Sports Business Awards

Uncategorized

fan engagement

by

Best Fan Engagement Programme

CherryBot – Greenwood Campbell

Greenwood Campbell, alongside AFC Bournemouth and Microsoft, created a Premier League first – CherryBot, a chatbot ‘personality’ which interacts with fans through emotion-recognition and intelligent conversation.

The chatbot which was hosted on Microsoft’s Azure platform to enable scalability on the day of the match has 3 key features:

A selfie competition that works with Microsoft’s emotion API and analyses the photos uploaded for the emotion on the faces of the fans. It is able to identify Anger, Contempt, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Neutral, Sadness and Surprise, with CherryBot responding to the fans accordingly. It can also recognise group shots and pick out the emotions of the individuals.

The ‘fans man of the match’ feature which allows users to vote on their man of the match from a pre-selected group of players. Votes are totalled and announced on the big screens at the stadium.

And finally, video highlights which is simply a way of letting fans watch a selection of match-highlights, in this case it was the last time AFC Bournemouth played Liverpool at home.

CherryBot has been an exciting project to create and we’re excited to see the ‘latest addition to the squad’ being so well received by AFC Bournemouth fans.

DJS Research Ltd & Leicester City: Improving the Match Day Experience for Disabled Fans

DJS Research Ltd (http://www.djsresearch.co.uk) is a family-owned full-service market research agency that has grown from the MD working alone in his garden shed, to a company with a turnover of £5M+ and 100+ staff. We work within the public, private and voluntary sectors, including research for sports clients, such as The Welsh Rugby Union, Liverpool FC, Sport England, England Cricket Board and Boccia England.

Our objectives for this project were to engage with disabled fans, stakeholders and experts to gain insight into the experiences of disabled fans to improve accessibility at King Power Stadium. We provided clear recommendations on how the match day experience could be improved. A long list of actions has been implemented by LCFC and noticed by fans:

“Since the research has taken place things have improved. The toilets are very accessible now because of their size and the grab rails. The stewards are also second to none with their caring attitude. And now having a parking space close to my entrance is incredible – it has absolutely turned things around for me. I’m now not stressed and anxious on match days. Well done Leicester City for listening and acting on our concerns.” (Supporter: Primary Progressive MS).

EFL Family Excellence Scheme

Over the last decade, the EFL Family Excellence scheme has helped to produce positive, impactful change and improvement in the family experiences offered by clubs. Celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2016/17, the scheme has not only offered improvement opportunities for clubs on a season-by-season basis, but has reflected, in the breadth of its feedback, societal and behavioural changes over this time. As an on-going qualitative assessment and consultation programme it has helped to change mindsets, drive change and support clubs in their efforts to attract and retain future generations of supporters.

With contrasting resources across clubs, the scheme seeks to highlight low or no cost examples of family engagement best practice. Its impact has been notable with several clubs gaining strong industry-wide reputations for offering true family value and a consistently high level of service and innovation. Thus in 2017 it has become a fundamental tool to drive clubs’ internal family engagement strategies, and consequently assist them in promoting the work they do to engage families and fans in their local community.

The uniquely authentic approach behind the scheme and its impact has received plaudits within the game both domestically and abroad, attracting interest and enquiries from clubs and associations from Brazil, USA, Australia, Estonia, Denmark, Ireland, Spain and Scotland.

Everton School Supporters’ Club

During the 2015/16 season Everton Football Club launched a School Supporters’ Club initiative which now, three seasons later, has over 100 schools, both locally and internationally, involved bringing thousands of junior Everton supporters together to celebrate the Club they all love.

The initiative was launched as a tool to engage with youngsters that are either already Evertonians or are yet to decide which team to support yet and offer them exclusive opportunities that other junior fans might not have access to and help expand the Everton Football Club fanbase.

Each season the initiative has grown and the network of 113 schools includes both primary and secondary schools across, Merseyside, England and the rest of the world. There are currently Everton School Supporters’ Clubs located in England, Ireland, Tanzania, New York, Dubai, Florida, Australia, Thailand, Spain, New Zealand and Singapore.

FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2017

We believe, this project is award winning for the following reasons:

1. We extended the duration (200 days) and location (68 unique locations) making fan engagement the priority of the tournament promotion

2. We successfully attracted diverse communities, activating both football and non-football fans (63,110 participants)

3. We provided fans an extraordinary platform to compete against the entire UAE by gamifying their skill versus friends, families and communities

4. We empowered youth to critically adopt in the tournament, developing physical and leadership skills

5. We created globally publicity and showcased local heroes of both genders, with CNN recognizing:
‘As the beautiful game continues to reach new fans across the Gulf, empowering more and more women along the way. What I will say, I think the winner here is Women’s Football”

6. We received FIFA distinction:
‘We recognize the efforts of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) in developing the most comprehensive and successful fan engagement programs in the history of the FIFA Club World Cup…FIFA intend to utilize some of the key learnings for future tournaments to more effectively engage fans on and offline.’

7. We drove 35% higher match attendance to early-round matches by engaging fans more effectively

Fulham Football Club Fan Engagement Programme

Fulham FC’s commitment to strengthening the bond between the Club and its supporters by signing the Memorandum of Understanding with the FST, is just one aspect of engagement with fans.

A summary of three core objectives establish this season are as follows:

1.Continue to grow the number of juniors and families attending matches at Craven Cottage
– Look to achieve a strong junior season ticket renewal rate as well as attract new fans.
– Build on a close relationship with our FFC Foundation and the local community to assist in communicating initiatives the Club has to offer

2.Commitment to delivering an outstanding match day experience for all fans
– Key emphasis placed on ensuring Craven Cottage delivers the warmest possible welcome and that all fans are informed ahead of their visit.
– Having an matchday entertainment schedule that offers something for everyone, involving supporters in our decision making.

3.Strengthen the Club’s engagement through a variety of initiatives in 2017
– creating memorable experience on match days and non-match days, as well as enhancing our dialogue with supporters (as seen with the MOU signing) and our local community.
– improving the Club’s online interaction to make all fans of Fulham feel closer to the Club.

Great Big Events – ICC Champions Corner Activation

THE CHALLENGE
The challenge, as set by the ICC, was to create a concourse-based activation that captured the hearts and minds of true cricket fans, who wish to be immersed in the culture of international cricket and the strategy behind the scenes.

THE SOLUTION
2017 ICC Champions Trophy – “ICC Champions Corner” Activation
Great Big Events sought to introduce a concept never seen at an International sporting event. We wanted to reward spectators attending the match, enhance their experience, and continue the show they’ve seen on the pitch by creating the “ICC Champions Corner” stage, a multi-platform, interactive hub on the concourse.

THE RESULT
ICC Champions Corner was a highly successful activation, providing fans with the ultimate cricket experience. Located on the concourse, this multi-platform interactive hub hosted Masterclasses with cricket legends, provided cricket coaching for kids and showed a live feed of the game in play with the commentary of the highly knowledgeable Matt Floyd.

UEFA and Seven League. Together #WePlayStrong

In May 2017 UEFA launched their new initiative called Together #WePlayStrong with the aim of making football the most played women’s sport across Europe within five years.

To support this initiative, and capitalise on the WEURO in Holland in July/August, UEFA turned to Seven League to develop a digital campaign that would promote the tournament, the teams and build excitement with fans.

To raise awareness and kick-start the movement from grassroots up, we responded with an innovative micro-influencer campaign that put real people at the heart of it. As a result, the idea for the #WePlayStrong Squad was born.

We carefully selected, recruited and empowered 45 super-fans, players, coaches, officials, mums and dads – real people connected with real women’s football across 16 European countries. We engaged them with a variety of collaborative challenges, giving them daily reasons to create authentic content that inspired people across Europe to support and take part in women’s football.

