Collingwood Football Club inks partnership with CyberCX
Collingwood Football Club has inked a sponsorship deal with CyberCX, with the Australian cybersecurity consultancy to provide CFC players and staff training in personal online protection.
While its back-line may have been a bit leaky in the opening stages of its premiership defence, the Collingwood Football Club has at least moved to sure up its off-field resilience by signing a partnership agreement with security consultancy CyberCX to help protect its players, officials and fans from online threats.
The two-year deal will see CyberCX feature on a range of the football club’s digital assets, including as the official partner of the Collingwood app.
“We’re pleased to welcome John Paitaridis and the entire CyberCX team to the Collingwood family,” said club CEO Craig Kelly, who was known for getting ‘under the skin’ of opponents.
“With both organisations sharing a strong passion and commitment to protecting the community, I have no doubt this partnership will only strengthen our ability to do so. We look forward to working closely with CyberCX and are excited about what the partnership has in store.”
Established in 2019 as an amalgamation of twelve smaller entities with the backing of private equity firm BGH Capital, CyberCX has since grown through an acquisition-led strategy to become one of the country’s leading cybersecurity consultancies, with a headcount of roughly 1,300 cyber and cloud professionals across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and US serving clients on strategy, assurance, governance & risk, and incident response among other areas.
CyberCX also runs a line in education & training, which it plans to bring to both the Magpies AFL and AFLW teams to improve the players’ own personal online security. The CFC has weathered a number social media storms in recent years via leaked online videos, including, among other incidents, footage of now departed Jack Ginnivan partaking in illicit drugs and star player Jordan De Goey groping a female acquaintance during a mid-season trip to Bali.
“The CyberCX partnership with Collingwood will improve the cyber resilience at the club and help protect and defend against threats,” Paitaridis stated. “Our cyber intelligence report on the global sporting sector reveals that the impacts of cyber incidents are wide ranging and can cause significant disruption and harm for leagues, teams and fans. Together, we are reinforcing our shared commitment to helping the sports sector and our communities stay safe.”
Despite the ‘working class’ reputation of its rabid fan-base, the Collingwood club itself is well connected to the upper-echelons of the business consulting world. Vice president Jodie Sizer is the former co-CEO of PwC Indigenous Consulting, while former president Mark Korda is one half of KordaMentha. Constantine Frantzeskos, currently chief growth & innovation Officer at GrowthOps, however missed out on Korda’s seat following the 2021 board spill.
