BEST SPORTS EVENT OF THE YEAR

2022/23 Cazoo World Darts Championship – Professional Darts Corporation

The World Darts Championship has evolved into the festive period’s most popular sporting event, and the 2022/23 event proved to be the biggest ever, with its impact felt across the globe.

The event saw almost 90,000 fans attend London’s iconic Alexandra Palace from December 15-January 3 and enjoy an enhanced experience at the event, while global TV audiences included record-breaking figures in Germany.

The final featured an iconic nine-dart finish from Michael Smith just after Michael van Gerwen missed double 12 for the same feat, and “the greatest leg of all time” saw the PDC achieve its biggest ever day of social media interactions as the moment become a global news headline.

Post-event analysis has seen the World Darts Championship receive hugely favourable ratings when compared to sports industry standards, reflecting the record interest for ticket sales and improved delivery of the event.

2023 Wheelchair Rugby European Championship – Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby

The 2023 Wheelchair Rugby European Championship set out to raise the bar for Paralympic sport delivery Challenging the ‘it’ll do’ attitude by making the ‘impossible’ possible, the event saw Europe’s top teams battle for gold on one of sport’s most famous stages, the iconic Principality Stadium, Cardiff.

Committed to making the event an authentically inclusive experience for all, the delivery team transformed the home of Welsh rugby into the home of wheelchair rugby, creating a ‘stadium within a stadium’ with an intimate feel against the famous impressive backdrop.

By creating the incredible platform this unique sport deserves, the event engaged hundreds of thousands of new people with wheelchair rugby through live broadcast, national media coverage, social media, live attendance and a wide-reaching legacy programme.

The impact of this event will be felt long after the champions lifted the trophy – from the 7,000+ young people who have tried wheelchair rugby for the first time, to the 1,500+ schoolchildren who attended, businesses engaged in accessibility training, and the development of more opportunities to play.

By pushing the boundaries, the event has shown how sport can be a platform for societal change: changing perceptions of disability and what it means to be

BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 – BLAST

In May this year, BLAST delivered the BLAST.tv Paris Major, which is the biggest and most popular esports event of the calendar year. 24 of the world’s best teams descended on the French capital to compete for a $1.25 million prize pool and a chance at claiming the title of the world’s best Counter-Strike team.

The Paris Major became the biggest esports event in France’s history, drawing over 50,000 fans to the Accor Arena across four days of action-packed esports, posted the third highest peak viewership of all time at 1.5 million viewers and was broadcast globally in more than 100+ territories and in 24 different languages.

Hyderabad Black Hawks – The Hype Night – Havas Play India – Havas Media

Volleyball is one of the most practiced sports in schools. However, a lack of investment in the elite game has held it back. Prime Volleyball took the mantle to change this by introducing a nation-wide league. But the Hyderabad Black Hawks’ fans were still not volleying with the idea.
So, we had to get their attention!
Get them excited. Get them cheering by making the Hyderabad Black Hawks the most talked about team in the league.
We had to shed some light on this game. So, we decided to do the exact opposite thing.
TURN THE LIGHTS OFF!

Introducing HYPE NIGHT – A one-night showstopping volleyball experience where the game was played in the dark.
India’s First Blackout Volleyball experience. Neon balls. Neon costumes. Neon bands. A visual spectacle unlike any other. Fans were seated in a completely dark stadium, to witness the first-ever UV and LED-led showdown. The audience elevated the experience with glowing headbands and wristbands.
2000+ people attended the Hype Night event.
Instagram followers grew 400%. Impressions went up by 500k+.
The new-found passion for the game resulted in Hyderabad attracting the highest viewership across all cities, marking the beginning of a Volleyball revolution for the city.

Inaugural Walking Football FIWFA World Nations Cup – FIWFA

The unique sport of Walking Football is only 12 years old. It is a non-contact sport, and has proven mental and physical health benefits; it has prolonged and saved many people’s lives including those with a myriad of impairments including Parkinsons, Cancer, transplants and dementia.
Over 400 players and officials from all corners of the world will be participating in this historic inaugural amateur event, showcasing the best of this wonderful sport, which is now being played in over 70 countries, with an incredible 200,000 players in England. 27 teams are participating in the two age groups from 19 nations.
This is indubitably the fastest growing sport in the World and deserves such a World class international showcase for the growing fanbase.

This inaugural innovative and prestigious event will be a magnificent showcase for this important sport, and the event has already received a hugely positive response (including presold tickets, Nations ‘engagement and feedback) as well as enhanced brand awareness.
Matches will be screened on the new non-subscription platform www.RECAST.TV/ FIWFA

World Nations Cup 2023

WALKING BACK TO HAPPINESS

LFC Foundation Legends Game – LFC Foundation

The LFC Foundation is the official charity of Liverpool Football Club. Our mission is to create life changing opportunities for young people and families. To do this we need to raise funds.

In season 22/23 we set out to host not one but two of our Legends fixtures at Anfield, using former Liverpool FC players as a hook to entice fans of the football club to experience Anfield, enjoy reminiscing and rewatching their favourite ex-players and ultimately raise much needed funds to support LFC Foundation and local charity beneficiaries.

The two games saw the Foundation raise a huge £1.45 million in net proceeds, with attendances of over 76,000 across the two games and broadcast to over a million fans worldwide.

London Landmarks Half Marathon 2023 – Tommy’s

The sixth edition of London Landmarks Half Marathon (LLHM), organised by Tommy’s, took place on 2 April 2023 with over 17,200 runners. The largest LLHM to date, a whopping £10.3m was raised for charity, bringing the grand total raised since the inaugural event to an outstanding £37m.

New for 2023, the LLHM officially welcomed wheelchair participants, a real milestone in the event’s continued commitment to inclusivity. 2023 also saw a new route, taking in even more iconic landmarks such as Westminster Bridge, Leicester Square and China Town.

Charity remains at the heart of LLHM, a 100% not for profit event with the number of charities benefiting increasing from 102 in 2018 to 450 for LLHM 2023.

The event is unlike any other half marathon. As well as an iconic, central London course, runners experienced ‘The Grand. The Quirky. The Hidden’ of the capital. In total, 437 activations lined the 2023 route, giving runners an experience like no other.

Following six successful years of the LLHM, this gave Tommy’s the platform to launch its second Landmarks event, the London Landmarks Skyscraper Challenge, taking place in September 2023. Like the LLHM, this event will benefit both Tommy’s and other charities too.

Netball World Cup 2023 – World Netball

The Netball World Cup (NWC) is World Netball’s (WN) flagship event. It is held every four years around the world. On its 60th anniversary, The Netball World Cup 2023 (NWC2023) was held on the continent of Africa for the first time in history. The success of the event exceeded expectations and was the culmination of four years of planning by WN, NWC2023 (Local Organising Committee) and Netball South Africa.

• Most successful commercial programme (sponsorship and broadcast) in NWC history.
• In key broadcast markets reach exceeded 11m people.
• For the first time in history, the event was recorded and produced by an all women crew from SuperSport.
• WN’s OTT Platform, NetballPass, allowed global reach and provided fans with a digital home for the NWC2023. 460,000 unique users visited the platform
• 109,437 social media posts referencing the NWC2023 reached 3.3bn potential impressions.
• 1,718 social media videos referencing the NWC2023 generated 12.1m views.
• 8,052 Online Press articles referencing the NWC2023 reached a potential readership of 1.9bn globally.
• 63 fan parks and 30 viewing centres across the nine South African provinces.
• Provision of 12 sprung wooden netball floors by South African Department of Sport.

