RealResponse brings to the table for their employees, from the field to the boardroom, and I am proud to be able to now devote more time to helping David continue to expand this critical area not just for us, but for the industry as a whole,” Davidson said. “As we are seeing with all sports, the ability to have safe, secure and fast reporting on any type of issue is critical. Prioritizing the well-being of any organization’s most important asset, their people, not only improves and enhances the culture, it directly impacts all facets of the business. Implementing RealResponse can alert executives to previously undetected issues, both large and small, while literally saving lives. Not only is it the right thing to do for your organization, but it also provides an early-warning mechanism that can potentially save millions of dollars in unforeseen expenses. We are becoming not just a want to have, but a must have, in the global game, and the very public facing world of professional sports is our next biggest area of opportunity.”
Davidson has more than 25 years of experience, highlighted by his leadership across several landmark agreements and groundbreaking initiatives. Prior to starting his consulting practice, Game Seven Partners, in 2020; Davidson held multiple management roles within NASCAR over a storied career. Most recently serving as the head of Consumer Innovation for NASCAR. He pioneered the first esports’ offering from a professional sports league, as well as NASCAR’s breakthrough partnership with iRacing and the creation of the eNASCAR. As a result of the comprehensive video games’ strategy he architected, NASCAR reached audiences of more than 200M people across all relevant gaming platforms. Prior to that, the North Carolina resident led NASCAR’s global licensing and merchandising strategy for more than a decade. During his tenure, NASCAR continuously ranked as one of License Magazine’s Top 150 Global Licensors, boasting more than $1 billion in retail sales.
Blake joins a growing senior management team that RealResponse is building. It also now includes longtime and well-respected college sports leaders Samantha K. Huge, who is Executive Director of Collegiate Partnerships as well as over 10 staff members on the development and product team.
