Joint venture appointed as new event promoter of Singapore Marathon

[SINGAPORE] THE next edition of the annual Singapore Marathon is likely to have a quite different look and feel as the country’s largest running event will have a new event promoter in the form of SG Marathon.

SG Marathon – a joint venture between Betterment Sports and Score Sports – was established earlier this year. They were appointed by national sports agency Sport Singapore (SportSG) following an open grant call that was launched in April, and will take over from Ironman Group which had organised the race for the last 10 years.

A spokesperson for SportSG said that SG Marathon was chosen following an evaluation based on an established price-quality assessment framework.

Betterment Sports is a sports management and marketing company, while Score Sports is an organiser of sports and fitness events including the recent Singapore leg of the Garmin Run Asia Series in October.

SG Marathon will be on board as the official event promoter for the next two years with options to extend.

SportSG made the announcement on Thursday (Dec 11) morning, just days after more than 55,000 runners took part in various categories at the 2025 edition of the marathon last weekend.

In a statement, a spokesperson from SportSG thanked Ironman Asia – the Ironman Group’s local office in Singapore – for its efforts in developing the Singapore Marathon into “one of the most anticipated runs” on Singapore’s sporting calendar.

“SportSG is committed to ensuring that Singapore’s only national marathon remains a world-class running event for local and international participants,” the spokesperson said.

“We look forward to partnering with SG Marathon to deliver a successful marathon event in the coming years.”

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The dates for next year’s Singapore Marathon have not been announced, but the event typically takes place during the first weekend of December.

Leon Lai, the co-chief executive officer of SG Marathon, described it as “a privilege” to be given the opportunity to contribute to the “growing and vibrant” sporting scene in Singapore.

“It is not just about clocking personal bests. It’s a celebration of the cohesive Singapore spirit, and a time for the community to rediscover and be a part of Singapore’s national marathon,” he said.

Standard Chartered has been the title sponsor of the Singapore Marathon since 2001. The 2025 edition marked the final one for the bank under the current contract.

A spokesperson for Standard Chartered said: “We look forward to working with SG Marathon and other partners to discuss how we can continue to support the event, as we have over the last 24 years. We are also grateful for the partnership with Ironman Group and wish them all the best.”

Major milestones under Ironman’s watch

As for the Ironman Group, it simply was not meant to be as they learned about their unsuccessful bid to continue as the race organiser.

Santoz Kumar, Ironman’s general manager for Singapore, told The Business Times that he was proud to have taken the event to new heights over the past decade.

During that time, the Singapore Marathon achieved several milestones including the introduction of new race formats such as the 5 km category. In 2019, the full marathon was held at night for the first time.

The Singapore Marathon is currently the only World Athletics Gold Label race in South-east Asia, and the event is a multiple winner of the Best Sports Event of the Year award.

“We are incredibly proud of what has been achieved and are deeply grateful for the opportunity to have shaped the event’s legacy. We wish the new organisers continued success in building on this strong foundation,” he said.