Professional Triathletes Organisation Partners With Two Circles To Lead Partnership Sales For T100 Triathlon World Tour

October 25, 2024

London, UK: The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has extended its relationship with leading sports marketing agency Two Circles to include partnership sales of the new T100 Triathlon World Tour.

ENDURANCE SPORTSWIRE/ – Two Circles has worked with the PTO since 2022 on a digital marketing brief and will now lead on partnership development for the 7-leg T100 Triathlon World Tour, which has already been to Miami, Singapore, San Francisco, London, Ibiza and Lake Las Vegas this year and will be climaxing at the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final (16-17 November) next month.

Commenting on the appointment, Two Circles CEO Gareth Balch said: “We were very vocal about how we leapt at the chance to work with the Professional Triathletes Organisation when we started with them a couple of years ago. This was because we saw a lot of parallels between our mission to rewire the sports industry and their ambition to unlock a new model for their sport that was built around elevating the best professionals, but also driving participation, rather than simply positioning it as the usual sports media rights play.”

“Their subsequent launch of the T100 global series in January, which includes a season-long schedule of multisport festivals in iconic global cities, is consolidating a valuable audience and giving them the opportunity to both watch the world’s best triathletes compete head-to-head – in person or through a new TV product – as well as compete on the same city-center courses themselves. The PTO’s progress this year has provided strong validation of the commercial offering and we believe presents a very attractive offering for non-endemic brands to connect with a highly engaged, high value and global demographic.”

At the Singapore T100 and London T100 weekends, as well as the top 20 female and top 20 male professional triathletes racing over the PTO’s unique made-for-TV 100km distance (2km swim, 80km bike, 18km run) – that has featured athletes including British double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee and the new mixed relay Triathlon silver medalist from Paris, American Taylor Knibb – almost 5,000 amateurs took part as well. Competing in a range of supporting events from Sprint triathlons (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) to Super Sprint triathlons (400m swim, 10km bike, 2.5km run) and duathlons. In Ibiza on September 28-29, there were a series of open water sea swims are available as well as a junior aquathlon. Which all promote an active healthy lifestyle for everyone.

“Triathlon has one of the most valuable audiences in sport – and has been referred to as ‘the new golf’ for many years,” explained PTO CEO Sam Renouf. “But what the sport has lacked to go more mainstream is the right sporting product to reach and consolidate that audience through a season-long offering. This is what the T100 has been created to solve and now, as we approach the climax of our inaugural season, we have the right product to take to brands who want to harness the incredible opportunity from our highly engaged and valuable fan base. Since our inception, we’ve been supported by industry leaders who see the untapped potential of Triathlon – partnering with Two Circles to deliver our partnership strategy is a logical extension of that approach.”

The collaboration with Two Circles on partnership sales will see them field a dedicated team led by Sales Director Simon Hoppe. Hoppe understands audience and opportunity well given his background selling partnerships for Manchester United, but also as an avid triathlete.

“I don’t think people realise quite how global and engaged the triathlon community is,” he said. “It’s clip of Swiss triathlete Imogen Simmonds failing to successfully grab water bottles on the bike leg at the recent London T100 race has amassed over 70 million video plays on Instagram. Which comfortably makes it one of the leading sports clips on the channel this year.”

In 2023, the PTO showed it was delivering on its goal of bringing long-distance triathlon to a broader audience, by delivering a global dedicated TV and streaming audience of 24.6 million across just three races that year. The PTO’s journey has also attracted attention from outside of sport, with its majority investment coming from Silicon Valley’s Sir Michael Mortiz, who was moved to get involved not just because of the business opportunity but also because of the unique governance structure at the PTO which sees its pro athletes, the talent, as co-owners in the business and incentivised to make it a success.

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For Further Information:

Anthony Scammell E: Anthony.Scammell@protriathletes.org

Two Circles

Victoria Tomlinson: Victoria.tomlinson@twocircles.com

About Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO)

The PTO is a sports body that is co-owned by its professional athletes, seeking to elevate and grow the sport of triathlon and take it to the next level. The T100 Triathlon World Tour is the new name for the PTO Tour and has been designated by World Triathlon as the ‘official World Championship for long distance triathlon’. It is a season-long schedule of eight T100 races during 2024 that will be competed over 100km (2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run) and will feature the world’s best triathletes going head-to-head in Miami (9 March), Singapore (13-14 April), San Francisco (8-9 June), London (27-28 July), Ibiza (28-29 September), Lake Las Vegas (19-20 October) and the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final (16-17 November). There are also racing opportunities for amateurs at all the events, including the new 100km distance at six stages, including: Singapore, London, Ibiza, Lake Las Vegas, Dubai and at the Grand Final. The global broadcast shows the races live around the world in 195+ territories, courtesy of the PTO’s partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery as well as a range of other international, regional and local broadcasters.

About Two Circles

Two Circles grows revenue for the world’s leading sports rights-holders, using data to create strategies, deliver proprietary technology solutions, package and sell sponsorships, and design and market compelling, tailored content.

From nine international offices (Bern, Cologne, Kansas City, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Miami, New York, Paris), Two Circles manages billions of fan data interactions on behalf of over 700 clients around the globe, with more insight into fan behavior and desire than any other organization.