Airbnb and the IOC Awarded Deal of the Year by Sport Industry Awards
Marking one year since the start of a major global Olympic and Paralympic partnership, Airbnb and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have been honored with a prestigious Sport Industry Award in the inaugural category of Deal of the Year. As part of the largest commercial sports awards in the world, this new award was created to celebrate the best dealmakers in the industry, highlighting the organizations and individuals that are working to unleash greatness, enable value and demonstrate innovation within the sport industry.
“As a recent entrant to the world of sport, we are incredibly honored to receive this award in partnership with the IOC. We are particularly proud of the fact this is not a sponsorship, it is a deeply mission-driven, integrated partnership focused on economic empowerment, sustainability, diversity and solidarity. This level of partnership and purpose is the direction we’ll see more sponsorships go in the future.”
Aoife McArdle, Global Head of Olympics, Airbnb
- More than 100 Olympian and Paralympian Online Experiences are currently available on the platform, helping athletes to generate income while they share their passion with guests from all over the world.
- In July, following the postponement of Tokyo 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the world’s best athletes became Airbnb Online Experiences hosts as part of a five-day Summer Festival that helped share the spirit of the Olympic and Paralympic Games with fans around the world.
- Among our Online Experiences hosts, refugee athletes have been sharing their stories of perseverance and resilience raising awareness on the refugee matter.
“The partnership with Airbnb has allowed us to bring our vision of ‘Innovation through Collaboration’ to life. From the very first moment we not only connected in terms of brand, marketing, product and digital, but actually co-created an entirely new partnership concept around Olympian Experiences.”
Christian Voigt, Vice-President of Marketing Development, IOC Television and Marketing Services
On November 18, 2019 Airbnb became a Worldwide Olympic Partner, beginning a nine-year, five-Games partnership designed to benefit host cities, Olympic spectators and athletes. Read more about the partnership here.