Leading health and diagnostics company Cignpost has signed a three-year spnsorship deal with the DP World Tour that will see the company become the Tour’s Official Health Diagnostics and Screening Partner, and Founding Partner to the European Tour Health and Performance Institute.
The partnership will also see testing services provided to the Challenge Tour and Legends Tour, in addition to extending the important two-year working partnership where Cignpost helped deliver safe golf tournaments throughout the pandemic with mobile, rapid PCR and antigen testing services that became sector-leading and were adopted by a wide range of other sporting, media and television businesses.
As part of the new partnership, Cignpost and the DP World Tour will be providing broader diagnostics and screening services, including skin screening, heart health assessments, and performance blood tests to players, caddies, and a range of others critical team members including partners, sponsors, and suppliers of the DP World Tour.
Cignpost is a founding member of the European Tour Health and Performance Institute, and the two organisations will be cooperating on research and development projects to improve health and performance in professional golf as well as across other elite sports.
The collaboration underscores Cignpost’s transition towards offering a full suite of diagnostic services and comes in the wake of new research commissioned recently by the business that showed that 70 percent of the UK population are prepared to take tests to support their wellbeing. Cignpost is set to broaden out its services, providing regular and comprehensive health screenings to elite athletes as well as several businesses across a range of sectors.
Steve Chilton, Deputy Managing Director, Cignpost, said: “It is a great privilege for Cignpost to strengthen our partnership with the iconic DP World Tour. The last couple of years have placed a long-overdue focus on the population’s health and wellbeing. According to our research, a significant majority of the population (over 80% in a recent survey) have changed their habits with their health upmost in mind. What is more, 7 in 10 people across the UK are now more willing to take diagnostic tests.
“There is also a wider societal shift toward greater use of comprehensive diagnostic services to improve overall health outcomes, especially among elite athletes. Through this partnership, Cignpost, in addition to providing COVID secure environments, will bring its acclaimed business-to-business testing solutions including blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, ferratin, vitamin D, and other checks to ensure participants and staff at the DP World Tour events stay healthy.”
Max Hamilton, Commercial and Consumer Director of the European Tour group, said: “Our two organisations have worked closely for some time now to boost the health and wellness of our players. As the global pandemic hit, that collaboration reached new heights and Cignpost’s expertise and technologies were vital in our sector-leading pandemic response – so we’re especially pleased to take our collaboration to the next level by welcoming them into our partnership community.
“Professional golf, and the DP World Tour in particular, provides a uniquely demanding proving ground for Cignpost’s technologies. Together, we look forward to developing new products and services and to using the Tour’s reach to showcase their brand on a global scale.”
Dr Andrew Murray, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, European Tour group, added: “DP World Tour members are world class athletes who put their bodies under tremendous strain during a season. The modern golf swing is a dynamic and explosive movement, and our players have to contend with a busy travel schedule with tournaments in 25 different countries. We also have many DP World Tour staff who work with great dedication to stage our events. We therefore take a truly holistic approach to health and fitness. With Cignpost, we will have the testing and data capabilities we need to make sure our players and staff can perform at their best.
“More widely, as a general practitioner, I am amazed that people get their teeth and eyes checked yearly, but do not get regular checks on their health, metabolic and skin health. We hope this partnership will develop services that help our golfers, but also the general population.”