BUSINESS: 532 PRACTICES
OPAP was founded in 1958 and is the leading company of the Greek gaming industry. It is an integral part of the country, showcasing continuous and consistent contribution to the socio-economic development of Greece.
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The main guideline of the program is the continuous and interactive training of the coaches, children and parents of the academies in order to:
Through the above it aspires to ensure that today’s young athletes will become better people tomorrow and that the future of Greek sports is based on solid foundations.
Children 7-13 years old
Parents and Guardians
Coaches
The program started in 2014 and is still active.
“Sports Academies OPAP” is a pioneering Corporate Responsibility program for the Greek standards that aims to instill in children the principles they will follow throughout their lives, whether they become athletes or remain friends of sports.
The program involves 128 amateur football academies, 50 amateur basketball academies and totally 18.000 athletes up to 13 years old from all over Greece.
1. Scientific support: The program stands on the side of many thousands of parents and guardians with its scientific team and offers them education and guidance in the fields of children’s psychology, nutrition, pediatrics and physiotherapy throughout the pioneering and innovative online platform “Sports Academies Online”. There the children’s parents/guardians can read articles, watch educational videos and participate in competitions related to the aforementioned pillars.
2. Coaching support:The program continuously enhance the technical training of the approximately 800 academies’ coaches by implementing online educational activities (educational videos and activities) upon the instruction of the program’s coaching teams heads in football (Kostas Tsanas) and basketball (Mixalis Kiritsis), in order to offer the best educational and training support to the children emphasizing to the their soul and emotions. Our philosophy is based on three basic guidelines concerning:
3. Safety and medical care: All athletes participating in the program are provided with insurance coverage during their training or games but also one hour before and one hour after their performance. They are also provided with full coverage of the costs for their medical rehabilitation in case of injuries.
4. Sport equipment: All academies receive on an annual basis sport equipment which aims to meet their basic needs and improve the safety and training standards of their athletes.
In 2020, OPAP, corresponding to the new environment created by the pandemic and true to its commitment to invest in youth and the future of sports, created the innovative Sport Academies Online platform. Through this platform OPAP is on the side of the 50 amateur basketball academies and the 128 football academies across Greece that particiapte in OPAP's program for youth sports.
The Sports Academies Online platform is the first digital platform fully dedicated to the needs of the 178 academies that are supported by OPAP. It is designed with themost up to date technology and responds to the needs of out times, ensuring that the children, their parents and the coaches can continue their education, remotely. Additionally the platform is a communication channel between the memmbers of the Academies and OPAP and will be a very usefull tool for the house-keeping of the academies themselves.
Τhe program that is being implemented since 2014 has achieved:
The program covers almost all of Greece since it is activated in 178 academies across the country.