The Squad created and shared over 4K pieces of User Generated Content (UGC) that conveyed the passion for women’s football and embodied Together #WePlayStrong values.

Their content reached over 1.7M people and has inspired millions more girls to take up the game

mass participation

by

Best Mass Participation Event

Barclays Round Britain Voyage 2017 #RBV2017

Over 2 months in 2017, 204 Barclays colleagues and 181 disabled buddies undertook a high seas sporting challenge to circumnavigate the British Isles on one of only 2 tall ships in the world designed and built to accommodate the needs of a mixed ability crew, the Lord Nelson.

Barclays Round Britain Voyage 2017 (RBV2017) was designed to address challenges faced by the disabled, while producing something with an enduring impact on the Barclays workforce and the communities we serve by asking key, strategic questions:

i. How can we change the way we view disability and the way employers view disability when they recruit, whilst giving individuals with a disability confidence to apply for vacancies?
ii. How can we leverage digital innovation to address the challenges faced by those with a disability?
iii. How can we share our learning to help other organisations become more accessible?

RBV2017 was ground breaking. All crew left the Lord Nelson feeling RBV2017 completely changed their perception of disability and showed how inclusive the world could be, taking this sailing experience and their learning’s back to not just their workplace, but their communities, families and friends.

Parallel London 2017

Live events are much more powerful than any other form of marketing; especially if you know how to positively engage audiences and create connected communities.

A live event also presents a very good opportunity to look at the inner workings of how inclusivity is represented in society and completely flip it on its head. This can help change the narrative and perception of disability; particularly if the event experience is fun, dynamic, surprising and celebratory.

Through Parallel, we believe we can act as a dynamic catalyst to engage a wide cross-section of society, bring to life the positive benefits of inclusivity; whilst at the same time emotionally connecting our audiences to a wholly new and exciting experience of disability.

Our event format combines multi-distance mass participation; removing barriers and enabling beneficiaries to become benefactors. We have also created a fully accessible free family festival designed to engage and celebrate the very best of diversity through a series of themed zones.

Each zone is also sponsored by a major brand. We take the view that brands need to stand up and align themselves with the positive attributes of disability because part of the cultural power for change is in this alignment.

Powerman Asia Duathlon Championship – Malaysia 2017

Established in 2004, E-Plus has since surged and transformed into a leading events management company in Asia. The company has incorporated regional offices in Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, Manila and Hong Kong. The regional offices create synergy and promotes strength to the entire E-Plus Group. The company’s dynamic and creative team that provides innovative and creative ideas has led to a consistent and strong recognition by clients and customers around the world.

The company has evolved to a full fledged agency by acquiring international and regional rights for a few sporting events, namely Powerman World Series Duathlon Asia Championships, FIM Asia Supermoto Championship and FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

In 2017, E-Plus group signed a partnership agreement with Badminton Asia to host and organise badminton event in the region and globally.

Moreover, the company has also established its name through numerous home-grown events including the world renowned Melaka Art and Performance Festival (MAPFest) and AkTION Series Langkawi which includes Tuba Trail Run, Matchincang Vertical Hill Climb and Swimfest in Langkawi. In 2017, The company developed a music series with the island theme called Island Music Festival, which was first launched in Langkawi inconjunction with Christmas 2017.

E-Plus also launched a digital OTP platform, twenty3.tv in 2017, to stream live FIM Supermoto races and games matches.

E-Plus Group has achieved a major milestone on 16 January 2017, the company were publicly listed on the National Stocks Exchange of Australia (NSX) as the first Malaysia-based events company to go public on Australian shores. E-Plus Limited (Parent Company) issued a total of 245 million shares at an initial market price of AUD0.05 (RM0.16) per share under the stock code, 8EP.

World Masters Games 2017 – Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED)

In April 2017, World Masters Games (WMG2017) was held in Auckland, New Zealand. The World Masters Games are held every four years and promote the philosophies of ‘sport for life’ and ‘sports for all’. It is the largest multi-sport event in the world, attracting more than double the number of athletes of the summer Olympic Games.

