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Chelsea Football Club claimed the first victory of the new season over rivals Manchester United after confirmation that the clubs official website, Chelseafc.com, was named the overall winner at the inaugural SportBusiness Top 100 Ultimate Sport Websites Awards.

As well as fighting off tough competition from next weekend’s Community Shield opponents, Chelsea also finished ahead of the likes of BBC Sport, Sky Sports, Cricinfo and the NBA.

The honour follows recent success for the club’s digital arm, Chelsea Digital Media. Chelsea TV was nominated for two awards at the Broadcast Digital Awards last month, picking up a ‘highly commended’ in the Best Specialist Channel category.

Developed and hosted by Perform, the UK-based digital sport and entertainment specialist, Chelseafc.com was re-vamped last year and features a range of cutting edge technology. The site includes an innovative feature allowing fans to personalise their experience with news feeds and chat threads; a first for an official club website. Other features include a scrolling fixtures application to keep up to date with forthcoming games, as well as bespoke areas of the site for overseas fans and four different language offerings.

The awards are based on the results of a new report from the SportBusiness Group on the business of sports websites, which provides analysis and case studies of the very best sites from around the world.

All nominated websites were judged across six categories: content, community, style, monetisation, partnership activation and new fan acquisition and awards were given to the highest scoring websites in each. Chelseafc.com was awarded the overall prize having accumulated 108 points across all the categories.

Perform was also briefed to drive e-commerce to the club through the new site. This incorporates an innovative online retail store, as well as the ability to become a member of Chelsea FC online. A free e-membership offering exclusive content including player interviews, and even providing the chance for fans to ask players questions in live web chats, has also been developed to help drive traffic to the site.

Casimir Knight, Managing Director at Chelsea Digital Media, said:

“This award recognises the increasingly important role that our website plays in the business of Chelsea Football Club. Our online operation is hugely important in developing our international fan base and makes a major contribution in terms of our communication with fans, our partnerships and our ticketing operation."

Oliver Slipper, joint CEO at Perform, said:

“We set out to create a superior website to help Chelsea engage with their fans and drive e-commerce to the club. At Perform, we always strive to be at the forefront of digital development and this award confirms that Chelseafc.com is leading the way. We will continue to work with Chelsea to develop the site and look forward to maintaining an innovative service.”