The Super League Triathlon’s first event in Australia in March was the most watched triathlon in history. photo Delly Carr
SUPER LEAGUE TRIATHLON, founded by triathlon great Chris McCormack, aims to ensure the world’s best athletes race head to head more often. It will enable the top 25 male and female athletes in the world to race a five-event series and then from this first season ten athletes will earn high paying contracts.
The League offers more prize money than any other triathlon series and gave away £100,000 to winners at its first event in March. It has partners and sponsors passionate to see the sport grow and aims to reach out to professional and amateur triathletes through its festivals which will be held around the world.
We contacted the Super League Triathlon to find out more about the competition and exactly how the League would work. This is what they told us.
When was Super League Triathlon formed and who is the founder?
Super League Triathlon was conceptualized and founded by Chris McCormack, Leonid Bugoslavsky and Michael Dhulst. Chris McCormack was a 20-year professional triathlete climbing to the absolute top of the sport for more than two decades. A four time world champion and probably the most commercially successful triathlete in history, alongside his business partner and good friend Michael Dhulst, began to discuss the issues with triathlon as a professional sport and its sustainability as a sports entertainment offering.
They sought further experience and guidance from Leonid Bugoslavky after a meeting they had together in London. Leonid being a globally successful entrepreneur agreed that the sport had substance and value, and was under positioned as a sports property. They worked closely together with major Media Houses globally and focused specifically on the tier one successful sports of the world, and how they have established the media value and business structure to grow a sport of substance.
Super League Triathlon was born in this period, with a shorter dynamic racing distance delivered in downtown locations of major cities, with a specific focus on media and TV production value and distribution and a complete ownership of all the assets within the series, inclusive of all athlete uniform rights.
The dynamic short racing stayed true to the values of the sport and the layers top down approach of the worlds top 25 male and 25 female athletes racing head to head in mix discipline racing was an instant TV success. The first event in Australia in March was the most watched triathlon in history.
Super League Triathlon ensures the world’s best athletes race head to head more often. photo Delly Carr
What was the main idea behind the forming of he League and how much has its grown since its beginnings?
The main idea around forming the league was to create a true professional series within the sport that ensures the world’s best athletes race head to head more often and are not restricted from the administrative or political issues that can occur within federation-run events in Olympic cycles. Like Boxing or UFC, if you are a triathlete then Super League is the professional league that you can pursue as a profession and has no barriers to entry.
The league has started with the championship level racing first (the top 25 male and female athletes in the world are contracted to race a five-event series) and then from this first season ten athletes will earn high paying contracts.
The second qualification league will be launched and allow the remaining 15 spots to be filled by athletes who race in this qualification league and earn their Super League contract for the following season’s events. Super League will always focus on having the biggest content production before, during and after our events, with an athlete focus creating stars in the sport that can be identified, and massive TV distribution and prize money.
For sponsors and partners who are spending in this space, it really provides the only true ROI within the sport from a marketing and branding perspective because for the first time ever you have access to all the sports assets including the worlds best athletes within the series.
We can brand their uniforms and use them in activation. With the establishment of these leagues at the professional level our phase two will be the establishment of the exact same structure at a youth and amateur level to create true triathlon festivals with clear qualification lines for amateurs to progress through.
The shorter distance racing within triathlon allows more people to partake in the sport, a focus on price being a non-deterrent to entry is a key pillar of SL for Amatuers, and a true multi sport community being established with the sport as its foundation not with a brand leading the charge.
In its drive to see the sport grow the organisation is also keen to support amateur triathletes. photo Delly Carr
Who can compete in the League
Super League at the professional level in the championship league is open to the top 25 male and female athletes in the world. This is it. The Super League qualification league will be raced by other professionals to earn a contract for the following years racing. As mentioned already think of Super League as the Champions League of endurance sport. You cannot hide anymore from competing. The winner of the league is the athlete who is the best multisport athlete in the world and has beaten every single one of his/her peers.
The qualification league enables every aspiring professional a shot at racing the big league. If your good enough come and show us and prove it. We want transparency and honesty and a lack of political restrictions that have robbed athletes in the past of a chance to be the best. If you think you have what it takes to be a world beater, Super League gives you that clear straight line to the top. No excuses. Prove it.
The winner of the league is the athlete who is the best multisport athlete in the world. Photo Delly Carr
Tell us about some of the
Right now Super League has a professional prize pool over over one million dollars for five events. This is intended to grow year on year as we gather corporate partners who see the league and the activation around it with access to Olympic and World Champions and the true steering of a global sport, work with Super League to build momentum around the positioning of this sports property as a tier 2-3 sport. This has real commercial value and the pay back is obviously to growing the reach and prize purses for the athletes. It is a snowball effect, and as we saw in our first event, the media value of the partnerships we brought to the table in event one was almost 8 times anything that has ever been presented in the sport.
With our next event in Jersey we see this being even bigger again and this has already been reflected in the uptake of our corporate hospitality offerings around the event and the corporate participation model that includes a sponsorship piece to the event which is very unique. This will be the richest series in the sport and non comparative for athletes with anything in the sport when it comes to exposure and media value. The Jersey event will be distributed to more than 1.1 billion homes.
Our Social media reach around the event is already engaged at more than 1 million active and unique visitors.
What is the biggest challenge is trying to show the partners and companies who have tasted triathlon in the past or view it a certain way, that this is a completely different model and a huge investment in all the things that sponsors are looking for in partnerships, and the ROI and activation Super League brings to partners and host venues is new age for the sport and growing. This is our focus and this has come about because of the compete restructure of the sport from the beginning. We are the Formual 1 of endurance sports. Our winners in Hamilton Island Australia at our first event took home 100k, which is an indication of the level of change we intend to bring, and the interest in this alone was substantial.
The Super League Triathlon will be the richest series in the sport. photo Delly Carr
Which events are coming up in the near future and how can our readers follow the races?
Readers should follow our social media channels as we are very very active. Instagram (@superleaguetriathlon) our Facebook wall and Twitter are very active hot beds for us with constant interaction with our fans and the professional athletes.
We have a series of events being structured primarily through the seasons starting in September and finishing in April each year. Cities such as Dubai, Singapore, Monaco, Thailand, Malta, Shanghai and Antigua are cities who are bidding to host our events. We are careful in our roll out and our focus is around finding founding partnerships and sponsorship that we can work with alongside what we are doing and grow the sport together but truly benefit from the heavy investment we have made and the major investment the hosting cities are providing because of the large TV distribution and spend we are engaged in with our media partners Lagaderre. It is a new way forward for the sport, and a truly engaging proposition for all partners, and we are driven to provide that framework of professionalism that the sport truly needs.
The participation numbers within the sport globally are up year on year, but correlating this into value has been the hiccup within the sport because of the poor exposure the events have been bringing. Making the distances more accessible to the average consumer at home at the amateur level is important especially tying this to a league or series of events that are endorsed and raced in by the worlds best.
