Sport for Business is entering its 15th year, and this flagship start-of-year gathering remains a high point for many, offering a morning to look forward to, connect, and to creat create outcomes.
“This is the event… to look forward, to look ahead, to get excited, to make connections that will hopefully produce the very, very best of what sport and business can do together,” said Rob Hartnett, opening up the morning.
“The most valuable thing in the room is the network effect”, he said.
Sport for Business and Teneo might be the brands behind us on screen, but the “stars of the show” are the people in attendance, the introductions made and the partnerships that get sketched out over coffee and pizza
A recurring theme in Hartnett’s remarks was the role Sport for Business plays as a bridge rather than a brand. “It’s never about our brand, it’s about your brands and your governing bodies of sport,” he said, describing the platform as a space where commercial partners and sports bodies can meet as equals and build work that makes sense for both.
He also previewed a morning designed to move between participation, performance and the commercial realities shaping Irish sport in 2026: a look ahead to the Special Olympics National Games in Dublin; a boxing conversation following a major rebrand; a sponsorship announcement being kept “completely under wraps”; and a post-break insights session with Teneo. Before that, we were going to look at GAA rivalries between Kerry and Dublin from a commercial viewpoint, at the logistics of the Winter Olympics, and at all things GAA with the President of the association, Jarlath Burns.
The final note before the formal programme began was arguably the most pointed.
Hartnett took the opportunity to address sponsorship, values, and the scrutiny brands in sport face, with a specific reference to the public debate around Allianz and the GAA.
It was not a defence by default, but a call for steadiness. “Irish sport cannot function at its current scale without commercial partnership, and decisions taken in the heat of public pressure can have unintended consequences for athletes, communities and the ecosystem,”
In a line that worked as both warning and reminder, Hartnett noted that modern sport sponsorship sits inside a world of “interconnected relationships” — and that moral certainty can be harder to locate than social media suggests.
And finally, he said that “2026 will belong to the organisations that can build partnerships rooted in trust, aligned expectations, and a shared understanding of what sport is trying to deliver.”
Read More: Opening Comments from Rob Hartnett
Read More: Jarlath Burns in Conversation
Read More: Teneo Delivers Rich Insights
Read More: Launch of the AIG Access Tennis Programme by Tennis Ireland
Read More: Boxing Ireland’s Built Different Rebrand
Read More: Special Olympics Ireland National Games
Image Credit: Sport for Business, Ryan Byrne, Inpho.ie
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SPORT FOR BUSINESS
Sport for Business is Ireland’s leading platform focused on the commercial, strategic and societal impact of sport. It connects decision-makers across governing bodies, clubs, brands, agencies and public institutions through high-quality journalism, events and insight. Sport for Business explores how sport drives economic value, participation, inclusion and national identity, while holding organisations to account on governance and sustainability.
Through analysis, storytelling and convening the sector, it helps leaders understand trends, share best practice and make better-informed decisions. Its work positions sport not just as entertainment, but as a vital contributor to Ireland’s social and economic fabric.
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