McIlroy coup helps to double sport firm’s profits

The acquisition of superstar golfer Rory McIlroy boosted Horizon Sports Management’s fortunes in 2011, with accumulated profits more than doubling to €275,217.

The Dublin-based sports management firm pulled off the biggest coup in the golf business world in 2011 when it signed up the Northern Ireland golfer from the ISM stable.

McIlroy made the move four months after his record-breaking US Open triumph and joined his friend, the Major-winning Graeme McDowell, at the firm.

McDowell left Chubby Chandler’s ISM stable in Oct 2007 to join the Dublin company.

Accounts lodged with the Companies Office confirm accumulated profits increasing by 135%, from €116,720 to €275,217, at Horizon Sports Management Ltd in the 12 months to the end of Dec 2011.

In 2011, the firm’s cash-pile increased from €133,007 to €248,364.

Shareholder funds totalled €315,464. The abridged accounts do not disclose revenues or what was paid in salaries.

Accumulated profits at Horizon increased from €14,682 to €116,721 in 2010.

And the reported $250m (€188m) 10-year sponsorship deal between McIlroy and Nike will mean Horizon’s business will receive a massive boost.

McIlroy has already announced he will not be renewing his sponsorship deal with Jumeirah Group having ended his association with Titleist and Oakley in late 2012.

Horizon Sports — headed by Conor Ridge and Colin Morrissey — was established in a Ballsbridge basement in 2005.

Ridge, a commerce graduate from UCD with a master’s degree in marketing from the Smurfit Business School, remortgaged his house to get the business up and running