The Ashes – England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)

The 2023 Ashes, and the Ashes, Two Ashes campaign made history as the ECB’s first joint ticket sales campaign for an England Men’s and Women’s Ashes series.
For the first time, the men’s and women’s international scheduling for 2023 was conducted at the same time, allowing England women’s fixtures to be prioritised alongside England men’s to drive parity at the elite level and to allow optimisation of the women’s schedule for high attendance growth, including some of the most iconic grounds.
The results speak for themselves. A record 655,000 people attended the Men’s and Women’s Ashes Series this summer. Every day of the Men’s Ashes series sold out in advance, with total attendance topping 545,000 – after 110,000 watched the Women’s series – and fan feedback on the event experience ‘in-ground’ reached new heights.
At home and on the go, 17.8million watched the action live on Sky or BBC highlights, and ECB digital channels saw more than 609 million video views from both series.
Perhaps more importantly, it’s created dream-like opportunities for women to play on the same stage as men and will inspire the next generation of girls to want to do the same.

 

WOMENS SPORT BUSINESS AWARD – SUPPORTERS OF WOMEN’S SPORT

Destination Sport Group

Destination Sport Group is a specialist sports travel business based in Manchester with an ambition of setting the global standard in sports travel. Since its formation, Destination Sport Group has been keen to play a key role within the development and growth of women’s sport. As an employer, Destination Sport has a strong representation of females in the workplace including within management positions. It has a Women’s Sport Working Group which meets monthly to shape strategy and explore opportunities within women’s sport. Notable highlights across the group include delivery of travel services for a number of elite women’s clubs and national teams via Amaze and Destination Sport Travel and partnerships including front of shirt branding via Sportsbreaks.com. In Destination Sport Experiences and inspiresport, both operators experience significant demand from female travellers but are committed to growing this further including dedicated trips such as women’s only training camps and 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup coach education trip

ICENI

Iceni is the UK’s only dedicated sports performance period wear brand. We are committed to
removing barriers for women and girls in sport, empowering them to feel their most confident, be it on the pitch, at the gym, or just on a rest day.

When co-founders Francesca Hansen and Vanessa Smith compared their experiences with those of their daughters, they realised that there was still no active solution to the challenges that female athletes face in sport.

We believe that girls and women deserve to train and compete with no distractions; as we grow our community, we are dedicated to finding solutions to ensure that they can focus on their performance.

Periods should not be a barrier or a deterrent for females in sport.

MatchFit

MatchFit is an independent PR agency with a deep expertise within sport. We want everyone to love sport as much as we do. This is the inspirational guiding light and mission behind our existence. This mission flows through MatchFit; our model, people, work and clients.

There is no more exciting growth story in all of sport right now than that of women’s football.
As an agency that is so deeply embedded within the game, we saw it as our responsibility to seize this generational moment in time to push the industry forward, and build on the foundations which exist to truly and sustainably grow women’s football.

This year our work has been felt across the game spanning grassroots and para PR campaigns such as ‘Let Girls Play’ for The FA, professional competitions and teams for the Women’s FA Cup and the Lionesses, as well as brand and sponsorship work for the likes of FOOTY.com and LiveScore.

We are incredibly proud that more than 35% of our PR agency output across August 2022 to July 2023 came in women’s football, and that trend is only heading in one direction.

SPORTFIVE

Working across 60 locations across five continents, SPORTFIVE builds value for Brands, Rights Holders, Athletes and Media-Platforms by creating innovative and compelling marketing partnerships that emotionally connect with audiences.

As a global business, SPORTFIVE has been active within women’s sport since the 1990s, with the marketing of the TV rights for Wimbledon. In 2020, SPORTFIVE UK wanted to take this work to new heights and set the overall development and growth of the women’s sport business as one of our main strategic objectives and have been working to develop the industry ever since.

Across 2022 and 2023, SPORTFIVE UK has helped women’s sport grow across five crucial service sectors: Commercial Partnership Brokerage, Brand Activation, Talent Services, Production Services and Media Services.

One standout project has emerged as part of this work: our involvement in the UEFA Women’s European Championships.

Arguably the most culturally defining sports event of the last decade and a seminal moment for women’s sport in England, our Commercial Sponsor Programme, packaged and sold on behalf of the Football Association, secured funding for the game, and showcased the marketing value of women’s football to premium brands, essential to its ongoing growth and professionalisation.

Women’s Premier League – ITW CATALYST

ITW played a critical role in the WPL’s inaugural season, assisting franchises such as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in obtaining the front of the jersey (Kajaria) and leading trouser leg sponsors (Vega Beauty), as well as Body Care sponsor for UP Warriorz (UPW).
*We wanted to leave a mark on the first season of a part breaking event like the WPL. With women’s sports rarely getting its due attention we made it our mission to not only contribute significantly to the success of the league but also ensure that it achieves a revolutionary growth trajectory. For us the success of the WPL was a case study on how women’s sport can be protected and promoted through sustained activity and bringing the sport into the spotlight. As an organization we believe strongly in the promotion of women’s sport, and we were keen to be a part of the inaugural season in every capacity. The partnerships we helped execute are as follows.

TOURNAMENT: WPL

FRANCHISE: Royal Challengers Bangalore
SPONSOR: Kajaria-Front of Jersey, VEGA-Leading Trouser, ZUNO-Official Partner

FRANCHISE: UP WARRIORZ
SPONSOR: Bodycare – Leading Trouser

Women’s Rugby: Red Roses World Cup, Premier Women’s Rugby, Clinique – MATTA

Since our inception in 2015, women’s sport has been a core focus of MATTA’s, from launching the Lionesses brand identity to creating a groundbreaking Ashes campaign that saw countless attendance records broken in 2023. We have continuously commercially and culturally committed to women’s sport as a business and are actively innovating our services to reflect our passion for it. We believe sport has the power to positively change the world – and women’s sport even more so.

Women’s Super League (WSL), Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL), Women’s Championship, and National League – Relo Metrics

Women’s Super League (WSL), Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL), Women’s Championship, and National League – Relo Metrics
A new initiative by Relo Metrics named the Women’s Football Collab, has attracted 13 clubs from the Women’s Super League, Scottish Championship, second-tier Women’s Championship, and a few in the third-tier National League, which isn’t yet fully professionalized.
To help European clubs capitalize on this momentum following the Lionesses’ EURO 2022 triumph, sponsorship analytics platform Relo Metrics offered some of its social media intelligence services, for free, while also facilitating the sharing of best practices.

Additionally, the teams gathered together for free collaboration, in a series of curated workshops and in-person events designed to promote greater cooperation amongst all the teams.

WOMENS SPORT BUSINESS AWARD – GOVERNING BODIES & TEAMS

Arsenal Women’s Matches at Emirates Stadium – Arsenal Football Club

Ahead of the 2022/23 season, we implemented an integrated commercial approach to women’s football and adopted an insights-driven strategy to maximise attendances at Arsenal Women matches at Emirates Stadium Having announced plans to hold six games at the Emirates even before England’s Euro 2022 triumph, Arsenal Women eventually played eight matches at our main stadium last season, with results that far exceeded initial targets We set a new Barclays Women’s Super League record attendance of 47,367 against Tottenham Hotspur, and drew crowds in excess of 40,000 for all three WSL games at the Emirates last year We twice broke the UK record attendance in the Champions League, achieving a historic first sell-out of the Emirates for a women’s match in our semi-final against Wolfsburg on 1 May, with over 60,000 tickets sold With a supporter-first communications and marketing strategy, proactive ticketing campaigns and club-wide buy-in, we made a compelling case for women’s football and sold over 240,000 tickets in total The core pillar of our approach is a commitment to long-term, sustainable growth – and as such we have confirmed that Arsenal Women will play five WSL games at the Emirates in the 23/24 season, up from three last year

International Working Group on Women and Girls in Sport – UK Handover – Sport and Recreation Alliance

On behalf of the UK, and with the support of Sport England, UK Sport and central government – the Sport and Recreation Alliance successfully led the bid for the UK to become host of the International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Girls in Sport.

The IWG on Women and Sport was formed in 1994 as one of the outcomes of the first World Conference on Women and Sport which was held in the UK in the city of Brighton and Hove.