Over 28,000 athletes ranging in ages from 25 to 101 took part in the Games. They came from all corners of the world, and had overwhelmingly positive feedback about their experiences in Auckland.

When the President of the IMGA, Kai Holm proclaimed that the Auckland Games had been the best Games ever, it was a dream come true for everyone who had worked towards this goal for the past four years.

Post-event analysis confirmed the success of the games, with WMG2017 exceeding all Key Performance Indicators set, demonstrating sound return on investment for the host city and the country, delivering an excellent customer experience to athletes and captivating Aucklanders who became avid supporters and welcoming hosts during the 10 days of the event.

World Table Tennis Day (WTTD)

“TABLE TENNIS FOR EVERYONE, EVERWHERE” is the slogan to share the joy of playing Table Tennis worldwide on APRIL 6. WORLD TABLE TENNIS DAY (WTTD) forms part of ITTF’s Table Tennis for ALL – Program and aims to reach most quantity of people and different target groups. It builds up on 3 pillars: POPULAR, UNIVERSAL & INCLUSIVE.

The focus is on social outcomes presenting Table Tennis as a sport accessible for everyone. FEW MATERIALS AND SKILLS ARE NEEDED to play, have fun and spread positive messages among players. EVENTS ARE EASILY SET UP ALL AROUND THE WORLD bringing Table Tennis closer also to laypersons.

OVER 90.000 PERSONS celebrated World Table Tennis Day 2017 all around the globe. Many of them don’t usually play or train Table Tennis. The number is set to grow from year to year.

Beyond competitions, Table Tennis serves as a vehicle for POSITIVE SOCIAL CHANGE, a HEALTHY WORTHWHILE USE OF LEISURE TIME and an opportunity to BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER, an excellent tool for SOCIAL INCLUSION. Table Tennis has a unique value where people from different ages, gender, skills or physical condition can play together. It is SPORT FOR LIFE and It´s FUN! Stay updated on www.TT4ALL.com

charity

by

Best Sports Charity (or best use of sport by a charity)

Everton in the Community

Everton in the Community is one of the UK’s top sporting charity’s and firmly established on the world stage of community sports development. As the official charity of Everton Football Club it is considered one of the Premier League’s leading community schemes due to the quality and reach of its various programmes.

Since 1988 Everton in the Community has been at the forefront of social intervention across Merseyside, not afraid to tackle issues which others shied away from.

Soon to celebrate its 30th anniversary, the charity operates 7 days a week, 365 days a year and supports the most vulnerable and underprivileged members of local communities.

Goals4Girls

Goals4Girls is a nationally recognised football development programme with the aim of increasing the confidence, self-esteem, motivation and communication skills of young women aged 11-16, through sports and education. Since 2013 we have helped over 850 young women through our well devised innovative programme. At Goals4Girls we deliver, Workshops, Football Coaching, Player Development, Qualifications, mentoring and trips. Our young women are encouraged to set and reach their Goals in a FUN, inclusive environment. From flying down a giant zip wire to the adrenalin of scoring your first goal on the football pitch, we at Goals4Girls nurture skills that last a lifetime.

Sheffield and District Junior Sunday league

We are a small charity that supports Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Most people haven’t heard of us and yet we have more patient journeys than Great Ormond Street despite raising less than a 30th of what they do.

We are one of the busiest paediatric hospitals in the country, performing over 450,000 procedures each year. With multiple national and international specialisms including sports injuries, bones and respiratory; to partner with the Sheffield & District Junior Sunday Football League felt like an obvious step.

This formally started for the 2014/15 season and the partnership is now going from strength-to-strength. The 2017/18 season has been a great success for the league and for the charity.

The story of the league and the hospital are reaching an ever-expanding audience and the league has successfully fundraised for state-of-the-art bedrooms in the hospital’s new wing, with their name proudly displayed on one of them. The participating players and their families know about the support they give the hospital and over £23,000 has been donated over the last year.

