Former Former Freestyle Skier Michael Payne Releases 'Fast Tracks and Dark Deals' - Looks At The Sometimes Dirty Business Of Sport

Michael Payne was nominated as one of the world's most influential marketeers by Advertising Age. He has spent the past forty-five years at the forefront of the global sports marketing industry. Hired as the IOC's first marketing director, Michael helped oversee the transformation of the Olympics from bankruptcy to a billion-dollar brand. After twenty years, he moved to F1 as Special Advisor to Bernie Eccleston. Michael Payne now runs his own global strategic advisory group – Payne Sports Media Strategies SA, serving a diverse group of clients and Boards.

Payne was British free-style skiing champion in the 1970's coming through the UK plastic ski slope industry, training at the plastic ski slope at Alexandra Palace, and then Lords. He retains his ski connections now living in Verbier. He began his career in marketing his fellow athletes, helping them find sponsors to permit them to compete

Nominated as one of the world’s most influential marketers by Advertising Age, Michael oversaw the development of the first ever global marketing strategy for the Olympic Games, which has turned into one of the most successful marketing initiatives ever seen.

Michael has run his own global boutique advisory group for the past two decades, negotiating some of the industry's biggest deals. He is highly regarded as one of the most transformative executives within the sporting industry. He is regularly sought after by the world's media from BBC and CNN to the Financial Times, known for his provocative comments. In 2022 the IOC awarded Michael the prestigious Coubertin Medal for services to the Olympic Movement.

Michael R. Payne's remarkable autobiography 'Fast Tracks and Dark Deals' takes readers inside the transformation of global sport from a gentleman's pastime into a trillion-dollar industry. One of the last true insiders, Payne delivers a fast-paced, razor-sharp dissection of the deals, scandals, and innovations that defined the past fifty years.

He says "In Fast Tracks and Dark Deals, I’ll take you behind the scenes to help  you better understand how the industry began, and I’ll describe the characters who made it all happen.  It’s a first-hand account, and I use quotes throughout the book to set  the scene in the hope that you’ll feel as if you are actually present in the  room during the negotiations, feeling the tension, and seeing how often deals came close to collapsing."

The autobiography of one of the last standing insiders, 'Fast Tracks and Dark Deals', is a surgical dissection of the business of sport and its evolution over the past fifty years from a cottage industry to a trillion-dollar business.

Fast-paced and edgy, it profiles the characters and events that gave birth to the sports biz. Along the way, readers encounter dazzling highs and sobering lows, as wars, scandals, and economic crises threaten to pull the whole spectacle apart.

The story is told from a seat close enough to hear the whispers in the corridor yet distant enough to see the broader patterns, the fragile alliances, the unexpected friendships, and the bold ideas that reshaped global sport.

"Although I’ve witnessed many of the greatest sporting moments over  the past five decades, the truth is I was often more interested in what was going on off the field of play than on it. I was fascinated by the deals, the personalities, the high-stakes negotiations, and the intriguing drama of how the show was paid for and who made it possible for fans around the world to share in the magic. I’ve had an unbelievably privileged life and a front-row seat at the founding and development of an industry that
we’re all so passionate about."

'Fast Tracks and Dark Deals' offers unique business insights from someone who was a major player in many of them, who knew everyone and has been everywhere in the labyrinth of world sport, even its dark corners. The final part provides a telling and perhaps unsettling prediction for the next fifty years. Forewords from Dr Thomas Bach, IOC President, and Bernie Ecclestone, F1 Supremo. He says that "sport’s global success didn’t happen by accident—it was built deal by deal, often in smoky rooms, by a handful of visionary (and sometimes ruthless) characters. But more importantly, that the next phase of sport’s evolution will depend on transparency, creativity, and collaboration. If the last 50 years were about building the business of sport, the next 50 will be about ensuring sport remains worthy of the passion people have for it."

Payne was educated at Highgate School. A British free-style skiing champion in 1970s, he began marketing his fellow athletes, helping them find sponsors to permit them to compete. Payne was drafted into the IOC in the 1989, having previously worked at ISL Marketing, a Swiss based marketing company that in 1982 had been appointed by the IOC to develop a global marketing program.During his 17 years with the IOC, he contributed to the development of a multi-billion marketing program for the organisation, worldwide.According to media outlets, Payne is "credited with turning the Games into a financial success" through the television and marketing deals he negotiated for the Olympics during his tenure.

After the 2004 Summer Olympics, he took a position with Bernie Ecclestone, who holds the commercial rights for the Formula One brand.He remained an advisor for the IOC.  In 2004 Payne also founded his global strategic advisory group, Payne Sports Media Strategies, advising governments, corporations, broadcaster and sports organisations, including Formula One, Alibaba, WPP, CVC amongst others.

Payne also acted as senior advisor for the winning Olympic bids of London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Los Angeles 2028.

In 2005 Payne released his first book, Olympic Turnaround that details how the Olympics stepped back from the brink of extinction to become the world’s best known brand and a multi billion global franchise. The book has been published in more than 15 different languages.

Nominated by Advertising Age, as one of the World’s 50 most influential marketeers, he has also written for leading newspapers including the Financial Times, Yomuiri Shimbun (Japan) and Forbes. He has interviewed for over 100 media outlets including flagship television news programmes in the US (NBC, CNN) UK (BBC, Newsnight, Panorama) Canada (CBC) Australia (Channel 7) Japan (NHK, TV Tokyo) China (CCTV) and Bloomberg, New York Times, Wall St Journal, The Guardian, Sunday Times, L'Equipe, AP, AFP, Reuters amongst others where he is frequently called upon to comment on the business of sport and politics and sport. He is also a regular speaker at international conferences.

In 2023 Payne was  awarded, by the IOC, the prestigious Pierre de Coubertin Medal at a special ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland. Created in 1997, the Pierre de Coubertin Medal is awarded by the IOC as a tribute to educators, writers, sports executives, cultural figures, corporate leaders, athletes and individuals who deliver exceptional services to the Olympic Movement and carry out achievements in the cause of world sport. Previous recipients of the award, which has only been awarded 42 times, include Emil Zátopek, Gianni Agnelli, Henry Kissinger, Juan Antonio Samaranch and Prince Rainier of Monaco.

He has served on a number of boards including advisory board to Imperial College London; Chairman of Crystal Digital International.