Central to the UK’s bid was a pledge to ‘share’ and to learn from others through sharing This is indicative of the UK’s bid to: be inclusive of all cultures and identities; commit to mutual learning; and operate as global citizens with a collective responsibility to progress sport for women and girls in a way that is sustainable for the for the sport system and future generations.

In committing to ‘Share the Change’, the UK IWG Bid aimed to be provocative, to challenge
the status quo, to re-evaluate and reinvent how sport works, and harness the power of sport as a driver for social change and social equity.

PDC Women’s Series & Women’s World Matchplay – Professional Darts Corporation

The Professional Darts Corporation’s commitment to women’s darts has seen the organisation continue to create further opportunities for female players alongside the opportunity to compete for unprecedented prize money of £265,000 in 2023, up from £125,000 in 2022.

Another year of growth for women’s darts within the PDC saw the expansion of the PDC Women’s Series, introduction of the Betfred Women’s World Matchplay and the provision of additional qualifying places for other PDC events.

The growth of professional women’s darts has been further accelerated by the expansion of the PDC Women’s Series from 20 events to 24 events in 2023, and with prize money doubled to £10,000 per tournament.

This has seen an impact in entry levels increasing to record numbers for 2023, while coverage from the PDC Women’s Series is broadcast live online to further enhance the profile of players competing on the tour to a global audience.

Alongside the events exclusively for women, players also continue to compete against male opponents throughout the year – a rarity in professional sport – with several competing at the 2023 Qualifying School and subsequently on the second-tier Challenge Tour and in Development Tour events, for players aged 16-23.

Pixellot and the FAI – Putting Women’s Sport on par with Mens’ – Football Association of Ireland (FAI)

The Football Association of Ireland, In an effort to increase exposure and improve the quality of women’s football, partnered with Pixellot, who specialize in AI-automated sports production and streaming solutions. Prior to 2021, women’s league games in Ireland were not broadcast due to high costs and uncertainty about the demand for women’s football. The FAI signed a contract with Pixellot whose technology captures and streams the action with professional production quality without the need for camera or production personnel.

Pixellot systems were installed at all 11 team fields in the Women’s premier league, allowing LOITV to stream all matches across the SSE Airtricity First Division and the SSE Airtricity Women’s National League for the 2021 season This decision to broadcast the games has revitalized women’s soccer in Ireland, attracting a growing fan base and generating positive synergies.

The change from no coverage to full streaming of all woman’s league soccer games behind a paywall is unheard of, especially within a 3-year time span Now, a paid season pass costs €120 for 440 men’s and women’s games.

Walking Football – The Walking Football Association

The impact that the WFA has had over the sport continues to be ambitious and far reaching, and is recognized by Sport England as being the most influential organization within Walking Football. Supporting the huge growth of the sport in all formats in a myriad of ways– mixed, women only, impairment and globally.
The sport is the fastest growing in the world and the WFA is made up of an entirely voluntary group of individuals who are making impressive progress to make the game more inclusive, more diverse, more visible and more accessible to women of all ages.

The WFA is indubitably making a significant impact on the growth of Women’s sport.

Women in Esports Initiative – British Esports Federation

The British Esports Federation’s Women in Esports initiative has demonstrated a remarkable impact on the growth and success of women in the esports industry. By supporting our submission for the Women’s Sport Business Award, you are endorsing an organisation that is making a tangible difference in promoting gender diversity and inclusion within competitive gaming. Our approach tackles the prevalent gender gap head-on, addressing challenges such as biases, limited role models, and misconceptions. Through educational campaigns, dedicated tournaments, workshops, and mentorship, we empower aspiring females and marginalised genders to pursue their passion and overcome existing barriers. We have created an inclusive and supportive environment that fosters the growth and success of women in esports.

The measurable impact speaks for itself. Female participation in esports has significantly increased at both amateur and professional levels. Our educational initiatives have reached thousands of students, boosting female representation within school and college esports clubs. We have secured partnerships, increased investment, and provided valuable networking opportunities for women within the esports industry.

Let’s recognise the achievements and potential of women in esports and shape a future where gender equality is the norm.

SUSTAINABILITY IN SPORT AWARD

ArenaMendLLC

ArenaMend is a trailblazing family-run organization specializing in the development and supply of sustainable equestrian surfaces. Our innovation journey since 2012 has led to the creation of two groundbreaking products – ArenaGreen and Noviun Fiber – that offer high performance while mitigating the environmental impact of traditional horse footings.
ArenaGreen eliminates the need for water-dependent structures by offering a unique sand and fiber composition, saving an average of 3,000,000 liters of water per arena annually. Noviun Fiber, an innovative plant-based blend, replaces synthetic fibers often associated with environmental harm.
Our commitment to sustainability has saved over 1 billion liters of water and eliminated over a million pounds of plastic contamination. Our measures of success go beyond these environmental benefits; reduced injury rates in horses, faster recovery times, and improved endurance underscore the performance advantages of our products. We are proud to share that our clients endorse these benefits, echoing our values of sustainability and superior performance in equestrian footings.

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club

The Challenge – With the Amex stadium located in the South Downs National Park, the club already follows stringent restrictions to keep light pollution to a minimum, as well as keeping gas usage, traffic, litter and waste to a minimum to preserve the local wildlife. Being the only city in the UK to elect a Green Party MP in the past four general elections we need to match this in the way we operate and the services we provide.
The Amex is located out of town, so the club has always had to encourage fans to use sustainable modes of transport and provide travel options to discourage them from driving to the stadium.
We are HUMAN – Treating people, animals and the environment equally, enhancing our togetherness with the community around us. BOLD – Continually challenging partners and suppliers to produce and operate in a “greener” way, while listening to our community as they challenge us. MAKING A DIFFERENCE – Implementing small changes which have a massive impact on our overall sustainability.
Addressing Transport, Single Use Plastics, Tree-planting schemes, Digital Ticketing, Green electricity and creative initiatives with water, food and pitch irrigation.

Liverpool Football Club

In early 2021, LFC launched their sustainability strategy, The Red Way. When establishing The Red Way, the club’s intention was to provide an inspiring, credible, and authentic approach to sustainability. The club has now truly embedded sustainability into all its departments and has continued to progress towards achieving its goals. The award-winning strategy presents a holistic approach to sustainability, putting the 3 pillars (people, planet and communities) into the heart of all operations and amplifying the club’s impact by contributing towards the achievement of 14 UN Sustainable Development Goals. By using the platform of sport, along with the entertainment and inspiration it provides, LFC believes The Red Way helps to embrace sport’s opportunity to deliver positive social and environmental change through this platform.

Scotland’s Sustainable Summer of Golf – VisitScotland

A major, multi stakeholder project in golf, coordinated by the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf in partnership with Visit Scotland, delivered environmental and social impacts across Scotland’s incredible summer of golf.

Scotland was the centrepiece of sustainable golf in 2022, with six professional tournaments, including two Majors. The project enabled event organisers across The R&A, European Tour Group, PGA Tour, Ladies European Tour, LPGA, IMG, Richemont events and Scottish Golf, to deliver a consistent approach and united efforts across venues, staging, legacies and communications, with activities integrating climate action, circular economy, social value and promotion of nature in their events.

Tournament owners, promoters, venues and media all embraced sustainability – showing how the Home of Golf is driving sustainable golf, set against the backdrop of Scotland’s stunning natural landscapes and ecosystems. The initiative is being felt beyond golf, helping shape Scotland’s National Events Strategy Review – Net Zero & Environmental Sustainability.

Surrey County Cricket Club

This year Surrey County Cricket Club has confirmed our pledge to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2030. This is an important and ambitious target to ensure that we can operate at the highest level possible. The Club has set an initial target of reducing total CO2e emissions by 45% by the end of 2024 with a focus on rapidly reducing the direct emissions that result from the Club and the running of The Kia Oval venue. This includes reducing electricity consumption, improving insulation operational processes at the venue, and increasing the quantity of recycling.

