SPORTO Award encourages and rewards best examples of good practice in the field of sponsorship and marketing in sport. The competition for SPORTO Awards is open to all sponsorship and marketing projects which use sports activities for its marketing, promotional and communication to selected target groups.
Entries and all additional materials must be completed in English.
To compete in the SPORTO Awards, the majority of activity must take place in the period between 15th October 2021 and 25th November 2022.
Applicants
SPORTO Award competition is open to all applicants based in the Adriatic region (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia).
Entries can be completed by the sponsor, rights holder, or associated agency. The applicant must make all parties aware of the entry. All parties should agree upon the correct title and reference for the entered project.
Rights holder is considered an individual athlete, sports club, sports association, sporting event, sports program or company, who is an organizer of sporting events. All have in common that they hold the rights to their own sports brand.
When a sports sponsorship project is entered in more than one category, separate entry forms must be used for each entry and tailored as appropriate for each category.
For entries to be valid, the applicable payment must reach the organizer of SPORTO Awards, SPORTO Conference in partnership with the European Sponsorship Association.
Categories
You can enter for SPORTO Awards in the following categories:
1. SPORTO SPONSORSHIP AWARD
subcategory: SPORTO ENDORSEMENT AWARD
2. SPORTO RIGHTSHOLDER AWARD
3. SPORTO EVENT AWARD
4. SPORTO DIGITAL AWARD
The organizer of the awards with the professional jury reserve the right to place any project in other categories as stated by the entrant, if the content is more consistent with another category. The entrant is informed of the change in time.
Entered projects in all categories will be published (with provided summaries and representative images) on our website in December.
Entries in all categories are reviewed and evaluated according to predetermined criteria by the international judging panel, which represents 100% of the total evaluation.
The highest-ranked project from each country in the category "Best sports sponsorship / SPORTO Sponsorship Award” is automatically placed in the contest for the prestigious "Best of Europe Award" at the ESA Excellence Awards competition. Entry to this category is possible only by invitation or by winning the mentioned category at SPORTO Awards competition.
ESA 2023 entry format to comprise two parts: a 250 word elevator pitch and a short presentation. The Best of Europe deadline for the 250 word elevator pitch and the presentation (which is recorded) is 30th January.
The winners of SPORTO Awards 2022 will be announced in January 2023.
Submission of Entries
Entries are only possible through the online application via this website. You have to log in to the system with a username and password. Each project needs a unique username and password. You can access, edit and save your project at any time until the application is final and submitted. You can edit and save the application at any time until you submit the form or until the deadline.
Deadlines for submitting entries and fees are:
Tuesday 10th January 2023 – Entries close | Entry fee for each project entered until this date is 200 EUR + VAT.
Regulations
All the materials sent by the applicants become the property of the organizer (SPORTO Conference) and will not be returned (except at the express written request). It is a condition of entry that photos and video of winning applicant’s representatives and summaries of the entered projects may be used for promotional and publicity purposes regarding SPORTO Awards 2022.
The organizer of SPORTO Awards 2022 (SPORTO Conference in partnership with European Sponsorship Association) is committed to keeping all information about entered projects confidential (with the exception of the short summary of the project provided by the applicant on the online entry form). Insights to entered projects for SPORTO Awards 2022 will only have one trustee from the SPORTO Awards organizer’s team and members of the international SPORTO Awards 2022 Judging Panel. They are all committed to secrecy.
Judging
Entries in all categories are reviewed and evaluated according to predetermined criteria by an international judging panel. The judging panel is selected and overseen by the European Sponsorship Association and the Slovenian Marketing Association as a national partner of SPORTO Awards in Slovenia.
Entries will be judged solely on the information you provide in the online entry form with the permitted supporting material. The judges retain the right in their discretion to split or merge the categories and to move entries between categories if required.
Entries in all categories are reviewed and evaluated according to the predefined criteria in close cooperation with the European Sponsorship Association (ESA), by an international expert judging panel chaired by ESA representative.
Payment
The entry fee for each project is 200 EUR + VAT. This price is valid until 10th January 2023 when entries close. After that date, no entries or additional updates to any of each project will be taken into account.
You will receive an invoice based on the payment details you provide on the entry form. The due date for payment is 10th January 2023. If the applicants don’t settle the debt by that date, the entries won’t be taken into the consideration for judging in any category of SPORTO Awards.