The partnership has been commended by the FA as a model for other youth leagues and other sports leagues locally have started to enquire about opportunities for themselves.

SPFL Trust

In 2009 the Scottish Premier League Trust was established to co-ordinate and seek funding for community initiative across the 12 SPL Clubs. In 2013 league reconstruction brought together all 42 professional clubs in Scotland under one entity the Scottish Professional Football League. As a result the SPFL Trust became the Scottish Professional Football League Trust (SPFL Trust).

The SPFL Trust is a genuine example of a charity working in partnership. Our delivery vehicle is our clubs and we work with national partners to deliver outcomes at a truly local level.

Our Purpose is to use football’s unique presence to identify and provide opportunities for people across Scotland’s communities to achieve their goals and improve their life chances.

Our Vision is:
• To work with SPFL clubs to use the unique power of football to engage with communities

Our Priorities are to:
• Inspire SPFL clubs to meet a variety of local community needs
• Build capacity in SPFL clubs to help them engage with local communities
• Engage with funders to facilitate national projects at local level
• Establish relationships on a national level to ensure that Scotland’s professional football clubs are at the heart of the national vision to tackle social issues

The Youth Sport Trust

The Youth Sport Trust is a UK children’s charity which pioneers new ways of using sport and play to improve children’s wellbeing and give them a brighter future. We want to ensure that every child — regardless of age, gender, background or ability — has the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of an active lifestyle and has access to high quality PE and school sport. We passionately believe this is crucial to tackling some of the biggest challenges facing today’s generation of children and young people at a time when childhood obesity rates continue to rise and young people’s mental health is in decline.

The programmes we develop and deliver use the power of physical activity to enhance young people’s wellbeing and equip them with the skills to achieve in the classroom and in life.

We operate throughout the UK and in the 2016/17 academic year reached more than 20,000 schools with our programmes and interventions.

Since 2013 we have helped more than 1.6 million primary-school-aged children and 2.7 million secondary school aged children participate in sport and physical activity and have trained more than 180,000 young people and adults in inclusive practice.

pro services

by

Best Professional Services Firm in Sport

Avanti Wealth Management Ltd

Since the inception of the Premier League in 1992 the money surrounding football has grown exponentially seeing players wages rising at a similarly staggering rate.

In spite of this increase in players wealth there has been one stubborn statistic that has been consistently reported throughout which is that 40 % of players go bankrupt within 5 years of retirement.

Our mission is to eliminate this statistic by providing our clients with the skills and understanding to ensure that they know exactly how to avoid the pitfalls that many of their team-mates fall into.

Through an in depth ‘Discovery Meeting’ we get to know our players, their aspirations and their own unique circumstances, leading them to their personal ‘Magic Number’ – the amount that they need by retirement to ensure that they can continue to enjoy the life that they have built without the risk of running out.

Knowing their ‘Magic Number’ creates clarity and a reason for saving.
By focussing on the problem, understanding our clients and providing them with a unique and trusted relationship we aim to be the Wealth Management firm that is known to have made a real difference to the lives of our sports clients.

Haysmacintyre

From small organisations, led by enthusiasts enabling amateurs to keep fit and have fun, to international organisations generating millions in revenues, haysmacintyre supports a range of sport organisations to fulfil their compliance obligations and achieve their financial objectives.

Since the launch of the National Lottery, we have helped NGBs develop from small organisations with big ideas, staffed by volunteers, to complex organisations offering elite programmes, major events and grassroots development led by professional staff and well governed Boards. As the leading advisers to NGBs, we founded the NGB Finance Special Interest Group incorporating the NGB Benchmarking Survey and Report, a free, valuable resource, and one of the few providing up-to-date, NGB-specific management data.

Our combination of experience and knowledge ensures we deliver first class advice that is constructive and practicable at a competitive price.

Our team has built up a wealth of NGB-specific knowledge on structuring of major events, sponsorship agreements, VAT recovery, employment status and governance – and have secured appropriate favourable rulings from HMRC concerning our clients’ operations.

