Baseball United wins Sporting Event of the Year at 2024 Muse Awards

Baseball United has been announced Sporting Event of the Year at 2024 Muse Awards. (Supplied)
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Updated 22 March 2024
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Baseball United wins Sporting Event of the Year at 2024 Muse Awards

  • New Dubai-based baseball league also awarded additional honors for its innovative approach to marketing, social media, public relations and events
  • The league recently signed a historic agreement with Saudi Arabia

DUBAI: Baseball United, the first professional baseball league focused on the Middle East and Indian subcontinent, won multiple honors at the 2024 Muse Creative and Design Awards on Thursday night.

The awards celebrate excellence and innovation in creative design, advertising, digital media, marketing and communications. More than 8,500 entries were evaluated from around the world for this year’s competition. Baseball United received an industry-leading five awards.

Baseball United earned two Platinum-level awards for its inaugural All-Star Showcase event in Dubai, winning Sporting Event of the Year and Event Campaign of the Year. Additionally, Baseball United earned Gold-level honors for its launch-year public relations campaign, Instagram channel, and All-Star Showcase content.

“We are truly honored to be recognized for our work in what has been a historic year for Baseball United,” said Kash Shaikh, chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Baseball United. “Our intentional approach to brand strategy and our deliberate choreography across all marketing channels helped us reach more than one billion people with our content and campaigns last year.

“We see marketing — particularly in the social and digital space — as a key point of difference, and we understand it is pivotal to building an entire sports ecosystem from scratch. I’m so proud of our team, from creative and content, to social and PR, to event operations and brand identity. Together we combined both art and science to do great work.”

The Muse Awards encompass a range of competitions designed to recognize excellence across diverse fields. The International Awards Associate ensures these competitions are accessible and fair.

As an international award platform, the MUSE Creative and Design Awards attracted entries from internationally renowned organizations. Submissions this year featured some recognizable names including NBC Universal, Mercedes Benz, Netflix and Google. Past Muse Award winners have included Disney, Yahoo, BET and FIFA.

The league’s inaugural All-Star Showcase last November saw the first professional baseball games in the history of the Middle East and South Asia. Hosted at Dubai International Stadium, the games were broadcast in 127 countries and reached nearly 200 million households.

The two-game series included players from 16 countries that have played at the highest levels of professional baseball, including former Major League Baseball stars Robinson Cano, Pablo Sandoval, Bartolo Colon and Andrelton Simmons. Seventy-five percent of Baseball United’s All-Stars played at the MLB level, with others competing in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball Organization and other international leagues and tournaments.

The league recently signed an historic agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and will announce its 2024 plans later this spring.


Heaven urges Man Utd to maintain European faith

Updated 5 sec ago
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Heaven urges Man Utd to maintain European faith

  • Victory at Molineux left Ruben Amorim’s men just a point outside of the top four in the Premier League
  • Heaven, asked about the prospect of European football, said: "Hopefully we can be in Europe next season, which I think we'll do”

LONDON : Ayden Heaven believes a return to European football is well within Manchester United’s reach following Monday’s 4-1 win at Wolves.
Victory at Molineux left Ruben Amorim’s men just a point outside of the top four in the Premier League and in the hunt for a place in next season’s Champions League.
United recovered from a disappointing draw with lowly West Ham last week thanks to Bruno Fernandes’ double and further goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Mason Mount after Jean-Ricner Bellegarde had canceled out Fernandes’ opener with bottom-of-the-table Wolves’ first goal in the Premier League since October 26.
United ended the 2024/25 season in 15th place — their lowest top-flight finish in 51 years — and missed out on European qualification by losing the Europa League final to English rivals Tottenham.
But a lack of continental football could yet help the fallen giants rebuild under Portuguese manager Amorim, with teenage United defender Heaven saying: “We dropped points in the last game (at home to West Ham) and this was the chance to go and redeem ourselves and get more points. I feel like we did that, especially in the second half.
“We knew it wasn’t good enough that we conceded. He (Amorim) just told us (at half-time) to do what we can do and we did that as you saw.”
United’s surprise 1-0 loss to 10-man Everton at Old Trafford is the lone defeat in their last nine games, with a buoyant Heaven insisting after the Wolves match: “I don’t think anyone can stop us when we play like this.”
The 19-year-old, asked about the prospect of European football, added: “Hopefully we can be in Europe next season, which I think we’ll do.
“Of course, that’s where Manchester United belong.”
Heaven was speaking after making a second successive start for United after fellow center-backs Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt were both injured, with Amorim retaining the rising star in his defense following a 1-1 draw against West Ham.
“He’s trusting me a lot,” said Heaven of Amorim. “I feel like I’m working hard every day in training and I’m showing he can trust me in the games that I’m playing.”
United’s next match is at home to Bournemouth on Monday.