The SBA judges said: "The sport and its audience continue to grow and the NWC2023 is now firmly established as a global sporting event of truly impressive scale. It was great to see such a positive legacy and social impact objectives. The competition achieved excellent penetration in all key territories and made a big impact. It is also a very well-structured tournament to produce as many competitive matches as possible and the overall standard continues to rise." 

WN CEO Clare Briegal explained: "This award is for everyone in the netball family. I am delighted that the 2023 Netball World Cup 2023 been named the Best Sporting Event of the Year at the Sports Business Awards. The success of the event exceeded all our expectations and was the culmination of four years of planning and hard work by World Netball, the Netball World Cup 2023 Local Organising Committee, and Netball South Africa. I would like to thank everyone involved."

Netball South Africa and the entire Africa delivered an incredible Netball World Cup that allowed our athletes to perform at their very best. The fans in Cape Town brought unparalleled energy to the arenas and fan parks every single day of the competition, while the netball family around the world all tuned in via our OTT platform, NetballPass, or on their TV’s to show their support and ensure that we surpassed the achievements of the last Netball World Cup in 2019.  

16 teams qualified for the 60-match event either through their WN World Ranking or through one of five regional qualifiers to be held in 2022. The gold medal was won by Australia, who beat England in the final, with Jamaica taking bronze. 

Highlights of the event included it having the most successful commercial programme in NWC history, while sponsorship sales were double that at NWC2019, and the rights to broadcast the matches live were sold in all the major netball nations, with fans in all other countries able to sign up to watch on the WN's NetballPass OTT platform.