World Athletics CIS – Wonderly

WebCIS is an innovative, online solution that offers real-time event data, video, athlete profiles, infographics, and automated commentary to content producers such as broadcasters, commentators, and journalists, increasing accessibility while reducing carbon footprint.

The Web Competition Information System (WebCIS) is a bespoke technology solution built for World Athletics delivering real time data, assets, athlete profiles and automated commentary during major. World Championships. The system is currently being used on all World Athletic Series events including the World Championship, as well as several European Athletics events. It was also used to cover Athletics during the Tokyo Olympics. Replacing a legacy system of physical hardware (VLAN cables) and tablets, our system is accessible anywhere in the world in real time.

 

SPORTS INNOVATION AWARD

2023 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four Referees Bodycam – MindFly

Within this agreement between Euroleague Basketball and Mindfly, an Israel based technological start-up, both companies aim to deliver first-person view immersive content. The objective is to go one step further in terms of content creation and give the fans the opportunity to enjoy conversations and interactions between players, coaches and referees as never seen before.

In line with Euroleague Basketball’s plan, targeting younger audiences who are engaged by more casual and realistic content, MindFly provides ready to publish clips, which are rapidly stabilized and auto-directed by an AI powered software. This software, is Mindfly’s main advantage comparing to their competition, as is key for creating great quality content that helps the fans follow the play without the image getting blurred.

Mindfly FPV clips routinely get up to 30X fan engagement as measured by views, likes and comments, from across the world. The clips help Pro sports teams and leagues add a huge number of followers to their social media channels. Focusing on the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, two of the recap clips coming from the bodycams overpassed 24K engagement and were reproduced more than 333K times.

Active Teams – true digital

Active Teams is a platform designed to boost workplace performance and wellbeing by encouraging and motivating employees to lead more physically active lives. It answers some painfully poor statistics around inactivity and the sedentary lifestyle of workforces, particularly in the new, remote world. Pushing people to attain the World Health Organisations 150 minutes per week minimum and beyond.

The digital experience has been designed to bring colleagues together both physically and virtually, making fitness fun and accessible to all. It has been built using an innovative technical architecture that allows employees to use their own preferred ways of tracking but be united in one tailor made community specific to their company. With a digital experience that is designed to make the interface as easy, clear and non-technical as possible. The business is experiencing fast growth and the platform design is fuelling their ambitions and allowing them to reach and engage new people in activity across the UK. Impacting companies’ workforces with increases in activity levels of up to 625% and 132,000 miles covered in 12 months. With a strong roadmap for further development and innovation these numbers are only going in one direction.

Boats Not Bars – Fulham Reach Boat Club

The Boats Not Bars program at Fulham Reach Boat Club has achieved remarkable outcomes in transforming the lives of individuals serving prison sentences. Through rowing, we have provided opportunities for personal growth, skill development, and community connections. The positive feedback and impact results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in improving mental health, reducing reoffending rates, and empowering individuals to reintegrate successfully into society.

Hyderabad Black Hawks – The Hype Night – Havas Play India – Havas Media

Volleyball is one of the most practiced sports in schools. However, a lack of investment in the elite game has held it back. Prime Volleyball took the mantle to change this by introducing a nation-wide league. But the Hyderabad Black Hawks’ fans were still not volleying with the idea.
So, we had to get their attention!
Get them excited. Get them cheering by making the Hyderabad Black Hawks the most talked about team in the league.
We had to shed some light on this game. So, we decided to do the exact opposite thing.
TURN THE LIGHTS OFF!

Introducing HYPE NIGHT – A one-night showstopping volleyball experience where the game was played in the dark.
India’s First Blackout Volleyball experience. Neon balls. Neon costumes. Neon bands. A visual spectacle unlike any other. Fans were seated in a completely dark stadium, to witness the first-ever UV and LED-led showdown. The audience elevated the experience with glowing headbands and wristbands.
2000+ people attended the Hype Night event.
Instagram followers grew 400%. Impressions went up by 500k+.
The new-found passion for the game resulted in Hyderabad attracting the highest viewership across all cities, marking the beginning of a Volleyball revolution for the city.

PitchPower x Football Foundation

The Premier League, The FA and Government’s charity, the Football Foundation, has developed PitchPower, an app that will transform the quality of grass pitches across England.

90% of matches are played on grass, most of which aren’t properly maintained. 150,000 games are cancelled annually due to unplayable pitches, so millions of opportunities to play are lost.

Until now, a limited number of pitch inspections have been carried out in person, by reps with pens and clipboards, and maintenance carried out by volunteers, most of whom are men of an older demographic.

PitchPower is easy to use, hosts in-app guidance, to allow every club across the country to complete their own pitch inspections, receive expert assessment reports with maintenance recommendations and access to training and funding. It has also been rolled out to Rugby League, Rugby Union and Cricket, meaning the same great benefits for these sports too.

Over three times the number of inspections can now be completed, pitch quality with transform and 150,000 more games will be played every year.

Ticketmaster Sport

Thanks to Ticketmaster’s away digital ticketing technology where all tickets are sold and fulfilled completely digitally, this headache is now a thing of the past for clients working with Ticketmaster. Gone are the days of handling fulfilment with physical tickets and spending hours dealing with away tickets. Everything can now be digitised for clubs and fans alike.

“Something we have been waiting for, This game was so easy from a ticket office point of view. No printing, No postage and on the day no issues at all.”
Gem Olive, Head of Ticketing at Oxford United F.C. commented during the trial against Lincoln F.C.

“This has to be the way forward for selling away tickets. It saves time, money and labour while also making it easier for the supporter purchasing the tickets. There was no need to print thousands of tickets in advance, we had no duplicate tickets at all to deal with and absolutely no collections.”
Chris Brewer, Head of Media and Ticketing, Peterborough F.C

ViewLift

ViewLift partnered with a global live entertainment brand, LIV Golf Plus, to expand its content and reach in the golf streaming market. Leveraging ViewLift’s scalable platform, the brand successfully delivered live golf events and engaged audiences through unique features. The partnership resulted in a significant increase in app downloads and a high average app rating. ViewLift’s platform ensured a seamless user experience across various devices, including smart TVs, leading to a broad deployment and attracting a diverse audience. The collaboration positioned the brand as a prominent player in the live sports streaming market, paving the way for future growth and innovation.

SPONSORSHIP / PARTNERSHIP OF THE YEAR

Alpine x BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023

Leading motorsports brand Alpine and esports tournament organiser BLAST.tv embarked on an integrated cross-promotional partnership for the iconic BLAST Paris Major, one of the biggest esports tournaments in the world The campaign combined sim racing, F1 activations, and CS:GO talent, making it the first-ever sim racing and CS:GO crossover in esports history The campaign successfully connected with the CS:GO community and expanded Alpine’s reach within gaming and esports, leaving a lasting impact on both audiences.

The primary goal was to engage a new and young tech-savvy audience and attract future racing enthusiasts while achieving tangible KPIs through direct marketing sponsorship. The activation featured in-person and virtual moments, with Alpine heavily featured during the live stream of the BLAST tv Paris Major.

The results were remarkable, with the tournament reaching a peak of 15 million views and 58.9 million hours watched across four days Alpine’s social media following skyrocketed, with an 800% increase on Twitter and 100% on Instagram, resulting in an overall 393% increase across all platforms. The brand value was also outstanding, with the Alpine brand visible in over 330 streams with 590,000 brand placements, amounting to €6,165,187 in total media value.

DP World x European Tour Group

DP World and the European Tour Group jointly announced a landmark evolution of their partnership, with DP World becoming the new title partner of the main tour from the start of the 2022 season.

While DP World had a proud heritage with the European Tour, this partnership was of a scale that they had never undertaken before. The new DP World Tour represented a truly global property with a far-reaching international schedule.

