Former Match of the Day host Gary Lineker’s podcast production house Goalhanger, home of The Rest Is… series, has launched Goalhanger Ventures, a new investment and partnerships arm created to back high-quality, creator-led media businesses across video, social, audio, live and commercial platforms.
Its first activity includes a new commercial partnership with Backyard Cricket, one of the UK’s most distinctive emerging sports creator brands, as well as an equity investment in Invisible Media, the company behind fast-growing digital media platform The Invisible Hand, and the launch marks the next stage in Goalhanger’s evolution as “a modern, platform-agnostic media company, supporting ambitious digital-first creators with strong editorial identities, highly engaged communities and clear routes to growth.”
Backyard Cricket is the cricket content brand created by Yorkshire brothers James and Mark Wood (pictured, right). The pair began making videos in their family garden during lockdown and have since built a major following, travelling around the world to create cricket content that blends humour, personality and a genuine love of the game.
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Goalhanger will provide funding and strategic support to help Backyard Cricket grow across production, longer-form video, commercial partnerships, sponsorship and merchandise, with both sides sharing in the commercial upside. The collaboration will draw on Goalhanger’s experience in building talent-led media brands while giving the brothers more time to focus on developing and appearing in content.
Navid Behroozi, executive producer at Backyard Cricket, said: “James and Mark have already done the hardest part: they have earned a huge amount of attention by making cricket feel fun, personal and culturally relevant online. Our job now is to help turn that momentum into a more sustainable business around the content. By giving them more production support and helping open up new commercial opportunities, we can let them spend more time doing what their audience comes for – creating brilliant cricket entertainment.”
The Wood brothers added: “Backyard Cricket started with us playing in the garden, arguing over close calls and sending decisions upstairs for DRS. It was never meant to be too serious, but we’ve always taken the cricket seriously. The last few years have been mad for the channel, and it’s been brilliant seeing how far the game travels. Working with Goalhanger gives us the chance to build on that and keep growing Backyard Cricket even further.”
Invisible Media was founded by Charlie Tymon (left) and has built a growing audience through smart, accessible video storytelling focused on economics, business, geopolitics and culture.
At the heart of the business is The Invisible Hand, a digital media platform built around the idea that “curiosity is the gateway to understanding the world”. Its videos unpack the forces shaping modern life, from markets and money to global power and national economies, in a way that feels sharp, visual and accessible. Invisible Media is also developing new specialist formats, including The Invisible Game, on the hidden economics behind everyday life and business decisions
Founder Tymon said: “Goalhanger has built a strong track record of bringing together audiences around intelligent, accessible conversation across politics, history and entertainment. With The Invisible Hand, we’ve already shown that younger UK audiences are engaging at scale with content about macroeconomics, business and geopolitics, proving there is a real appetite for serious ideas when they are delivered with clarity, energy and purpose. Through this investment, we’ll be able to draw on Goalhanger’s expertise in building, scaling and monetising industry-leading IP as we grow a brilliantly aligned, YouTube-first business with huge potential.”
Goalhanger Ventures builds on the company’s wider commitment to developing the next generation of digital media talent, following the launch of The Accelerator in January. The Accelerator offers selected creators investment, training, mentorship and access to Goalhanger’s editorial, creative and commercial leadership, creating a pathway from short-form digital talent into longer-form IP and sustainable media careers.
Former BBC journalist Jack Davenport, Lineker’s co-founder at Goalhanger alongside ex-ITV controller of sport Tony Pastor, said: “Goalhanger Ventures is about giving exceptional creator-led businesses the infrastructure to grow without losing what made them special in the first place. Invisible Media and Backyard Cricket are very different propositions, but they both have that rare combination of editorial clarity, audience trust and genuine momentum. Our role is to help them scale thoughtfully, commercially and creatively, while protecting the independence, personality and quality that their communities already respond to.”
