Dublin sports management cashes in on Nike sponsored Rory McIlroy

Start-up Irish firm makes the big time

Good news for Dublin start-up sports management firm Horizon Sports Management Ltd. Earlier in 2012, the young company that could pulled off the biggest coup in golf business when it signed up Rory McIlroy from the ISM stable.

According to the Irish Examiner, McIlroy made the move to the Irish company four months after his record-breaking US Open triumph, joining his friend and associate the Major-winning Graeme McDowell at the firm.

McDowell left managment legend Chubby Chandler’s ISM lineup in October 2007 to join the emerging Dublin company.

Now accounts lodged with the Companies Office in Dublin reportedly confirm accumulated profits increasing by 135%, from $155,692 to $367,111, at Horizon Sports in the twelve months to the end of December 2011.

Shareholder funds totaled $420,797 and accumulated profits at Horizon reportedly increased from $19,584 to $155,694 in 2010.

Now the reported $250 million, 10-year sponsorship deal between McIlroy and Nike will mean Horizon’s business will receive a massive cash bonanza.

Horizon Sports, headed by Conor Ridge and Colin Morrissey, was established in a Ballsbridge basement in south Dublin 2005. Ridge, a commerce graduate from University College Dublin with a master’s degree in marketing from the world famous Smurfit Business School, re-mortgaged his house to provide the startup money for the business.

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Nster.com