It’s now been twelve months since arrt Integration became a major sponsor of Scottish Squash Rackets Club (SSRC), one of the oldest and most respected squash clubs in the country. Our advertising board has been up at the club for a year now, and it felt like the right time to talk about why we got involved in the first place.

It might seem like an odd pairing on paper. One side builds integration systems for some of the world’s biggest banks. The other is a members’ squash club in Maryhill, Glasgow, with four courts and a bar that’s seen a lot of hard matches. Scratch beneath the surface, though, and the fit makes sense.

Why SSRC

SSRC was founded in 1934, which makes it close to 90 years old and, by its own reckoning, the best squash club in the west of Scotland. That’s not just marketing spin either. The club sits on a 4.9 star Google rating, and anyone who’s played there will tell you it’s less about the courts and more about the people. Members talk about it as a proper community, not just somewhere to book an hour of squash.

That community reach goes well beyond the membership roll. SSRC runs coaching sessions every Thursday for players of every level, fields six Gents/Open teams and a Ladies team in the West of Scotland leagues, and has recently welcomed close to 150 children from eight local primary and secondary schools through its doors. That’s a club actively building the next generation of players, not just maintaining the current one.

Our own Alistair Mackenzie, co-founder of arrt, plays at the club regularly. That’s really where the sponsorship started. It’s easier to back a place properly when one of your own founders is turning up week in, week out, rather than sponsoring somewhere from a distance.

Why arrt

arrt Integration was founded by Alistair Mackenzie and Tony Bennett on a simple idea. Connecting complex financial systems shouldn’t take the months it usually does. Our tagline is “where innovation meets integration,” and we spend most of our working lives helping banks and financial institutions modernise systems that can’t afford to break, all while adopting AI without the six month dev project that normally comes with it.

Our newest product, the Arrt Integration Brain, is a good example of that in practice. It connects up and speeds up a business’s internal systems, so they can control and deploy AI properly instead of bolting it on and hoping for the best.

None of that has much to do with squash on paper. But the values line up more than you’d think. Squash rewards precision, patience and turning up consistently rather than relying on one big flashy moment. It’s also a sport built on local clubs rather than global brands, run by volunteers and committed members who do it because they care about the place, not because there’s money in it. We work with major institutions across multiple countries, but the business itself is built on relationships and reputation, which is exactly what a squash club four courts wide in Maryhill has been doing since 1934.

There’s also a simpler reason. Good businesses should put something back into the towns and cities they operate in, and Glasgow is home turf for a lot of the arrt team. Sponsoring a local institution like SSRC is a small, direct way of doing that rather than just talking about it.

Why grassroots support matters more than ever

This sponsorship also feels a bit more pointed given what’s happened to squash at the top level. In October 2024, the World Squash Federation and Scottish Squash confirmed that squash will not be one of the ten sports contested at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which are being held in Glasgow. The PSA, squash’s professional tour, backed their disappointment.

That stings a bit more given the history. Squash was at every single Commonwealth Games from Kuala Lumpur in 1998 through to Birmingham in 2022, 28 years without a gap, and Scotland has actually picked up Commonwealth medals in it along the way, a gold and two bronzes. Glasgow already has the infrastructure sitting there at Scotstoun too, used for a well received squash competition at the 2014 Games. It’s been cut anyway, with organisers pointing to financial restrictions in this stripped back edition of the Games. The one bit of good news is that squash will make its Olympic debut at LA28, and organisers have given assurances that missing out on Glasgow 2026 won’t affect squash’s place in future Commonwealth Games.

None of that changes what’s happening on the ground in Maryhill. If anything it makes it more important. When a sport gets squeezed out of the biggest stages, it’s clubs like SSRC, ninety years deep in their community and coaching 150 school kids a year, that keep it alive. Big events come and go. Local clubs are what’s actually left standing afterwards, and that’s exactly what arrt wanted to back.

There’s already a real shot at redemption too. Squash has made the longlist of sports being considered for the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Amdavad, India, with the final programme due to be confirmed later this year. Nothing is locked in yet, but it means 2030 is a genuine target rather than a distant hope. Somewhere among the kids coming through SSRC’s schools programme right now could be a future Scotland squad player good enough to compete on that stage if squash gets its place back. Support today, in the form of court time, coaching and a functioning club to train at, is what gets a talented ten year old to a good enough standard by then. That’s the bit arrt is genuinely proud to be part of.

Squash is fighting on another front too

Losing out on the Commonwealth Games isn’t the only pressure squash is under. Padel has been described as the fastest growing racket sport in the world, and it’s easy to see why. It’s played in doubles, the walls do a lot of the work for you, and according to Red Bull, of the three big racket sports, padel takes far less time to learn to a decent standard than squash does. It’s built to be social and easy, and new padel courts are going up in Scotland at a pace squash never has.

Squash, by contrast, asks more of a beginner from day one. It’s faster, more technical, and takes longer to feel comfortable with, which is a harder sell when there’s an easier, more social alternative down the road. That’s not a reason to write squash off. It’s the reason clubs like SSRC, with a Thursday coaching night built specifically for beginners and intermediates, matter so much. Good coaching and a welcoming club are exactly what gets someone through the harder early stages of squash instead of drifting off to whatever’s easiest.

Good company on the wall

Our advertising board sits alongside some proper Scottish brand names at the club. Some of SSRC’s courts are named and sponsored by Optical Express, Douglas Laing whisky blends, Scallywag and Big Peat among them, so arrt’s branding has spent the last year in genuinely good company. It’s a nice reminder that sponsorship at a club like this isn’t corporate box ticking. It’s a wall of businesses, local and global, that actually care about the place.

What the sponsorship has meant

Over the past year, arrt’s support has helped SSRC keep court costs low, continue its free Thursday coaching for beginners and intermediates, and keep investing in the schools programme that’s already reached 150 young players. For arrt, it’s meant a brand presence in front of a different audience than the usual LinkedIn crowd, and a few members of the team getting back on a squash court for the first time in years. Results on that front have been mixed.

A partnership built to last

Sponsorships can sometimes feel like a logo slapped on a banner and forgotten about. That’s not what this has been. Twelve months in, arrt is still turning up, still backing the junior programme, and looking to keep supporting SSRC well beyond year one.

Squash has been quietly building character, community and competitive Glaswegians since 1934. We’re glad to have spent the last year as part of it.

If you’re a squash or racket ball player, curious about the club, or just want to know more about what arrt does when we’re not on a court, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.