The agreement heralded a new era in the history of the European Tour Group, which, along with DP World celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, the first season of the newly named DP World Tour. It was only the second time in history that the European Tour had welcomed a title partner, enhancing DP World’s relationship, and associated opportunities, with the sport.

It provided a platform to reinforce the brand, enable business, leave a legacy, and unite DP World’s people. It was also significant in terms of global sports partnerships, dedicated to three key areas: elevating the Tour in every way, growing the game of golf globally, and driving positive community impact.

To ensure sponsorship assets were utilised impactfully, a season-long 360 activation plan was developed and implemented.

Peroni Nastro Azzurro x Aston Martin Formula 1™ Team – CSM Sport & Entertainment, & Trouble Maker

Peroni Nastro Azzurro’s collaboration with the Aston Martin Formula 1™ team is its first truly global partnership. It is a central platform to establishing global fame and stature for the brand, whilst positioning its 0.0% product in an increasingly competitive non-alcoholic drinks category.

After a successful launch of the partnership in 2021, the activation programme evolved in 2022, doubling down on business and brand objectives.

21 markets activated throughout the season across ATL (TVC & OOH) and BTL (social & digital) channels, as well as elevated brand experiences at track and in the city to connect with fans across the globe.

Increases in spontaneous and prompted brand awareness combined with growing positive sentiment, consideration and trial for Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%, demonstrated the global power of this platform. Direct feedback from fans also confirms that the approach makes a tangible and meaningful difference to fans, affirming the brand’s partnership ambition to enable fans to Feel The Passion Inside.

Taking Basketball to a Global Fanbase – Euroleague Basketball and UNRVLD

Euroleague Basketball is a sports and entertainment business that runs the top European professional basketball competitions. Digital experience and technology agency, UNRVLD, is working on a digital transformation programme to revitalise the online presence of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, the BKT EuroCup and the Adidas Next Generation Tournament with brand-new competition websites.

Together we are taking basketball to a global fanbase with a connected, multi-site digital platform which requires specialists across all disciplines; from Digital Strategists to Solutions Architects to UX Designers.

The Community Integrated Care ‘Inclusive Volunteering Model’ – Sport England, Rugby League World Cup 2021, UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, and World Gymnastics Championships 2022

Community Integrated Care’s revolutionary ‘Inclusive Volunteering’ model has seen it partner with Sport England, Rugby League World Cup, UEFA Women’s EURO, and World Gymnastics Championships to tackle some of society’s deepest-rooted inequalities.

Creating a ground-breaking template which has redefined the social purpose of major events, transformed the lives of more than 700 people, and successfully enabled thousands of people with the most complex barriers to enjoy sport, this is a society-changing model.

Community Integrated Care is one of the UK’s most successful social care charities, delivering 10 million hours of care annually to people with learning disabilities, autism, mental health concerns, brain injuries, dementia, and complex care needs.

Through twinning the charity’s unrivalled reach, expertise, and connection with disabled communities with the opportunity of major events, this programme has changed the lives of people aged 12–106 Delivering more than 11,500 hours of life-changing support, it has had an unprecedented impact.

Evaluation by Substance shows 96% of volunteers report improved confidence and skills, 91% report greater independence and 100% report it as a life-highlight With an equal impact on the sporting partners – enabling them to pioneer disability inclusion and deliver a life-long impact, this is a partnership with unique ambition.

The Home Nations FAs – EE – Havas Play

Purpose is the core of EE’s ‘4-3-3 Game Plan’: the most ambitious sponsorship strategy in UK football that straddles the four Home Nations Football Associations.

The goal? Supercharge overlooked areas of the game: para and disability, women’s and grassroots.

It’s a lead partnership like no other – a promise to elevate the game and positively impact society. The work is a true embodiment of the brand’s ‘We Connect for Good’ purpose, and our mission is a simple one – how can EE continuously positively impact football communities, making the game more accessible, innovative & inclusive than ever before?

We’ve been busy and this year, some highlights that are doing just that, include…
• Recruiting our 100,000th EE Playmaker, a major milestone in EE’s support of the grassroots game
• Starting our search for the world’s first British Sign Language football pundit team
• Giving 28,000+ grassroots players the digital skills they need to tackle online hate
• Telling the stories of seven non-binary teams to raise awareness about discrimination in football
• Supported both England and Wales teams as they played each other in a historic men’s FIFA World Cup game

Visit Rwanda x Arsenal Football Club

Rwanda is Open

Visit Rwanda has been Arsenal’s first and only official sleeve partner since 2018. This ground-breaking partnership sets out clear objectives to leverage Arsenal’s global profile and reach to promote Rwanda as a luxury eco-tourist destination.

Like elsewhere in the world, COVID-19 deeply affected Rwanda’s positive tourism growth. For two seasons, Arsenal was unable to facilitate any core rights – no talent visits to the country took place. 2022 was therefore a crucial year to reconnect with Arsenal fans and beyond to showcase what this amazing country has to offer.

Once Rwanda was ‘open’ again, a record number of player, legend and influencer visits were activated, to catch up with reduced activity during Covid-19:

Rwanda continues to make significant progress in its efforts to achieve sustainable economic growth, despite the global challenges that were faced during COVID-19.

In 2022, the partnership contributed to a remarkable increase in tourism revenues, with $445M recorded in 2022 compared to US$164M in 2021, representing a 171.3% increase.

There’s clear evidence that through the Arsenal x Visit Rwanda partnership is reaching a global audience which is increasing consideration of supporters visiting Rwanda.

Youth Sport Trust’s National School Sports Week powered by Sports Direct

Youth Sport Trust equips educators and empowers young people to enjoy the life-changing benefits of play and sport. Recognising the concerning decrease in PE hours from the curriculum and the Chief Medical Officers’ recommended 60 active minutes per day, we joined forces with Sports Direct to raise awareness of this guidance, through our annual National School Sports Week campaign.

National School Sports Week promotes physical activity and sport. This year we asked schools, organisations and families to “play for fun, play for 60”. Our collaboration fostered the development of cobranded assets and engaging campaign films displayed on digital platforms and in Sports Direct Stores, capturing a wider audience.

Through our partnership, National School Sports Week experienced a new level of impact, including 30% uplift in school registrations, 84% increase in organisation registrations and a new audience of families with 95% uplift. Over half a million people pledged to be active for 60 minutes per day. Our social and media impressions grew significantly, totalling 16,284,623 for Youth Sport Trust content between 19th-25th June. This increased impact confirms our partnership reached families, caregivers and teachers and encouraged them to take action.

BEST SPORTS RELATED COMMERCIAL OR PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

DP World Tour

In January 2023, the DP World Tour gathered six of its most well-known players to star in a parody of the famous business card scene from American Psycho. Replicating the scene with a golfing twist, the piece shows the golfers getting envious of other players’ personalised golf ball markings instead of business cards, in an absurd and humorous skit.

With extremely high production values, an almost frame-for-frame replication of the original scene and filled with golfing in-jokes, the player-led piece was designed to showcase star DP World Tour players and their personalities, while entertaining and engaging fans across different audiences, beyond typical golf fans, and re-affirming the DP World Tour as an industry leader in the original content space. The adventurous and tongue-in-cheek humour of the piece, playing on and subverting the players’ reputations for seriousness, pushed the boundaries and challenged perspectives to show how unguarded and self-effacing professional sportspeople can be.

Devised, scripted, filmed, edited and released entirely in-house, the piece was filmed in a three-hour period and released three days later, all during the first tournament of the season, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

EE ‘No Fans Land’ – Havas Play

2022 was a big football year for EE. Not only did it take the reins from BT as lead partner of the Home Nation FA’s, but it was also faced with a dilemma of some magnitude. Which team to throw their support behind when England faced Wales in the men’s FIFA World Cup?
The answer of course was both. The question, was how?

A match with so much cultural significance, so much history and rivalry required an idea that would walk a fine line and make EE the most talked about brand in that special moment for both countries.

