Now working for a diverse range of clients across multiple industry sectors worldwide, Red Knot was first formed by the founding partners, Rich Thorp, Camilla Wright, Andy Clerkson and Romilly Evans, to bring together a truly unique skillset and range of experience, to service the growing sports, sports betting, gaming and gambling industries worldwide
In 2021, Tom Webb joined the original quartet, adding to Red Knot’s U.S. presence from his based in Austin, Texas. Webb, a sports marketing and PR veteran with over 25 years’ experience, learned his trade in the UK before moving to the USA in 2014, giving him and, now Red Knot’s clients, a global perspective with specialist knowledge of the U.S. market.
To understand why Red Knot fills such a unique position in their field worldwide, it’s worth looking back at the start of the agency, a story which founding partner Camilla Wright takes up. “I’d known Rich, Andy and Rom fora long time, and we’d worked together off and on over the years on a few projects, so we knew what each of us brought to the table. Rich and I started looking at how the global sports betting industry needed specialist PR and communications agency support, and it wasn’t being provided anywhere remotely at the level we knew we could bring. When we knew we could add Andy and Rom into the mix, it was immediately clear that we had an incredible opportunity to create Red Knot, an agency that could work with clients anywhere in the world, bringing the combined decades of experience and contacts we have in our respective specialist fields to help wherever we could.”
It’s fair to say that, between them, Clerkson, Wright, Thorp and Evans know every major player in this truly global industry, cutting their teeth in the explosive and innovative digital gaming markets of the U.K., Europe and Asia, now bringing that experience to the USA.Clerkson helped set up FOX Bet and sold the influential digital agency he created, Grand Parade, to William Hill, in 2016. Thorp is a director at RPM Gaming and before that role, was Business Development Director at FSB, one of Europe’s leading white-label sportsbook and gaming suppliers, and Head of B2B Operations at the Racing Post (now Spotlight Sports Group). Wright has worked as a media consultant with companies including Betfair, Coral, Ladbrokes, William Hill and the British Horseracing Authority’s Racing For Change PR campaign, as well as founding Popbitch, the highly influential media and culture publication. Evans leverages a multimedia background, having begun in journalism and editorial across titles as varied as The Telegraph, Variety, BBC 5 Live, talkSPORT and Bloomberg before becoming head of sports
content at IG Group. Latterly, he has worked as a PR consultant with some ofthe leading brands in media, sport, data and gaming, including the EuropeanTour, the BBC, ITV, Sky, Flutter Entertainment, IMG and Sportradar.
In June, 2021, Red Knot added Tom Webb whose career started in the UK in the late 90s working for a PR agency on a range of sports, automotive and entertainment clients. Since then, he has worked for and with some of the biggest names in sports, including Red Bull, Emirates, Formula 1, the Olympic Games, the America’s Cup and Major League Soccer. Since moving to Austin in 2014, his experience includes running communications for the U.S. Olympic ski and snowboard team, heading up PR and communications for the 35th America’s Cup in Bermuda, and helping launch what is currently one of the hottest brands in major league sport, Austin FC.
Since its foundation in 2020, Red Knot’s market knowledge and sphere of influence has organically coalesced around the USA, the largest growth market in sports betting worldwide. Red Knot is already working with a rangeof clients in North America, attracting more incrementally as the tailored value the Red Knot team can bring to meet each client’s respective needs is realized and scaled, including working on investor relations to help with client fundraising and M&A, a role the agency carried out successfully for SportCaller when they were acquired by Bally’s in early 2021.
“The relentless growth of the U.S. market since the repeal of PASPA is obviously why the global sports betting industry’s attention has been focused on America since 2018,” explains Clerkson, whose own experience helping The Stars Group and FOX Sports set up FOX Bet in the U.S. makes him extremely well qualified to understand the demands of a fragmented and rapidly evolving North American scene, where no leadership position should be taken for granted as ever more innovative and disruptive players begin to show their hands. “Red Knot started from a position of strength, with Rom and Rich based in the UK, Camilla’s targeted team covering Asia from Hong Kong, and with me straddling the U.S. and UK markets. We have excellent affiliates working with us in South America, and specialist digital knowledge with Ryan Bailey, so we can add value across multiple territories, and business needs. Now, with Tom in Austin, and our North American client list growing apace, we’re uniquely placed to help anyone – from teams and leagues to operators, tribes, casinos and the entire ecosystem – cut through the white noise in the marketplace and tell pitch-perfect stories, to the right people at the right time.”
