Professional Triathletes Organisation: The Collins Cup

How a ‘Ryder Cup’modelled race is being used to leverage the sport of Triathlon

Following the first ever instalment of The Collins Cup in Slovakia, Sam Renouf, the PTO’s Chief Executive, outlines how the Ryder Cup style event has taken the triathlon to the next level.

Team Europe won the first-ever Collins Cup, the Professional Triathletes Organisation’s new flagship event which ran for the first time at the end of August 2021 in Šamorín, Slovakia.

Named after John and Judy Collins, the inventors of Ironman (a longer version of the traditional triathlon) the three-team triathlon competition has been billed as the endurance sport’s version of the Ryder Cup. Unlike the golf tournament, however, the Collins Cup featured Team Internationals as well as outfits representing the United States and Europe competing in a 12-person mixed relay.

Each team was made up of six male and six female competitors, where the top four eligible men and women in the PTO rankings automatically selected for each team, while captains were then able to select the final two men and women to compete.

Each trio of triathletes set off at 10-minute intervals, with the first to finish scoring three points, two points for second and one point for third. With the scores of the 12 trios combined to determine an overall winner and bonus points awarded for the distance between each competitor, Team Europe come out triumphant with a total of 42.5 points. Team US ended with 31.5 and Team Internationals 21.5 points.

Founded in 2019, the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) is a notfor-profit entity that supports the body of professional triathletes. It’s mission statement for adopting a Ryder Cup modelled race is simple… to celebrate the sport of triathlon and showcase the passion, talent, determination, struggles and achievements of the dedicated professionals through iconic events, reimagined broadcast and compelling storytelling to inspire global sports fans to watch, engage and participate in triathlon.

Chief Executive Sam Renouf is leading the way in reinventing how audiences can engage with the sport, by taking it to a new commercial level and promoting the talents within its ranks and he believes that the body is well positioned to be able to do so.

“The Collins Cup brought together the greatest professional triathletes in the world in a team competition to do battle to see who dominates the sport,” said Renouf.

“It is a new race format modelled after the Ryder Cup, which will see teams of International, European and USA athletes pitted against one another and aims to create and leverage the excitement, rivalry, drama and personalities of the sport of triathlon to attract a wider fan base.

“By adopting a proven format like the Ryder Cup with its nationalistic intensity and having a points system that creates drama throughout the race, the Collins Cup is designed to be a compelling live TV event that appeals not only to the fans of endurance sports, but also to the general sports enthusiast.”

In a world dominated primarily by well-established sports, it will always be more difficult to breakthrough and offer something unique to fans and to those interested in commercial opportunities but the PTO’s invested goal of putting its athletes at the forefront of their exponential growth will likely see that continue long into its future.

“Our innovative ownership means both men and women professionals share ➡

equally in the PTO’s collective success which is the very principle on which the PTO was formed - unity of the pro’s, giving them the power and a say in their future.”

“We are committed to not only raising the status of triathlon, but to grow its fan base and create a consistent, fan-focused media proposition centred around major events and compelling athlete storytelling,” explained Renouf.

“Sport is about caring who wins, loses, succeeds and fails. To care about an athlete, you have to know about their backstory in order to have an emotional connection.

“We plan to build athlete profiles by showcasing the personalities, struggles, determination and achievements of our amazing PTO professionals to a wider audience through a great broadcast product.

“The sport has unprecedented levels of engagement, but its fans have been starved of quality television coverage. We aim to change that by creating world class sporting events and elevating the profile and status of these extraordinary men and women who push themselves to the edge of human endurance.”

In time for the launch of the competition, the PTO launched the Collins Cup player across web, IOS and Android to showcase live broadcast and on-demand as well as offering across to the PTOs premium content library. The PTO’s own Collins Cup OTT (Over-The-Top) content offering sits alongside multiple live broadcast deals that were arranged by the PTO and IMG, including an exclusive live deal in Europe with Discovery Eurosport, beIN Sport, FujiTV, Sky Sports New Zealand and Fox Sports Australia. The PTO also secured deals for a onehour highlights programme with BT Sport in the UK, Tencent in China, SuperSport in South Africa, Astro in Malaysia, 3BBTV and TrueVision in Thailand, and VEION and FPT in Vietnam, alongside further broadcast deals in Singapore, Canada, the US and South America. In total The Collins Cup was distributed in more than 165 territories, with live commentary in 21 different languages, to a combined household reach of over 365 million.

“The Collins Cup is a watershed moment for the sport of triathlon so we wanted to showcase this moment live to as many people as possible,” Renouf asserted. “With the launch of The Collins Cup player and live data feed alongside ground-breaking broadcast deals brokered by us and our media partner IMG, the event is one of the most watched professional triathlon events ever. U