Rules of Entry 2026

The SPORTO Award encourages and rewards the best examples of good practice in sponsorship and marketing in sport. The competition is open to all sponsorship and marketing projects that use sports activities for their marketing, promotional and communication work with chosen target groups.

Entries and all additional materials must be completed in English.

To compete, the majority of the activity must take place between 15 October 2025 to 20 November 2026.

The 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, the rights holder or an associated agency. The applicant must make all parties aware of the entry, and all parties should agree on the correct title and reference for the entered project.

A rights holder is an individual athlete, sports club, sports association, sporting event, sports programme or a company that organises sporting events. What they have in common is that they hold the rights to their own sports brand.

When a project is entered in more than one category, a separate entry is needed for each, tailored to that category.

For an entry to be valid, the entry fee must reach the organiser, the SPORTO Conference in partnership with the European Sponsorship Association.

You can enter the SPORTO Awards in the following categories:

• SPORTO Sponsorship Award (open to companies / brands, agencies)

  This category is intended for integrated marketing campaigns which, for their communication platform, benefit from the sponsorship of an athlete, sports team, sports event, or sports program.

• SPORTO Event Award (open to companies / brands, agencies, rightsholders)

  This category recognizes companies, agencies, and rights holders that have created and delivered outstanding sports events of their own and used them as a strategic and effective way of communication of sponsorship or their own brand.

• SPORTO Purpose & Sustainability Award (open to companies / brands, agencies, rightsholders)

  This category is intended for companies, agencies, and rights holders that have created and delivered campaigns that champion a cause and inspire audiences, spanning environmental, social, health, or community impact alongside traditional sustainability themes. Campaigns built around athlete health and wellbeing, safety, inclusion, or community causes are equally eligible alongside environmental and economic sustainability initiatives.

• SPORTO Activation Award (open to companies / brands, agencies)

  This category is intended for one-off activations, or a separate activation within a larger sponsorship platform.

• SPORTO Digital Award (open to companies / brands, agencies, rightsholders)

  This category recognizes campaigns delivered primarily through digital channels (web, social media, streaming/IPTV, digital outdoor, or other online platforms) used in a strategic and effective way to communicate a sponsorship or sports brand.

• SPORTO Fan Engagement Award (open to companies / brands, agencies, rightsholders)

  This category recognizes companies, agencies, and rights holders that have built and grown sustained fan relationships, through membership programs, fan clubs, loyalty schemes, or ongoing community initiatives. Ongoing fan platforms and membership programmes are eligible; a standalone activation, even a fan-focused one, belongs under the Activation Award instead.

The organiser and the professional jury reserve the right to place a project in a category other than the one the entrant chose when its content fits another category better. The entrant is informed of the change in time.

Entered projects in all categories may be published, with their summaries and representative images, on the SPORTO Conference website.

The highest-ranked project from each country in the Sponsorship category is automatically placed in the contest for the Best of Europe Award at the ESA Excellence Awards. Entry to that contest is possible only by invitation or by winning the Sponsorship category at the SPORTO Awards 2026.

ESA 2026 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 TBD.

Entries are only possible through the online application on this website. You sign in with a link sent to your email address; each project needs its own account, with its own email address. You can open, edit and save your entry at any time until you submit it or until the deadline. Once submitted, the entry is locked; the organiser can reopen it on request.

Entries close on Friday, 6 November 2026. After that date no new entries or changes to entered projects are taken into account.

The winners of the SPORTO Awards 2026 are announced on Monday, 30 November 2026 at the SPORTO Conference.

All materials sent by the applicants become the property of the organiser (SPORTO Conference) and are not returned, except at the applicant's express written request. It is a condition of entry that photos and video of the winning applicants' representatives, and the summaries of the entered projects, may be used for promotional and publicity purposes around the SPORTO Awards 2026.

The organiser is committed to keeping all information about the entered projects confidential, with the exception of the short summary provided on the entry form. Only one trustee from the organiser's team and the members of the international judging panel have insight into the entered projects, and all are committed to secrecy.

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.

The entry fee is 250 EUR + VAT for one entry, 450 EUR for two, 600 EUR for three. The price is valid until entries close on Friday, 6 November 2026.

You receive an invoice, with its due date, based on the payment details you provide on the entry form. An entry whose invoice is not settled by the due date is not considered for judging in any category.

For more information write to info@sporto.si .