‘No-Fans-Land’ feat. former Wales captain and lifelong England fan Vinnie Jones perfectly illustrated EE’s predicament. The immediacy of the film, the timing of its release and performance from a Hollywood star makes the film truly original, and something that could never have been made before and can never be replicated.

Engage Digital Partners

Mikasa were looking for campaign strategy and accompanying digital activations to support the launch of their new beach volleyball – the BV550C – ahead of the 2023 season. It was important to put the ball’s technical specifications, environmental credentials and consumer education at the forefront of the campaign, alongside a desire for a modern “social first” execution aligned with the brand’s broader evolution.

Our video and design teams worked collaboratively to bring the concept to life through a series of deliberate creative decisions.The main video creative stayed true to the initial brief by highlighting the key technical specifications of the new ball, alongside celebrating its environmental credentials through a modern approach to video production. Success was measured through increased brand awareness, recall and specific audience targeting. The launch video achieved 5.7M views (FB, YT, IG) during the first 8 weeks of the campaign. 3.2M views were on Instagram equating to an 80,000% increase on the platform’s combined video views for Mikasa in 2022.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car – All Roads Lead to Thursday – Footballco & Fuse

‘All Roads Lead to Thursday’, a hero film and integrated content series that followed fans from across Europe in the build up to a UEL/UECL night, putting the attention on Thursday nights as an ownable territory for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Among the rich and diverse stories the film uncovered were inspirational street footballer, charity founder and Ajax fan, Rocky; Mark ‘the Rib Man’, a west end street food vender who sells ribs near London stadium before heading in to watch his beloved West Ham; Berlin-based rapper and Union Berlin fan Liquit Walker and British-Punjabi artist and Arsenal fan Semira.

The film showcased the everyday missions fans go through to be able to support their team on a Thursday night, and how Enterprise vehicles can facilitate them. Partnering with Sir Steve McQueen’s production agency Lammas Park, a production house you wouldn’t typically see in the football sponsorship world, and Director Jade Ang Jackman, brought a new dimension to football fan storytelling, elevating the content output with premium production equipment and techniques.

Palo Alto Networks: ‘Machine & Mortal: the worlds of football and Formula E collide’ – 160over9

In 2021, global cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks (PANW) announced a three-year partnership with the Envision Racing Formula E Team, delivering end-to-end cybersecurity solutions to safeguard the team’s most important asset – their data.

PANW’s contract with Envision Racing included a ‘Hero’ content film as part of their Official Supplier rights. To maximise the impact of their Formula E team partnership, 160/90 suggested a disruptive collaboration between Trent Alexander-Arnold and one of the team’s drivers, Nick Cassidy, around the SABIC London E-Prix, to extend the reach of Formula E, still a young racing series which was then only in its 8th season, beyond motorsport.

‘Machine & Mortal’ was a stand-out, branded-content moment in the build-up to the 2022 SABIC London E-Prix. Using fun yet challenging stunts, it celebrated the collision of football and motorsports by promoting PANW’s Envision Racing partnership in collaboration with their ‘We’ve Got Next’ campaign ambassador, Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The campaign generated over 220M reach, 2.8M social/digital views and 270k engagements through organic distribution and featured in Formula E’s global broadcast including Channel 4 in the UK.

SC Johnson – Liverpool Football Club

Liverpool FC and SC Johnson’s partnership began in 2021 and has been dedicated to delivering a collective vision for a healthier world with local and global initiatives focused on three specific areas: sustainability, health and opportunity.

Through this partnership, 50 fans were initially selected for the competition after being spotted using recycling bins at Anfield. These sustainability heroes took part in the ultimate penalty shootout to be in with a chance of winning £10,000 while men’s first team players, Firmino, Fabinho and Oxlade-Chamberlain and YouTube star, Chelcee Grimes, watched on.

A pair successfully emerged from the qualifiers and were then tasked with holding their nerve in front of the Kop at half-time of Saturday’s World Earth Day fixture with Nottingham Forest, guided by no other than Steven Gerrard.

The £10k Penalty Challenge represents the next phase of the LFC and SC Johnson partnership, a pledge by both club and partner to reduce all waste from across the club by 10 per cent each season from 2023-24.

Show Your Heart – UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 – UEFA, Wasserman, Frame

UEFA Women’s EURO 2022: Show Your Heart

How do you unite and create an inspirational promotional video ahead of what is shaping up to be a generation-defining tournament of women’s football?

You Show Your Heart.

Show Your Heart showcased to the world the quality, grit, determination and heart that the game’s top women exhibit in their play and invited fans, new and old, to show their heart in return and support of their team throughout the tournament.

Sport and Recreation Alliance

This video formed part of the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s bid for the United Kingdom to host the International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport. The IWG on Women & Sport is the world’s largest network dedicated to advancing gender equity and equality in sport, physical education and physical activity. The IWG runs events and programmes all year round for women and girls in sport, and advocates for gender equity and equality. Every four years it runs the IWG World Conference on Women & Sport – the largest gathering of its kind.

As hosts of the inaugural IWG on Women & Sport in 1994, the Sport and Recreation Alliance wanted to help the United Kingdom to become the first country to host it twice by bidding for the secretariat from 2022-26.

The Alliance wanted to create a video that showcased what women and girls bring to sport in this country, and around the world, while still highlighting that we can do so much more to uplift and give them the opportunities that they deserve. The IWG is all about promoting equity and equality and we wanted to show that this aligns with our aims for sport in this country.

The EuroLeague Maze – Euroleague Basketball

As a global leader in the sports and entertainment business, Euroleague Basketball manages the continent’s two premier men’s basketball competitions, the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the 7Days Eurocup One of the main brand objectives of EB is to generate excitement around the start of the season amongst fans and media, together with linking the EuroLeague to urban style concept, bringing the brand and closer to the audience on the ground, reaching Gen-Z.

One of the key points of the 2022-23 marketing season spot was to enhance the competitiveness of the league through the claim launched the previous season and that highlights the importance of every single Round, the need of the players to fight for every single rebound, the significance of each basket and each ball fight. And that’s the why #EveryGameMatters.

Addressing the campaign to specific markets by translating the spot to 5 different European languages, the engagement and reach on Social Media Channels broke all past records and created lasting conversations on digital that not only got fans involved before the tip-off of the league but also engage with them on the ground when bringing the EuroLeague Maze Experience to several European cities.

WING

WING was approached by Formula E to bring their partnership with UNICEF, focussing on a cleaner, safer environment for every child, to life We conceived ‘Take a Breath’, a powerful, spoken-word poem about the climate crisis, to be captured in a single shot in a curated art gallery space representing the inside of a child’s mind As part of our creative process, we worked with UNICEF UK’s Youth Advisory Board, an inspiring group of 14-18 year old campaigners for the charity, to bring the core message to life by including one of their voice recordings in the narrative alongside footage of young people protesting about climate change. Tom Hiddleston, UNICEF ambassador and actor, was presented with the campaign creative and agreed to be the lead, bringing an extraordinary talent and focus to the final output.

The campaign was executed as a multi-faceted comms and activation approach and released across key digital channels in the build-up to the 2022 London E-Prix, a highlight moment in the Formula E calendar. Alongside digital content and online activations, including infographics and driver supporting social content, a replica gallery was created on-site at the E-Prix to showcase the film and offer information about the partnership.

BEST PROFESSIONAL SERVICES IN SPORT

AFL Architects

AFL Architects is a globally recognized firm specializing in captivating commercial and people-centric designs, with a focus on the sports and leisure sector. They have successfully undertaken prestigious projects worldwide, including stadia, arenas, training facilities, and event masterplans. AFL Architects prides itself on agility, collaboration, and architectural and technical excellence.

Notable projects include the development of Wrexham Gateway, where they enhanced spectator safety and connectivity between public transport and the Racecourse Ground. In China, AFL Architects designed a world-class training facility for Dalian Yifang Football Club, overcoming challenges of scale and functionality through optimized layouts and water management systems.

