Kicking off a new year and in this instance, a new decade, is the perfect time to reflect on how we as an industry can do more good in this world. It just so happens a wonderful opportunity to do so has already been organized, SBC & Oliver’s Wish Foundation Charity Boxing 2020 on Friday, April 3.
The event will take place at London’s Hilton Parklane and we have the hard work of Daniel Beard, Partner at Partis Solutions, to thank for that, with the help of Richard Hogg, COO of BetGames.tv and SBC Events. Today I wanted to provide our readers with some more information on this event, the charities it supports and encourage you to book tables ASAP.
Becky Liggero Fontana: Daniel and Richard, I love the idea you’ve come up with and we at CalvinAyre.com cannot wait to film on the night! Can you tell us how the idea for this charity boxing event came about?
Daniel Beard: I am patron of Oliver’s Wish and have been looking for a way that our wonderful industry can get involved with the charity in a much larger capacity for a number of years. We have run a plethora of events, such as international rugby matches, marathon running and Iron man races. Therefore, with the rise of popularity with white collar boxing, I thought it would be the perfect match.
BLF: Yes, I remember you telling about your idea for this event in April of last year! Richard, how do you and SBC Events fit into the picture?
Richard Hogg: Daniel approached me to assist in this event. Having run events for The BiG Foundation in U.K. and Malta he wanted me to utilize my knowledge in ensuring the event would take place. These events are very time consuming in the preparation and sales alone, let alone the actual event. Ensuring we hit the ground running will help us utilize our time in the best way.
We decided to approach SBC to run the event on the night. This was going to be way too big for either of us to handle, given we also have day jobs. SBC have proven success in running spectacular evening events for our industry and having worked with them on a BiG Foundation Dinner a few years ago, this made sense.
BLF: All sounds fantastic, again, we can’t wait. Can you walk us through what can guests can expect to happen on the night?
DB & RH: This is probably going to be a once in a decade type of event, given the logistics required. Finding 10 boxers and getting them to train for month in advance is no easy task in itself, so we will be going all out to ensure the event is a night never to be forgotten and of course to raise a lot of money for charity.
On the night we will have A-lister presenters, we will have six bouts of boxing by industry legends including Michael Brady from Bede, Leon Thomas from Microgaming and of course the charity’s very own Daniel Beard. I mean who would want to see some of these guys on the backsides! During the night we will have a raffle, auction and of course guests will be treated to dinner and drinks. The evening will end with England Rugby’s very own James Haskell on the decks as DJ.
BLF: Sounds absolutely amazing and I hear Sky Sports F1 presenter Natalie Pinkham will be hosting- what a treat! What other industry legends will be boxing and what will the one month of training entail? Are you looking for more boxers?
DB & RH: All our boxers are from the industry as this is a pre-requisite. As it stands and subject to injury the lineup is:
Michael Brady (Bede Gaming) vs Tony Plaskow (Blackcow Tech)
Mark Woollard (Pragmatic Solutions) vs Bryan Blake (Hexopay)
Nick Wright (Gamesys) vs Leon Thomas (Microgaming)
Luke Cousins (Koneksi) vs Sergey Portnov (Parimatch)
Daniel Beard (Partis) vs Vasilije Lekovic (Trustly)
All fighters will be on an intense ten-week training build up camp meaning 3x weekly sessions. At the moment we have all the fighters required but certainly will be open to hearing about backups in case of injury.
BLF: Oh my god, I can’t wait to see these guys fighting! Most importantly though, this is all for charity- what charities will be supported on the night?
DB & RH: Oliver’s Wish is an umbrella charitable foundation and will be supporting SUDC, Sparks and Cystic Fibrosis.
BLF: Brilliant! How can we book a table?!?! What other ways can the iGaming industry help make this event a huge success?
DB & RH: People can contact us directly, but we will have a website up via SBC’s own sbcevents.com so of course you can contact them directly. Given the event is likely to sell out very quickly we urge you to book soonest (we have 50 enquiries for tables already). We’d also encourage the industry to look at the sponsorship opportunities available and help us there. We can provide this via the channels above as well.
BLF: I love that you’ve already received so much interest, this really says a lot about the generosity of our industry and the support we have for each other. Do you have any final words on why it is so important for the iGaming industry to get involved with events like this?
DB & RH: Oliver’s Wish is a charity very dear to the gaming industry’s hearts as it was setup by Rob Dowling (Conexus Group) after losing his son Oliver to SIDS a number of years ago. The iGaming industry is built on friendships and solidarity and we can change children’s lives by supporting and making sure we raise money and awareness for all the charities supported.
Additionally, from a boxing point of view, it takes a tremendous amount of guts and bravery to stand up in front of the whole industry and fight knowing everyone is watching. Boxing can be a dangerous sport so please do come along and make it a memorable night.
BLF: Outstanding all around boys, thank you so much for your hard work on this event and thank you so much for joining me. See you on April 3rd!
