India’s sports sponsorship market valued at INR 51.9 billion

According to auditing giants KPMG, the market for sports grew by 6.7% in 2015

According to a new report released by auditing giants KPMG in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Indian sports sponsorship market for 2015 grew by 6.7% to INR 51.9 billion.

The report titled ‘The Business of Sports’ released during the Summit on Business of Sports and Entertainment held in Mumbai on Wednesday also revealed that TV viewership in India rose by 30% over the two-year period between 2014 and 2015.

KPMG’s Partner and Head (Transport, Leisure and Sports), Jaideep Ghosh, who was speaking at a panel discussion, said, “Online consumption has increased significantly.”

He added: “Even though cricket still occupies a share of 50-60% across parameters like viewership, other sports are also catching up. Female viewership is also increasing with it being as high as 20-30% for some sports.”



Ghosh also gave the example of Spain’s La Liga changing its timings to suit viewers in the subcontinent as an example of the growing significance of sports in the region.

The panel included Karan Ahluwalia, President and Country Head of Yes Bank, Vinit Karnak, Business Head of GroupM, and Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director of Madison World.

Ahulwalia stated that Yes Bank is bullish about non-cricket sports and are looking at growth among other sports in the country.

“Indian Super League (ISL) is the third most watched sports league in the country. With the next generation, we will truly be a multi-sports nation,” he said.



Whereas Karnik opined that though corporations are investing in sports other than cricket, they don’t necessarily take a long term view with most of the sponsorships being opportunistic. “One needs to invest for at least 5-10 years to get something out of it,” he said.

However, Balsara said that the rights of the 1987 Cricket World Cup, also known as the Reliance Cup for sponsorship reasons, had been bought for INR 41.7 million.

“At that time, the Indian advertising market was around INR 10 billion, whereas right now it is around INR 500 billion,” he said. “So, in this context, the business of sports has not grown that much.”



Balsara added: “Promoters would do well if they choose their benefactors with care. And benefactors should be far-sighted or they will end up doing more damage to the sport. A lot of the league and franchise owners are in it for the profit. They must have the orientation and risk appetite to wait that long.”

The panellists also agreed that any sports required the support of the media to become successful. One example that was given was India’s win at the 1983 Cricket World Cup, which happened alongside a rise of television penetration in India.

Speaking about the success of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), Ghosh said that some of the reasons for its popularity were great packaging of the content and a pent-up demand as the country moves towards a multi-sports mind-set.

This article initially appeared on exchange4media.com