Netball World Cup 2023 Named ‘Best Sporting Event of the Year 2023’ at the Sports Business Awards
The Netball World Cup 2023 (NWC2023) has been named the ‘Best Sporting Event of the Year 2023’ at the Sports Business Awards 2023 (SBA 2023) in London, after being shortlisted in August.
World Netball’s (WN) flagship event, the Netball World Cup (NWC), takes place every four years in cities around the world and this year for the first time ever, on its 60th Anniversary, it took place on the continent of Africa, specifically in South Africa from the 28th July – 6th August.
The judges of the SBA 2023 said: “The sport and its audience keep growing and the tournament [NWC2023] has now become firmly established as a global sporting event with really impressive scale and reach.
They added: “It was great to see such a positive legacy and social impact objectives.
“At a time when there was significant other activity, the competition achieved excellent cut through in all key territories and made a major impact.
“It is also a very well-structured tournament to produce as many competitive games as possible and overall standards continue to rise.”
Speaking on the excitement of the event being recognised with this prestigious award, WN CEO Clare Briegal said: “I am delighted that the Netball World Cup 2023 has been named the Best Sporting Event of the year at the Sports Business Awards.
“The success of the event exceeded all our expectations and was the culmination of four years of planning and hard work by World Netball, the Netball World Cup 2023 Local Organising Committee and Netball South Africa. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved.
“Netball South Africa and the whole continent of Africa embraced this opportunity fully and staged an incredible Netball World Cup, allowing our athletes to perform at their very best.
“The fans in Cape Town brought an unmatched energy into the arenas and fan parks every single day of the competition, whilst the Netball Family around the world all tuned in via our OTT platform, NetballPass, or on their TV’s showing their support and making sure we reached a wider audience than ever before, surpassing the numbers achieved at the last Netball World Cup in 2019. The 2023 Netball World Cup was also successfully broadcast on the African continent to fans via SuperSport, SuperSport Africa and SABC Sport, reaching a larger audience.
“This award is for everyone in the Netball Family.”
16 teams qualified for the 60-match event through either their WN World Ranking, or by one of five regional qualification events held in 2022.
The Gold Medal was won by Australia who beat England in the Final, with Jamaica taking the Bronze.
Highlights of the event included it having the most successful commercial programme in NWC history, whilst sponsorship sales were double that achieved for NWC2019, and rights to broadcast the matches live were sold in all the major netball nations, with fans in all other countries able to sign up to watch on WN’s NetballPass OTT platform.
The host broadcaster SuperSport also made history as the NWC2023 was recorded and produced by an all-women crew. You can watch a 20 series documentary following the crew on WN’s YouTube now.
Highlights from all the matches are also available via Netball World Cup’s YouTube channel.
