Jun 25, 2024
At the 2024 Irish Sport Industry Awards, Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath TD delivered the keynote address to the award nominees, invited guests, members of the Federation of Irish Sport and leaders from across the Irish sports sector.
During his speech, he spoke evocatively about sport. He reflected on the pride he experiences as a father of seven children, and how sport has positively shaped their lives. Notably his proudest sporting achievement on a personal level, was winning an U12 soccer championship in 1988, which he vividly remembers.
Speaking to the Federation of Irish Sport, Minister McGrath said, “Sport is how I switch off. It’s not so much through participating but its through watching my children on the field of play…. Life would be very dull in the McGrath household if it wasn’t for sport.”
The Irish Sport Industry Awards recognises and celebrates the business of sport across a broad range of diverse categories. What stood out about the awards was the sheer scope of talent and achievement across the sector.
“It’s great to be part of a celebration of excellence in sport, in many different respects. Whether it be successful businesses’ in sport, or recognising the progress made on female participation or the work being done to ensure inclusivity and bringing communities together. There is so much to acknowledge and celebrate.”
The inherent value of sport is embodied by the dedicated and hard working 64,000 strong workforce employed within the sports sector and the overall value of sport to the Irish economy is estimated to be €3.7 billion annually.
In so many respects, since the foundation of the state, Ireland has fought above its weight on the international stage. The Irish sports sector is no different. Over the last ten years, the Irish sports sector has grown faster than any other part of the Irish economy.
“We’ve seen studies which show the economic value of sport”, said Minister McGrath. “There are tens of thousands of jobs which are supported by sport and the €3 billion plus in terms of consumer spend. There are lots of metrics there which underline the economic contribution of sport. But I think the most important contribution of sport is to communities throughout the length and breadth of our country.”
In May, financial services firm Grant Thornton published an economic impact report, which stated that the value of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic to the Irish economy was €180 million and it attracted over 39,000 US visitors to Ireland. In the same month, Dublin hosted the 2024 UEFA Europa League Final for the first time in over a decade. The match is estimated to have generated €15 million for the Irish economy and attracted thousands of German and Italian tourists to Ireland.
Last month, the Government announced a record fund of €250 million for its sports capital and equipment programme, a 50% increase in comparison to the previous funding round announced in 2020. The government has also committed to spending at least €58 million to bring the 2027 Ryder Cup to Ireland. The competition was last hosted in Ireland at the K Club in 2006, and was worth €143 million to the Irish economy. There are hopes that the 2027 competition will vastly exceed that.
Minister McGrath stated “Government is investing in sport at record levels, but we have more work to do because I think there is a lot of untapped potential. We are committed to working with the Federation of Irish Sport, Sport Ireland and all of the different National Governing Bodies and Local Sports Partnerships to see what more we can do to help.”
“Yes through direct exchequer support, but also examining what we can do through our tax system for example to try and channel more funding to sport and encourage more partnerships between the sports sector and business community.”
Jun 21, 2024
Arguably, the Olympic Games is the most captivating competition in World sport. The 2020 games in Tokyo reached a global audience of over 3 billion people. And some of Ireland’s most memorable and iconic sporting achievements have unfolded on the Olympic stage. From John Treacy’s 1984 silver medal in Los Angeles to Katie Taylor’s 2012 gold in London. Ireland is proud of the team that the Olympic Federation of Ireland will send to this summer’s games in Paris, and those athletes inspire the nation.
After the ‘Dare to Believe’ campaign by the Olympic Federation of Ireland was announced as the winner of the Best Sports Sponsorship at the 2024 Irish Sport Industry Awards, Roisin Jones, Programme Manager at the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Philip Greene, Sponsorship Manager at PTSB Spoke to the Federation of Irish Sport.
“Our programme is all about bringing the Olympics to the classroom and to the community”, explained Jones.
“We do this by utilizing our amazing Olympic ambassadors and bringing them out to schools and community clubs, and getting them to share their journey in sport. That journey may not have been that easy, so we’re showcasing their dedication and their resilience. And really we’re just trying to inspire the next generation of children to believe in themselves to be something bigger and brighter.”
