Sports audio experts report near-quadruple revenue increase as it hits two-year milestone

Voiceworks Sport, a growing business of sport audio experts backed by media holding company Communicorp UK, has seen a 288 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue.

Founded in 2020, Voiceworks Sport enables sports brands and rights holders to engage more deeply with fans and reach new audiences through the power of audio.

The organisation works with rights holders and brands to develop audio strategies that encompass everything from podcasts to voice tech, and then provide production execution from its world-leading audio experts.

Since then, it has gone on to work with some of the biggest brands in sport, including ParalympicsGB, EuroLeague Basketball, Goal, The FA and Sports Direct.

With a 14-strong team based across Manchester and London, Voiceworks Sport has ambitions to double revenue over the next 12 months and grow the team by 25 per cent.

In the UK, 19.1 million people listen to podcasts - and 41 per cent of these podcast listeners regularly listen to sport content. Though sports audio fits well with future consumption trends, Voiceworks Sport has found the current focus by rights holders - which includes national governing bodies, teams, competitions and individual athletes - to be almost completely on digital, video and text-based articles as go-to mediums for direct to fan engagement.

With an extensive background in audio content production and commercial operations in broadcasting, it was the scale of the audio opportunity for rights holders that spurred the inspiration to found Voiceworks Sport in 2020, headed up by Managing Director, Sophie Hind.

Hind said: “Our achievements so far come off the back of our ambition to become the global leader in sports audio. We’ve been growing our team to meet an increasing demand from rights holders - who, before now, put audio in the ‘nice to have’ rather than ‘must have’ box - to reach fans in an authentic and engaging way.

“Sports brands and rights holders often talk to us about three key elements within their content strategy - fan engagement, new markets and revenue & sponsorship. Audio, is a solution that can deliver all these things, yet many in sport have been slow to adapt and haven’t evolved their approach of engaging with fans.”

“It’s heartening to see an increasing number of rights holders invest in audio this way, and as we continue to develop our offering for rights holders and brands globally - whether that’s through podcasts or voice technologies - it paints a clear picture that audio is a secret weapon waiting to be unleashed.”