A significant undertaking was the optimization of Lusail Stadium for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. AFL Architects redesigned the interior for improved sightlines and efficient flow, delivering an iconic landmark integrated into the city’s master plan.

With their expertise and creative vision, AFL Architects consistently delivers exceptional sports and leisure facilities that enhance the spectator experience and leave a lasting impact on communities.

Brandsmiths

Brandsmiths has a leading practice in the football industry. Further to the technical skill and practical experience of its lawyers, it has become the ‘go to’ Firm for those involved in the industry. The Sports Group provides tailored and strategic advice to top level professional football clubs, international football agencies, elite professional football players and some of the most recognisable global sports brands. Recently, Brandsmiths has advised Manchester United, Everton, YMU, Wasserman Media Group, Jamie Vardy, Virgil van Dijk, Roberto Carlos, Ben Foster and Umbro (i.e. Iconix Brand Group). In the 2022 summer transfer window Brandsmiths advised on 37 football transfers in over 10 countries with a combined transfer fee value of c.£500 million. Such transactions included some of the largest in the history of football, including Antony and Casemiro’s transfers to Manchester United from Ajax and Real Madrid respectively.

Evelyn Partners

Evelyn Partners Sports Division is committed to providing financial education in Sport.

We currently work at a number of football clubs across the country delivering financial education from U18s upwards

We have recently launched the first ever education programme in boxing partnering with Anthony Joshuas 258 MGT.

We have launched alongside Law in Sport the first ever Boxing & the Law Seminar taking place this week.

We work across mens and womans sport and are committed to helping all forms of all sport

InsightX

InsightX is the leading supplier of due diligence and intelligence to sport in the UK and to teams and brands across Europe and the US.
We use a global network of researchers and investigative journalists to source information about third parties to help our clients avoid reputational or financial damage.
InsightX does not rely on machine intelligence to source information, instead using detailed human research, analysis and investigation. Our reports go into far greater depth than those of any other supplier and, where information is not available via digital sources, InsightX uses local affiliates and investigative information to retrieve records and data manually.
Since 2020, we have helped every one of our clients across sport avoid or mitigate potential damage by association.

Onside Law

Onside Law launched in 2005 and has become one of the most respected law firms in Sport and Media, with offices in London, Geneva and Sydney.

Onside Law works with some of the largest sporting federations and most famous sporting talent in the world. 2022-23 saw them work with many high-profile global sporting clients that include Red Bull Racing, AC Milan, ATP Media, World Rugby, ECB, LTA, RFU, WRU and the rapidly growing Two Circles agency. In the last few months alone, highlights include advising on Jude Bellingham’s transfer to Real Madrid; the staging of 2023 Rugby World Cup and the Grand Slam Boards’ response to Novak Djokovic’s political statements.

Trivandi

Trivandi is a global team of trusted industry experts that lead the design, delivery and operations of major events and venues.

Our multi-disciplinary team provide strategy, commercial and sustainability advisory, architecture and project management, alongside operational services.

Founded 10 years ago by the Venues and Infrastructure Leadership team of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Trivandi has expanded to 40 permanent staff across four global offices in London, Doha, Dubai and Riyadh. Our core team are supported by over 1,000 freelance SMEs in Trivandi’s Associate Network. We have delivered over 200 major projects across 26 countries.

Our goal is to make every venue and event better than the one before, leave a sustainable legacy and train local people to do what we do.

We apply our ‘One Team’ approach to projects to bring together expertise across every stage of a project’s lifecycle, from concept to execution, to maximise collaboration, efficiency and knowledge transfer. This results in better design, cost savings, improved guest experience, more sustainable outcomes and an increased return on investment.

We love what we do, and we bring a shared passion, ambition and flexibility towards continually creating the next venue and event better than the one before.

 

SPORTS TECHNOLOGY OF THE YEAR

aiScout – ai.io

Any boy or girl that has kicked a football as a child has dreamt of one day lifting the FA Cup, or winning the league in front of thousands of adoring fans.

But, aside from the requisite skills, the one thing that stands in their way, is being spotted.

The AiSCOUT platform is revolutionising the opportunities for aspiring players, scouts and clubs, using AI to find amateur footballers globally, through a mobile phone.

And it really works…

Outstanding beta & MVP testing resulted in 77 amateur players being trialled & signed for professional football clubs, as well as being selected for national squads – 47 of these players trialling in 2022 alone. The player and scout app has been proven to deliver 100% efficiency gain for scouts, as well as uncovering talent that simply would never have been found using traditional methods.

AiSCOUT is being successfully used by professional clubs including Chelsea FC, Burnley FC, and amateur players in 125 countries.

In September 2022, AiSCOUT was signed by Chelsea FC as its Official Academy Recruitment Partner, with the platform to become an integral part of the club’s recruitment and scouting process for academy players over the next five years.

Bidstack Sports

Bidstack Sports revolutionises traditional models for sports fan engagement, sponsorship revenues and media valuations by enabling professional sports rights-holders to commercialise their virtual sponsorship inventory in parallel with real-world commercial partnerships.

Our proprietary SDK technology circumvents these limitations, enabling sports simulation games to deliver premium branded content seamlessly into contextually relevant spaces within gameplay. The technology supports rights-holders and their commercial partners to instantaneously deploy messaging to targeted audiences at scale while ensuring that content remains relevant across regions, languages and gameplay styles.

Supported by full reporting and analytics capabilities, rights-holders can demonstrate placements’ immediate and ongoing value, establishing sustainable complementary revenue sources.

Bidstack Sports recently partnered with StatusPRO, creators of NFL PRO ERA, integrating the technology within the 30 replicated virtual stadiums for each NFL franchise in-game, providing the teams with a dedicated platform to dynamically manage their in-stadium content, unlocking a new frontier for fan engagement and commercial partnerships.

The Washington Commanders, an iconic 90-year-old NFL franchise, broke new ground as the first NFL club to utilise this partnership to synchronise its real-world and virtual stadium offerings within NFL PRO ERA, enabling the team to distribute content calendar programming directly to audiences in the best-selling VR title.

Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards (DED) – Supponor and NHL

Supponor, the leader in virtual advertising for live sports, collaborated with the NHL to deploy its next-generation Digitally Enhanced Dasherboard (DED) technology at the latest NHL season, powered by Supponor AIR® technology platform.

Supponor specialises in software-based virtual advertising solutions using AI and machine learning, serving a wide variety of sports events worldwide. The DED system was designed to overcome the challenges posed by hockey’s fast-paced nature and importance of the arena to the game play, by allowing static dasherboards to display animated and targeted advertisements to local and international audiences without disrupting the game’s traditional environment.

The DED system is helping NHL and all its clubs and rightsholder partners achieve positive business impacting commercial results through the deployment of a historic league-wide signage solution, that combines enhanced dasherboard with on ice slot signage, delivered in up to 15 concurrent games per night and 40 game broadcasts per week. Industry experts and NHL executives have praised its level of innovation, viewing it as a revolutionary development in enhancing brand engagement in live sports events.

DED being the recipient of the 2023 Sports Business Journal Sports Breakthrough of the Year Award and that it was also a 2023 Sports Emmy finalist.

EuroLeague TV VR – Yerba Buena VR

In the event of your submission being shortlisted we will publish a 200 word summary of your submission on our website. Please write the summary below keeping in mind that any results or other sensitive information may end up in the public domain.

EuroLeague TV VR is the App where EuroLeague Basketball fans from all around the world can enjoy Live games in VR in a fully personalized and interactive way, where the user has the control of the experience; being able to choose choose between multiple camera angles and switch from 360° and 180° cameras to 2D feeds seamlessly. 14 games of season 2022-23 were streamed Live in VR, including 4 games of the Playoffs and the entire Final Four. Fans from more than 40 countries enjoyed the experience from multiple devices that include VR headsets, mobile phones, tablets and PC/Macs. EuroLeague Basketball and YBVR made this immersive experience possible.

