Case Study: Aston Villa Football Club achieves 24/7 threat detection and NIST alignment with eSentire

How Aston Villa Football Club partnered with eSentire to consolidate their cybersecurity strategy, achieve NIST framework alignment, and gain 24/7 threat detection and response capabilities to protect their ambitious growth in the Premier League

Aston Villa Football Club, a Premier League club with a small IT and security team supporting rapid growth, needed stronger cybersecurity to protect sensitive player, staff, and fan data, meet UK/EMEA and Premier League security requirements, and gain round-the-clock visibility across a complex Microsoft-based environment. The club turned to eSentire and its MDR services, including MDR for Microsoft and MDR for Log, to close security gaps that its internal team could not cover 24/7.

eSentire implemented continuous threat detection and response, log monitoring, and a NIST Cybersecurity Framework assessment with a structured 3-year roadmap to improve maturity. The result was a significant increase in Aston Villa’s NIST maturity score from a 45% baseline, 100% scores in endpoint hardening and email security on the Premier League’s security baseline platform, and fast containment of phishing and business email compromise attempts, helping Aston Villa build a more resilient security operation.

Aston Villa Football Club

Carl Maycock

Head of IT