Last night, the Football Business Awards took place at the Tobacco Docks in London, celebrating the achievements of those behind the scenes in the football industry.

Thank you firstly to StreamAMG for the invitation to the evening, though it was shame that they didn’t come away with an award from either of the categories they were nominated in.

The biggest cheer of the night went to John Motson, the legendary BBC commentator who has covered ten World Cups, ten European Championships and 29 FA Cup Finals over an illustrious 50-year career. One that will come to end when this season comes to a close.

The big winners on the digital front were Sunderland, a win for the team in a season where there have been very few on the pitch. They picked up the ‘Best Fan Engagement by a Club‘ award in recognition of their fantastic fan-centric campaign earlier in the year for their kit launch. The club’s Head of Digital Stuart Vose spoke to us shortly after the campaign hit the headlines and explained the thinking behind the now award-winning idea. You can read more on that here.

Congratulations winners of Best Fan Engagement by a Club @SunderlandAFC pic.twitter.com/GU36IspNSs

— Football Biz Awards (@footiebizawards) November 2, 2017

Other big winners on the night included ADI.TV & Supponor for ‘Best Use of Technology (non-club specific)’. Their use of perimeter boards initially tested in Germany, and now being rolled out to English clubs during this season, has been ground breaking. Enabling broadcasters and clubs to virtually modify the boards around the games for different audiences. You can read more detail on this here.

The partnership between Manchester City & SAP enabled them to pick up the gong for ‘Best Use of Technology by a Club’. SAP are the club’s cloud software partner and trusted technology advisor, and over the past couple of years they’ve been rolling out new fan engagement features such as the #CityPulseWall and much more.

Finally, I must say congratulations to my very good friend Luca Massaro on his team at WePlay collecting the prestigious ‘Agency of the Year’ title. It’s been 5 years very hard work, but well worth the effort!

This just happened #fba2017 #AgencyOfTheYear ???? pic.twitter.com/ILt2Le21c0

— Luca Massaro (@iamluca) November 2, 2017