Why Ravi Krishnan is betting on IPs as sportainment comes of age

From a frenzied celebration—marred by tragedy—over Royal Challengers Bangalore’s maiden IPL title win after 18 years, to the gripping ongoing Test series against England, one thing is clear: sports today have transformed from being merely spectatorial to deeply experiential. Fans stream global leagues on the go, binge behind-the-scenes content, and follow athletes like cultural icons. For Ravi Krishnan, founder and CEO of Abler Sports & Entertainment (ASE, pronounced “ace”), this shift marks India’s moment to evolve from a consumer to a creator in the world of sportainment.

“Everyone is chasing sponsorships, but true value lies in owning the platform, the experience, and the story,” Krishnan tells Fortune India. A veteran of India’s sports business landscape—from the Sahara Cup to leading Rajasthan Royals in IPL’s debut season and launching Lakmé Fashion Week—Krishnan started ASE to build globally scalable, original sportainment IP.

A veteran of IMG South Asia and former vice-chairman of the Rajasthan Royals during the IPL’s launch, Krishnan has been at the forefront of India’s sports and entertainment business for decades. He was instrumental in landmark projects like the Sahara Cup, which brought Indo-Pak cricket to neutral venues, and played a key role in establishing Lakmé Fashion Week as a marquee event on India’s fashion calendar. Today, he leads ASE, a venture that aims to blend sports, media, culture, wellness, and entertainment into a unified business platform.

ASE operates across six business verticals: Engage, focusing on gathering and leveraging fan data; Advisory, offering strategic consulting services; Partnerships, dealing with rights and revenue optimisation; Consumer, covering merchandising and licensing; Media, creating non-live content; and Alive, dedicated to live events and experiences. At its core, ASE’s mission is to help clients—ranging from brands and athletes to sports organisations—shift from being mere sponsors or participants to becoming true owners of intellectual property, building sustainable commercial value in the process.

While Lakmé Fashion Week has maintained the same title partner for over 25 years, building strong brand ownership, IPL, while far larger in value at over ₹48,000 crore, has changed title sponsors five times, showing that renting sponsorship rights brings huge exposure but less lasting ownership of the event’s brand equity. Krishnan argues this difference reflects the power of “rights owning” over “rights renting.”

ASE’s business model is built around this principle. “On the events we own, it’s risk and reward. We own all the revenues. We take all the costs. But we own the value of the IP,” Krishnan explains. Globally, sports and sportainment represent a $600 billion industry—and Krishnan believes India can export its IP, just as Lakmé Fashion Week did for fashion. Meanwhile, India’s own sports industry is valued at ₹16,000 crore and growing rapidly.

“99% of IPL fans will never go to a stadium. But they can be monetised if you know them well. Teams boast 200 million Instagram followers, but maybe convert $2 million into revenue. Why not $20 million?” he asks, underscoring ASE’s focus on converting fan attention into tangible value.

Krishnan’s approach centres on what he calls the “festivalisation of sport”—combining matches with music, fashion, food, and culture to turn sporting events into immersive, monetisable experiences. A key part of this is ASE Engage, powered by Stepathlon, which captures zero- and first-party data to create personalised fan experiences and recurring revenue. “If Spotify can personalise your playlists, sports teams should tailor everything—from merchandise to match-day experiences—based on fan behaviour,” he argues.

ASE’s ambitions are global. It’s helping international players enter India—like Destination Sports Group, which manages Manchester City’s travel—and collaborating with firms like Urban Turf Solutions to develop India’s padel, pickleball, and hockey infrastructure. “That’s what I call shovels in a gold rush,” Krishnan says.

Women’s sports are a key pillar of ASE’s strategy. The company is the official fan engagement partner for the Women’s Rugby World Cup, and after seeing positive reactions from audiences, Krishnan hopes to launch a dedicated women’s division, AceW, “not as an add-on, but as a business in its own right.”

While Krishnan is focused on building, he’s also open to partnerships and acquisitions. “We’ll build, co-create, and maybe even acquire. I’m 57. My goal isn’t to be king, it’s to be kingmaker,” he says. His preference would be businesses that align with ASE’s vision, especially in tech, engagement, or regional reach, because at the end of the day, it’s about accelerating value. As of now, ASE is backed by multiple investors and advisors, including former leaders from IMG, Accenture, and GroupM.  

Reflecting on the IPL—a league he helped launch—Krishnan offers both admiration and critique. “It’s a phenomenal platform, but it could be so much more,” he says. He believes that overdependence on central revenue and a lack of innovation in fan engagement have made some teams complacent. The next phase of growth, he suggests, will come from stronger IP ownership, storytelling, and direct-to-fan monetisation.

“Sport, culture, data, and purpose are in a convergence zone, and we are here to create trends--not follow them,” says Krishnan.