
Episode #88
TENNIS, REINVENTED: HOW INTENNSE IS CHANGING THE GAME || MARCEL0 FERREIRA & OLIVER BELL || EPISODE 088
INTENNSE Tennis: Inside the League with Marcelo Ferreira and Oliver Bell In this interview, I sit down with two leaders behind INTENNSE, the fast-growing professional tennis league redefining how the sport is played and watched. Marcelo Ferreira is the Head Coach of Team Atlanta and the Director of the High-Performance Tennis Academy at Windy Hill Athletic Club. Oliver Bell is the Chief Financial Officer of INTENNSE, overseeing the league's finance, legal, HR and operations. What is INTENNSE? INTENNSE is a co-ed, team-based pro tennis league built for speed. Matches are played in 10-minute "BOLTs" with a running clock, simple point-based scoring, and live substitutions. A full team matchup (an "ARC") combines men's, women's and mixed singles and doubles. In this interview, we cover: • How INTENNSE started and the vision behind it • Where the league stands today • The direction it's heading and what's next • Why Atlanta's tennis community made it the ideal home for the league • How the player draft works • How the game is played, including the format and rules Chapters 00:00 The Problem with Professional Tennis 02:19 How Intense Tennis Started 08:36 The Fast-Paced Match Format 10:53 Expanding Beyond Atlanta 13:26 The Business of a 90-Minute Match 16:11 Vetting Players for Personality 19:07 Player Salaries and Contracts 26:13 Building a Grassroots Movement 29:57 The Revenue Model and Sponsors 33:40 Equal Pay Across Genders 39:19 Choosing New Cities for Expansion 44:40 Recruiting and NCAA Rules 48:54 The Role of Pulse Partners 51:25 What Could Kill the League? 57:17 What Winning Means to Us






