Footymad.net scoops top website award

Industry experts SportBusiness Group have selected the Footymad network as a winner in their 2009 Ultimate Sports Website Awards, describing the UK's largest online football community as simply 'fan-tastic'!

In a definitive list of the of the best sports websites from around the world, an annual celebration of the best in class, Footymad.net and its associated websites have scooped the accolade for Best Sports Website Community: Generic or Portal.

A consistent increase in monthly users and registrations across the network's 160+ websites caught the judge's eye, as did the user-centric approach the network continues to adopt in shielding its audience from excessive advertising and over experimentation with social networking tools.

Other football club winners were the official websites for Manchester United and Chelsea, alongside established governing body, federation and generic sports websites including London 2012, US Masters, Sky Sports and CricInfo.

The 2009 Awards are based on the new report Ultimate Sports Websites: Creating A Winning Online Proposition for Sport by top sports consultant Rachael Church-Sanders.

"Footymad - the internet's original football social networking site - is to be applauded for its best community award," she said.

"The network has not got carried away with the latest gimmicks, but instead has considered what its users need and want.

"It is no surprise that the site has been able to successfully monetise its excellent user-generated content."

The award reinforces Footymad's position as the most visited football fan network in the UK and illustrates that, despite Sky's decision to close the Rivals network in July, independent content and community destinations will continue to play an important role alongside official federation, event and club websites.

"To be recognised for achieving a primary objective of building and maintaining a loyal and vibrant community is very satisfying and for that we have a collection of dedicated site contributors and editors to thank," said Andrew Cox, Managing Director.

"We understand that the Footymad network, first and foremost, is a user-generated content destination and we will never lose sight of why our users come to our sites - the desire to communicate with like-minded fans and rival supporters before, during and after matches.

"As an independent publisher Footymad is not blessed with the budget of some of the other category winners but we have ambitious plans for the network.

"The next phase of our development will focus on improvements to our underlying technical platform and aesthetics.

Continuing to enhance both the product and user experience is of paramount importance as this will allow us to diversify our revenue streams and leverage a community that is proving to be of increasingly significant value to our partners and sponsors."