In this interview, General Manager of 1x Cup Competition, Dimeji Adedapo shares with CAMI EZENWA key highlights of the competition, He spoke at the venue of the draw yesterday’
Could you please give us a background to what happened here today?
This competition started in 2023 as an experiment by the brand 1x Bet and it is an answer to: what can we give back to the society where we operate?
So, it is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), for us to make sure that we give back to society.
And also, we saw that there are lots of young guys out there who have this talent to play football
We see them every day and we decided: let’s create the platform for them to showcase their talents, and whatever happens next, is fine. And since 2023, we have had an amazing record.
Would you say the initiative is paying off three years after?
We have over 30 players that have played in the 1x cup playing in the professional league, either in Nigeria, Africa or Europe. For us, it has been a success. When we started in 2023, it was an experiment with a N1m grand prize
We went from Ikorodu to Epe to Badagry and to Oshodi playing on different fields, and on the final day, Shomolu Bariga FC won that edition.
In 2024, after we saw the reception of the competition by the teams and what these young talents can do, we upped the grand prize from N1million to N20million..
So the first position goes home with N10million, second position N5 million and the third position N3 million. And there are also individual prizes.
Give us an idea of the individual prizes?
There are prizes for Most Valuable Player (MVP), highest goal scorer, best coach, best goalkeeper; even the most well-behaved team also has something to take home. And those are what 1x is all about.
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t must be requiring a lot to keep the vision alive?
Putting this kind of event together is not easy. Every year, we spend three, four months to make sure we achieve it.
This year we started July 23 for the qualification round and we didn’t stop until September 4. And we played. In 20 days, hundred teams played. And you can see how much logistics would have gone into that.
And then, we keep challenging ourselves towards improve the organisation.
If you watch this year, you will see the quality of our videos have also improved.
We know that too many of these young talents and grassroots football teams, when there’s an opportunity to sell their players there, they don’t have what to show to scouts.
But when you go to the 1x Cup Nigeria Bet Youtube platform, you can pick a lot of clips.
We even do individual clips for fantastic players,
Are there aspects of this noble effort that gives you concern?
The challenge we have been facing is with teams – the organisation of teams; when you talk they say, it is grassroots.
When you tell a team for example, that your game is by 11am and come to the stadium at least an hour before kick-off, you see some teams coming in five minutes to eleven.
Some for their first eleven, only five of them would be available.
We had experiences in previous editions, like we had to do a technical walkover for a team from ikorodu, and another team which just felt they had qualified and that they didn’t need to come the next day.
These are after lots of logistics would have been spent, like payment for venue, vendors, video production and a lot of people had even placed bets on the platform
It is not encouraging. Teams should realize that the only thing they can give back to us in the competition is their cooperation.
It is a hundred percent free competition.
We are not taking registration fee from anyone. Even after the competition, if you win, you get N10million without paying a dime; and they have a good platform, everything.
So I am using this opportunity, appealing to the 24 teams to this year’s competition to please adhere to time.and enjoy the tournament.
Cami Ezenwa is a Writer, Editor, Publicist, Biographer and Journalism Trainer
He has worked with the Daily Times, Daily Independent, Financial Standard and Business Television to mention some.
His ongoing Corporate Communications Master Class training series equips learners with credible hands-on skills for effective Media Relations, Public Communications & Corporate Affairs amongst others.
He can be contacted via 09165809519 or 08180335778.