It appears there is something about Irish Olympic athletes which is deeply inspiring. Kellie Harrington’s story reached far beyond her putting on boxing clubs and entering the ring, and Rhys Mclenaghan’s journey did not start on the pommel horse.
“Those are amongst a few of our ambassadors but they’re really good at relating to kids and sharing what they were like when they were eight, or nine, or ten years of age. They were once sitting in those same chairs. And I suppose breaking down that barrier of the high performance athlete and allowing them to say ‘I was once in your shoes.’
“It’s not about just winning an Olympic medal, its about those Olympic values of friendship, striving for excellence and respect and getting kids to see that they try their best. We see the amazing Olympic moments, but they’re not built overnight.”
The support PTSB has placed behind the Dare to Believe campaign has made its success possible, and Greene spoke of how excited the team at PTSB are for the upcoming games.
“It’s incredibly exciting. I think for ourselves as title sponsors of the team, but for the entire country I think. This is likely to be the last European based games until 2040, and its a real opportunity to get behind our athletes in prime time slots on television and in a time zone that suits our supporters here and in Paris.”
Greene reflected on why PTSB wanted to be involved with the magic of the Olympic Games.
“It was something that was actually very important for us in PTSB when deciding to become title sponsor of Team Ireland was the unifying power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. You look at other sports which are wonderful, but maybe have a slight bit more tribalism about them, than the Olympic games which brings together such a pure expression of pride, which is fantastic for us to be able to celebrate as a country together.”
Jun 20, 2024
Field of Vision is an innovative sports technology company, founded by Tim Farrelly, David Deneher and Omar Salem. The team is guided by sports industry veteran Tom Sears. In 2022, Field of Vision was among Time Magazine’s Best Inventions and their partners include Manchester City Football Club and the Australian Football League. After Field of Vision was announced as the Best Initiative to Promote Inclusivity in Sport & Physical Activity, Deneher spoke to the Federation of Irish Sport.
“Field of vision was started during the Covid lockdown when my co-founder Omar saw a viral video of a fan bringing his blind friend to a football game and tracing the position of the ball on his hand.
“And we thought we could do this with technology, so we started Field of Vision. We use AI to track all the key information from the sports game in real time and then we track that back to our device, which moves around based on where the ball is on the pitch and when the shots, tackles and passes, occur.”
At the core of Field of Vision’s mission is the belief that there does not need to be separation between vision impaired sports fans and the magic and power of sport.
Deneher spoke about where the company is on its journey and what it’s like to win this award.
“It’s really great to win this award because we’re three college students who never had any prior experience of working with visually impaired people. So the number one thing that we’re concerned about in our company is inclusivity. If Field of Vision isn’t actually of benefit to visually impaired fans then what would be the point. So winning this award is just fantastic acknowledgment of the work that we are putting in and showing us that we are on the right track”.
Deneher and his team at Field of Vision are incredibly optimistic about the future.
“What we want is that in the future, if a visually impaired fan wants to watch a live sports game in their living room, they can sit down and open our app, and the same as we do with Sky Sports, pick whatever game is on and they’re FOV device will move. We want to expand to achieve this, we want to expand to different sports, more stadiums. Over the course of the next 12 months we want to expand to three stadiums.”
Jun 19, 2024
The Federation of Irish Sport is delighted to announce the renewal of its partnership with OSK for a third successive term until January 2027. OSK offer audit, accounting and financial management services to the Federation’s extensive and diverse membership consisting of 110 National Governing Bodies and Local Sports Partnerships. The Federation is proud of this long – standing partnership which has gone from strength from strength since it was commenced in 2010.
Speaking about the renewal, Federation of Irish Sport CEO Mary O’Connor commented; “We are delighted to be renewing our partnership with OSK for a further three years. Since joining forces with the Federation in 2010, OSK have been an important and valuable part of our partnership suite. They are tried and trusted by many of our members for their audit and accountancy needs and we are delighted to be able to continue to endorse their work. We look forward to working closely with the team in OSK to continue to develop our partnership and add value to all FIS members over the next three years”.
