Golazo’s vision for Kenyan sport

Within a very short time, three Kenyan events have taken the annual global sporting calendar by storm. The Kip Keino Classic Continental Tour meeting, Nairobi City Marathon and Sirikwa Class Cross Country Championship have fast become must-attend competitions for fans alongside elite and amateur athletes alike.

Unbeknownst to many, Belgian sports management company, Golazo Group, has supported Athletics Kenya in organising these three events, drawing from the rich international experience and contacts of the Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Bob Verbeeck.

Preferring to operate largely behind the scenes and give his charges the frontline, Belgian Verbeeck, a former Olympian, fell in love with Kenya right from his university days at Iowa State University in the USA.

“I went to school in the US where I was taught running by some Kenyan runners, among them Yobes Ondieki (the first man to run a sub 27-minute 10,000 metres), Richard Keitany and Barnabas Korir…”  he narrates to Nation Sport.

“I was into sports from a very young age, and after a short career in Procter and Gamble, I set up my own company 33 years ago. On October 19, 1990, Golazo was founded and our first clients were Nike and Unilever.

“For Nike, we started organising sports events, particularly running events, where we linked the brand Nike to these events, which at that time was revolutionary, but now it’s commonplace.”

Golazo started off as CIS (Consultants in Sports) and with the Netherlands and Belgium jointly hosting the Euro 2000 football championships, CIS partnered with Octagon, creating the outfit Octagon CIS that cashed in on the commercial demands of these competitions.

Then Verbeeck sold CIS to Octagon, but remained as CEO with Octagon CIS becoming a major player in European and global sports consultancy with a rich client base that included Hyundai, Mastercard, Sony PlayStation, Procter and Gamble, alongside the NBA, among others.

Regaining full control

In 2008, due to conflicting views regarding the company’s future, Octagon and CIS decided to separate, with Verbeeck regaining full control and changing the name to Golazo and focusing on consultancy in Belgium alone.

In 2014, Golazo went international, opening offices in the Netherlands, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

And last year, Golazo extended its sports portfolio to include, among other events, golf, breaking (break dance), padel and 3x3 basketball. Corporate wellbeing also became key on the company’s menu.

Golazo also opened its Africa headquarters in Nairobi — under the business name Golazo Right Here — resulting in a record-breaking turnover of 120 million Euros (Sh18.8 billion in current exchange rates) in the last financial year.

In total, Golazo currently organises about 1,000 events annually, worldwide, including the three top Kenyan athletics competitions.

Some of its marquee events are the Rotterdam Marathon and the “Memorial van Damme” which is Brussels’ round of the athletics Diamond League circuit.

“Through our apps, technology and media, we reach around 100 million consumers every year,” discloses Verbeeck, 62, who competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, making the 5,000 metres semi-finals.

Specific mission

In his elite running career, the Belgian also won gold in the 3,000m at the 1985 European Indoor Championships in Piraeus, Greece. He is grateful that three decades later, his sports business empire stands firm.

“Several decades ago, the average lifespan of a company was approximately 40 years, while a decade ago, it was 20 years,” he says while reflecting on Golazo’s 2023 roadmap.

“Since the pandemic, the average lifespan of a company has been 19 years. So, on average, a company is out of business in fewer than two years. Golazo has already existed 32 years and we want to build our organisation to last forever.

“As a company, we have a specific mission — and we are quite unique in that — that our prime purpose is not competitive sports, but it is to get everybody moving, and to get the world moving.”

Verbeeck, an avid cyclist, now visualises a “Tour of Kenya” cycling race that will run along the lines of the famous Tour de France or Giro d’Italia.

The dream is fast becoming a reality, especially after Golazo and the Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) signed an eight-year partnership in May that sees Golazo become the marketing and event partner of the annual African cycling championships.

Golazo will also support Africa’s 54 national cycling federations with a brief of eventually empowering Africa to become a cycling continent.

“Cycling is a sport that has a bright future, it is quite accessible and it can combine sports and tourism, that’s why we hope to become a player in that field,” Verbeeck notes.

“Hopefully, in the next couple of years, we can start the “Tour of Kenya” which will broadcast the country to the world.”

Sport has been very much part of Verbeeck’s life and it is sport that gives him the kick.

“Through sport, I’ve been able to meet interesting people and people that are passionate, and so I cannot dream of a better job than the one that I have,” he concludes our interview.