We enjoy sport and value the benefits it delivers.

Jockey Club Services

Jockey Club Services (JCS) has developed a world class platform of services which is now available to the professional sports market. Marked improvements have been experienced by JCS’ clients in the performance of their clubs and they have experienced savings across many facets of their businesses; allowing profits to be re-invested back into their sport.

With expertise in Procurement, Ticketing, Finance & Accounting, Payroll, Public Wi-fi, IT Services, Live Music and Catering, JCS has provided procurement services to five county cricket teams, ticketing to three county cricket teams and the Badminton Horse Trials, live music to The Ageas Bowl and Kingsholm, has created the Rewards4Cricket Loyalty programme being run by Hampshire, Glamorgan, Durham, Lancashire and Worcestershire County Cricket Clubs. JCS’ fastest growing service is finance and accounting where partners include Table Tennis England, England Squash, Badminton England and British Fencing, with many other NGB’s in the pipeline.

JCS is able to deliver significant economies of scale to other professional sports organisations, saving them money and providing insights based on experiences which prove a real benefit. These economies of scale will only increase as new partners come on board.

Onside Law Limited

Onside Law was set up with one key aim “to provide the specialist legal services those working in the sports industry needed and wanted”.

After many years as in house counsel at sports marketing giant IMG, two of the founding partners were frustrated at how rarely they received the advice they both wanted and needed.

The firm was founded to satisfy that need.

We are proud that as the firm has grown and prospered, it has played a part in the development and advancement of the sports law industry and is now the oldest and most established sports law boutique in the UK.

No firm has more lawyers recognised as sports law experts in the independent directories. In fact the firm is regularly rated as one of the pre-eminent sports law firms in the UK. Chambers Legal state “they are an amazing outfit. They offer a one-stop shop for sport.”

Our team of 17 lawyers advise across all legal disciplines impinging on the sports industry.

We are proud that the founding principles still form the bedrock of the firm to this day helping us build a firm with long standing client relationships with key players throughout the sports industry.

Saffery Champness LLP

We are one of the largest Sports and eSports teams within a UK accountancy firm, forming part of a wider Sports & Entertainment practice containing seven partners and 45 staff. We are a market leader in providing a full range of business advisory services to players, clubs, NGBs, rights holders, agencies, and other commercial partners within the Sport and eSports ecosystem.

We work not just as accountants or tax advisers, but as trusted professional services advisers. We build strong relationships and work in partnership with our clients to help them achieve their personal aims, commercial goals and strategic ambitions.

We are a forward-looking, informal and inclusive firm with a history going back to 1855. We are the twelfth largest accountancy firm in the UK with nine UK and three international offices. We have 73 partners and 700 staff. Our annual fee income for 2017 was £72m.

In 2017, our team celebrated achieving one of its core primary objectives. We achieved fee income of £10m (14% of the firm’s turnover), growing to this level from a standing start in six years.

Verisona Law

Having been very influential in helping its fans save Portsmouth Football Club from its creditors some 4 years ago Verisona have provided legal services to the Club ever since, with one of their Directors, Mike Dyer, serving throughout on the Club board.

Following receipt of an expression of interest from a potential buyer, Michael Eisner (former CEO of the Disney organisation) and The Tornante Company, Verisona advised the Club and its board throughout a complex negotiation made all the more difficult and sensitive by its fan ownership structure and its flagship status as the largest fan owned club in the country. Verisona’s specialist knowledge of that structure and its relationship and ability to work with the various stakeholders, including the relevant regulatory bodies, was a major factor in achieving a successful and in many respects unique outcome.

Verisona has also advised during the last year in relation to executive employment contracts at other clubs – including in the Premier League, and provided structural advice to Fan groups at 3 other football clubs.

Verisona Law has become known and respected in the Football industry, also providing advice to other Trusts considering fan ownership and advising in relation to executive employment contracts.