Board Member

BLAKE DAVIDSON
CEO
Game Seven Partners

Blake Davidson is an experienced sports marketing executive with a proven history in managing complex initiatives and igniting business growth across an array of diverse initiatives. In 2019, Davidson formed Game Seven Partners (G7P). G7P’s primary focus is on strategic advisement, consulting and project-based engagements within the sports and video gaming industries.

Most recently, Davidson served as the Vice President of Consumer Innovation for NASCAR.

Davidson developed NASCAR’s position in the rapidly growing esports market; culminating in the announcement of the eNASCAR Heat Pro League in December of 2018. Additionally, he advanced the sport’s reach by leveraging other opportunities across the gaming space and mobile platforms.

Davidson previously led the sanctioning body’s global licensing and merchandising strategy for more than a decade. This included all aspects of NASCAR’s licensing endeavors. Under his leadership, NASCAR secured agreements with leading retailers and brands, such as Walmart, Disney, Nickelodeon, Sony, Microsoft and YETI, among others. Davidson also oversaw the comprehensive merchandise program for the top-grossing film, Talladega Nights.

He also initiated the creation of NASCAR’s first patriotic branding platform, known today as NASCAR Salutes. Another significant achievement under his watch, was the consolidation of major category licensing rights from the NASCAR teams, which previously were severely fragmented. During his tenure, NASCAR continuously ranked as one of License Magazine’s Top 150 Global Licensors, boasting more than $1 billion in retail sales.

Davidson also led a complex negotiation involving all of the sports’ primary stakeholders to completely overhaul the event merchandise business across NASCAR’s venues, resulting in the creation of a 60K+ square foot “retail village” that debuted in 2015. This initiative greatly enhanced the fans’ shopping experience, while increasing the average order size by 60%, items per transaction by 50%+ and decreased peak wait times to under 2 minutes. At the time, this effort marked the largest event retail activation in all of sports.

In addition, Davidson played an important role in the creation and development of the $200 million NASCAR Hall of Fame complex, which opened in 2010 in Charlotte. His leadership included spearheading a multi-city bidding process and co-leading the contract negotiations with local and state authorities.

Davidson was an instrumental player during a period of explosive growth for NASCAR and contributed to several landmark initiatives that continue to impact NASCAR today. Some of these include: leading the process to create NASCAR’s first internet site, NASCAR Online; and assisting in the consolidation of NASCAR’s broadcast and digital rights. Davidson also engineered the sport’s first all-inclusive video game strategy, by partnering with EA Sports.

Davidson is a graduate of the University of Central Florida