Back of the net for DJS Research - Winners at Football Business Awards 2018

20th December 2018 10:25

Huge celebrations are in order for DJS Research and Leicester City Football Club who together have scooped the award for The Best Fan Engagement Programme at the Football Business Awards 2018.

The award recognises the work of the football club in implementing a number of measures to improve the match day experiences of fans with disabilities following findings from research conducted by our researchers.

About the awards and the research...

The research sought to engage with fans to better understand their experiences at the King Power Stadium as well as look at how accessibility and services could potentially be improved.

The award ceremony held at the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) in the City of London was attended by DJS MD, Danny Sims and Senior Research Manager, Christian Easdown who were part of the team working on the award-winning project with the Premier League club.

"We did some unique things in terms of being innovative," said Danny in an interview following the win. "We even attached cameras to their lapels so we could really get to understand first-hand the fan matchday experience."

Speaking about how quickly Leicester City FC put measures in place to improve the experiences of supporters, Danny said: "We put some findings together on how to improve accessibility for fans and as soon as we put them to LCFC the results were actioned very quickly. It was refreshing to see that Leicester City Football Club listened to what the fans said and put the changes in place. And when we spoke to the fans afterwards, they had noticed the improvements. It was a fantastic project to be involved in."

Stuart Johncock, Head of Supporter Engagement at Leicester City Football Club said: "Providing a positive experience for our supporters is one of the key things for our football club so to carry out this research and find out what our fans wanted and needed was key. We brought these guys [DJS Research] on board to do some independent research and they did a fantastic job in delivering on that."

Other awards at the Football Business Awards 2018

Among the other awards won by clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton and Spanish giants FC Barcelona was a special award for Late Chairman of Leicester City, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. The much-loved owner was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution Award for the leadership he demonstrated at Leicester City and the “enormous impact he had on the football world and local community".

Also honoured on the night was former Arsenal captain, Tony Adams for his work with Sporting Chance - the charity he set up to help people from the world of sport affected by addiction.