Continuing from last year's success at the Sports Industry Awards, a total of 191 entries were registered across the 13 categories with 48 submissions from outside the UAE, a testament of the regional growth of the awards. Here is a list of the winners:
SPORTS AGENCY OF THE YEAR
Gold – IMG Middle East
Bronze – MMC Sportz
Greg Sproule – Managing Director, IMG. It’s fantastic. It’s all because of our team. They’re phenomenal. I’m very proud of them. It feels great to be part of this group and lead them along. It’s their award, they’re the superstars.
We’re seeing a lot more interest in sponsor activation. I think it’s awards and events like this that celebrate excellence, and I think the industry deserves it.
You know what, it’s not about how big you are, it’s about how good you are, and I think that’s what the SPIAs are all about. We’re seeing a lot more mass participation from various members of the industry as well, which is great for the future.
BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN SPORT
Gold – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management)
Silver – Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship (Four Communications / IMG)
Bronze – The Color Run (IMG Middle East)
Nick McElwee – Sales and Marketing Director, Yas Marina Circuit. We’re really happy. We put a lot of effort into social media. It’s a really important platform for us, for the Grand Prix and everything else we do at Yas Marina Circuit. But obviously, F1 is the big one and it’s really amazing to win the award.
The numbers were good. We trended number one globally on Twitter on race day last year. We generated 1.9 billion impressions, 250,000 mentions, it was a really, really big race weekend for us. So I am really happy.
BEST LIVE EXPERIENCE AT A PROFESSIONAL SPORTS EVENT
Gold – Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship (Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority / IMG)
Silver – Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens (Promoseven Sports Marketing)
Silver – HBZ Stadium Showcase – Al Ain vs Manchester City (Al Ain Investment Company)
Greg Sproule – Managing Director, IMG Middle East. It’s an amazing story of people working really hard to create what is arguably the best interactive village in the world of golf. I really believe that. And that’s a great team of people. Great people at the Tourism & Culture Authority that inspire us, and HSBC as a great title partner that do an amazing job and give us the platform to do fun things like that. We’re very grateful.
BEST SPONSORSHIP OF A SPORT OR SPORTS EVENT
Gold – The 7s World Series & Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens (HSBC / Fast Track)
Silver – DP World Tour Championship (Emirates Airline)
Bronze – FIFA World Cup (Coca-Cola / Fast Track)
Ben Sadek – Account Director, Fast Track. We’ve worked with HSBC for a long time and we look after all of their rugby sponsorships globally. The 7s World Series is their flagship event and the Dubai Rugby Sevens is such a massive event in this market. We’re really proud to win this award. Working with HSBC is all about results, it’s all about the impact the sponsorship has on their customers, on their potential customers and this year our results were stronger than ever before. Every year we see an increase. We keep raising the bar higher, it’s more challenging every year, but it’s a great event and it grows each year. It’s nice to be up for a couple of awards, this is what it’s all about. This makes all the hard work worthwhile when you can come and celebrate the evening with your client.