Deirdre McDermott, Audit Partner at OSK said; “OSK is delighted to announce the renewal of our partnership with the Federation of Irish Sport, to continue to provide audit, accounting and financial management services to sporting bodies throughout Ireland. This reaffirms our commitment to sport in Ireland. The team in OSK comprehends the intricacies involved in managing sport’s Governing Bodies. Our extensive experience and passion for sport equips us to offer pragmatic solutions while ensuring full compliance with all regulatory requirements and obligations. We look forward to continuing to provide our financial expertise to the members of the Federation, fostering their continued success.”
OSK is the official Audit and Accounting partner of the Federation of Irish Sport (FIS) and the preferred supplier of these services to the Federation’s members:
More information is available here:
https://www.osk.ie/sectors/sport/
Federation of Irish Sport partners provide invaluable support which enables the Federation to excel in its mission to effectively represent the Irish sports sector and be ‘The Voice of Irish Sport’. The Federation is excited to further build its relationship with OSK over the period of this agreement.
Jun 14, 2024
Emma Meehan is the founder of Galway based start – up Precision Sports Technology, which was the Best New Sports Business of the Year Award winner at the 2024 Irish Sport Industry Awards. Meehan describes herself as being obsessed with movement and dedicated to maximizing enjoyment of exercise. Emma’s entrepreneurial journey is totally inspiring. In 2018 she graduated from Galway University with a first class honors in computer science and information technology and subsequently spent three years as a software engineer at Cisco before founding Precision Sports Technology at the ATU Innovation Hub.
Meehan was named in Sport for Business’ 30 Under 30 Future Leaders in Tech 2022, Irish Times 50 People to Watch Ireland 2023, Sunday Independent 30 under 30 2023 and the Sunday Business Post 30 under 30 2024. Speaking to the Federation of Irish Sport, Meehan expressed her delight.
“I am absolutely thrilled to bits. I really didn’t expect to be here and it’s a massive honor to be recognised as Best New Sports Business at the Irish Sport Industry Awards. We’re thrilled to get this recognition from such a fantastic group of people.”
Precision Sports Technology has driven innovation in sports tracking.
“We have a software platform for real-time exercise feedback and analysis. With our app, you can know exactly how well you’re supposed to be doing your exercise. But your therapist or your strength coach can also get instant accurate measurements on how well you’re moving. So they know whether they actually need to intervene with your not, or whether you’re safe just to continue doing your rehab or exercise programme.”
In 2023, Output Sports was the winner of the Best New Sports Business of the Year Award, and recently its co-founder Dr. Martin O’Reilly outlined to the Federation that Output Sports technology is used by over 700 sport organisations and that they are on track to capture of 20 million measurements with the system this year.
Meehan is familiar with Output Sports work and said that Output Sports have demonstrated that there is a pathway for new Irish sports businesses’ to establish themselves as global players.
“We’ve just launched in the last couple of months, so we have our first paying customers. But really our goal is to break out of Europe and hit the US. We’re starting in sports now, but we hope to go into the global physiotherapy and gym fitness markets.”
Just a week after the 2024 Irish Sport Industry Awards, Meehan joined John Morley for a live in-studio interview on his ‘Galway Talks’ programme on Galway Bay FM. Despite only having officially launched the business in January, Precision Sports Technology client list is impressive and growing.
“We can’t name names, but we have a team that won the Champions League.” In terms of expansion plans in Ireland, Meehan is open minded.
“I think GAA is probably one of our bigger opportunities in Ireland. Especially since Precision Sports Technology is a software platform. We can tailor and scope our features as needed. Obviously the Champions League teams have any amount of budget for investing in technology, so we will give them all the bells and whistles. But we can also build a custom platform.
“If you’re a GAA strength and conditioning coach and you want to track 30 athletes and get these kinds of metrics and these kinds of exercises, perfect. And we’ll do the high end customisation for affluent teams internationally.”
Meehan summed up the journey she has been on with Precision Sports Technology so far.
“This time last year it was myself and two student interns from the university. Now we have ten of us on the team and international hires… It’s uphill from here”.