PitchPower x Football Foundation

Premier League, The FA and Government’s charity, the Football Foundation, has developed PitchPower, an app that will transform the quality of grass pitches across England.

90% of matches are played on grass, most of which aren’t properly maintained. 150,000 games are cancelled annually due to unplayable pitches, so millions of opportunities to play are lost

Until now, a limited number of pitch inspections have been carried out in person, by reps with pens and clipboards, and maintenance carried out by volunteers, most of whom are men of an older demographic.

PitchPower is easy to use, hosts in-app guidance, to allow every club across the country to complete their own pitch inspections, receive expert assessment reports with maintenance recommendations and access to training and funding. It has also been rolled out to Rugby League, Rugby Union and Cricket, meaning the same great benefits for these sports too.

Over three times the number of inspections can now be completed, pitch quality with transform and 150,000 more games will be played every year.

Relo Metrics

Relo Metrics provides a media valuation strategy that encompassed the entire sponsorship activation footprint, including both broadcast and social media platforms.

The distinctive and innovative aspect of Relo Metrics’ solution lies in their sponsorship intelligence platform. This platform enables teams, leagues, brands, agencies and media companies to gather comprehensive insights, which are essential for selling, retaining, and expanding partnership revenue. By utilizing Relo Metrics’ platform, clients are able to analyze sponsor exposures in an organized and easily understandable manner, aligning with their data-centric strategy.

Ticketmaster Sport

Thanks to Ticketmaster’s away digital ticketing technology where all tickets are sold and fulfilled completely digitally, this headache is now a thing of the past for clients working with Ticketmaster. Gone are the days of handling fulfilment with physical tickets and spending hours dealing with away tickets. Everything can now be digitised for clubs and fans alike.

“Something we have been waiting for, This game was so easy from a ticket office point of view. No printing, No postage and on the day no issues at all.”
Gem Olive, Head of Ticketing at Oxford United F.C. commented during the trial against Lincoln F.C.

“This has to be the way forward for selling away tickets. It saves time, money and labour while also making it easier for the supporter purchasing the tickets. There was no need to print thousands of tickets in advance, we had no duplicate tickets at all to deal with and absolutely no collections.”
Chris Brewer, Head of Media and Ticketing, Peterborough F.C

BEST BUSINESS SERVING SPORT OVER £3M TURNOVER

Bidstack Sports

Bidstack Sports revolutionises traditional models for sports fan engagement, sponsorship revenues and media valuations by enabling professional sports rights-holders to commercialise their virtual sponsorship inventory in parallel with real-world commercial partnerships.

Our proprietary SDK technology circumvents traditional limitations, enabling sports simulation games to deliver premium branded content seamlessly into contextually relevant spaces within gameplay. The technology supports rights-holders and their commercial partners to instantaneously deploy messaging to targeted audiences at scale while ensuring that content remains relevant across regions, languages and gameplay styles.

Supported by full reporting and analytics capabilities, rights-holders can demonstrate placements’ immediate and ongoing value, establishing sustainable complementary revenue sources.

Bidstack Sports most recently partnered with StatusPRO, creators of NFL PRO ERA, integrating the technology within the 30 replicated virtual stadiums for each NFL franchise in-game, providing the teams with a dedicated platform to dynamically manage their in-stadium content, unlocking a new frontier for fan engagement and commercial partnerships.

The Washington Commanders, an iconic 90-year-old NFL franchise, broke new ground as the first NFL club to utilise this partnership to synchronise its real-world and virtual stadium offerings within NFL PRO ERA, enabling the team to distribute content calendar programming directly to audiences in the best-selling VR title.

Corinthian Sports

Launching 5 new Pegasus Lounge hospitality locations in 2023 – Abu Dhabi GP, Henley Royal Regatta, Emirates Old Trafford, Kia Oval & Hampden Park – adding to an existing portfolio which already includes Silverstone, Monaco, Twickenham, Murrayfield, Cheltenham and Goodwood, Corinthian Sports has made significant strides in expanding its presence at the worlds most famous sporting events. Curating these private spaces in collaboration with venues/ rights-holders around the world, the culmination of 13 years industry experience to deliver client experiences that are second to none. Corinthian Sports growth and the subsequent evolution of the Pegasus Lounge has demonstrated its ambition to bring class-leading hospitality experiences to the worlds foremost sporting events, and has set the conditions for an exciting next chapter.

Endeavor Streaming and Volleyball World

Endeavor Streaming is a global leader in premium video distribution and monetization for live and on-demand content across sports, entertainment, media and lifestyle. The company leads with a customer-first approach, partnering with brands, content owners and creators to build and scale dynamic and profitable direct-to-consumer streaming businesses.

Volleyball World partnered with Endeavor Streaming to help drive its mission of bringing volleyball to every corner of the world. The result is VBTV, the official OTT live streaming platform for a wide range of volleyball leagues and competitions globally. VBTV is a direct-to-consumer streaming platform that provides access to live games, highlights, replays and a range of self-produced content for fans across the globe. With locally tailored access for fans in key markets like Thailand, Italy, Japan, Brazil, and USA, VBTV offers multiple language optionality along with 24/7 customer support to ensure seamless fan experiences. Using Endeavor Streaming’s technology and analytics capabilities, VBTV achieved a 200%+ increase in subscribers and revenue in 2022 alone.

SECUTIX

SECUTIX is delivering forward-thinking, fan-first ticketing technologies, designed to help its clients regain full control of their ticketing products and get closer to fans.

Seven years ago, SECUTIX entered the sports market, which was dominated by a handful of companies offering little in the way of innovation. Fans and sports clubs alike were frustrated.

The company’s arrival introduced new tools to improve the fan experience. From a SaaS, cloud-based platform offering a complete ticketing solution, to mobile ticketing built on blockchain and now a move into Web 3.0 and NFTs, SECUTIX is evolving into more than just a ticketing solution. It’s pushing the possibilities of the sports industry.

Today, some of the most high-profile and highly complex sporting events trust SECUTIX to deliver a superior fan experience. Client partners include UEFA, the LTA and the ECB, and sports clubs, stadiums and events such as The Open, Ajax AFC, and Silverstone.

SECUTIX has grown into an industry leader whilst still maintaining its start-up mentality in terms of technological innovation. It is unlocking the potential of the world’s best sports events with software solutions designed to fit the needs of the modern sports industry.

Sportsbreaks.com

Sportsbreaks.com is a leading sports fan travel provider based in Manchester, operating globally and part of the Destination Sport Group. The business offers ticket-inclusive packages to many of the world’s top sporting events including UK & European football, Rugby World Cup 2023, numerous Formula One races around the world, NFL London Games, PDC Darts and more. Sportsbreaks.com has experienced a strong year of growth with significant increases to its revenue and passenger numbers, plus an increased number of events delivered. The business has achieved excellence across customer service demonstrated by a Feefo Gold Trusted Service Award and strong NPS score. In the past 12 months, Sportsbreaks.com has formed a dedicated North American team based in Atlanta, Georgia to service the U.S. and Canadian markets, whilst announcing a number of new and expanded partnerships with clubs and governing bodies.

Stadion

Formed in 2014, Stadion is a digital products and technology company working with 21 leading professional sports organisations, including almost 50% of the Premier League. We are a team of creators – designers, strategists and engineers, passionate about creating beautiful digital experiences for clients in the world of sport.

We create digital products and use them as the foundation for shaping bespoke, cutting-edge experiences for global sports entities – powering everything from websites and apps to voice interactions and beyond.

Our focus is on helping rights holders grow through the use of digital media – commercial growth through sponsor and fan revenue, International growth through multi-language and geo-targeted experiences, and content growth by creating tools to publish any type of content on any platform.

Our clients include top Premier League and Champions League football clubs, leading rugby clubs, national and international governing bodies and Olympic federations