Rajiv Gupta, MD and senior partner, Boston Consulting Group, says monetisation of a league is proportional to its performance and for that one needs to have a strong media revenue stream, event-management skills, talent and infrastructure. He cites the example of PKL. "PKL had strong founders in Mashaal Sports and Star, and they attracted solid investors who invested in the teams. So, the media and event bits were taken care off. Star also ensured the experience created on air was top notch. The franchisees made sure they groomed the right kind of talent. Finally, the infrastructure started coming in after a couple of seasons when the viewership started to pick up," explains Gupta.

According to Vivek Singh, joint MD, Procam International (organisers of the Mumbai and Delhi marathon), barring cricket, the spectator model hasn't worked in India. The reason for that, according to him, is that league owners have tried to force fit the sport just because it is successful in other countries. "Sports is about passion and one monetises it by doing a league. It can't be the other way round. Kabaddi has passion and connection, but owning a team now has become prohibitively expensive." Singh feels the franchise fee of most leagues is on the higher side and the value generated doesn't equate with the money spent.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has been in India since 2011, however, it has refrained from launching a league in India. According to Rajah Chaudhry, country head, NBA India, the plan has been to first create adequate interest in the sport before investing in a league. "A challenge most leagues other than cricket have faced in India is the right kind of talent. We decided to first build talent pathways by partnering with Reliance Foundation for the Junior NBA programme, we also launched basketball schools, and made the NBA academy available to Indian kids. The idea is to make India a basketball playing country."

NBA India has till date has trained 12 million school children in India. In the last five years, it has also sent 20 children to U.S. universities to play basketball. The model has been to partner with corporates through their CSR programmes and train grassroot talent.

Advertiser Interest

In the 2023 edition of IPL, broadcaster Disney-Star and Viacom18, both of which had the streaming rights, found it difficult to sell inventory. While Disney-Star had hoped to sell its inventory at ₹17-18 lakh for a 10-second ad spot, and ₹34-35 lakh for the playoffs, Viacom18 charged ₹6.5 lakh for connected TVs and ₹200 CPM (cost per million) for 1,000 impressions for other video ads. However, according to media planners, both struggled to sell their inventory.

So, does this indicate waning interest in cricket?

Not really, say analysts. Cricket is a religion in India and Disney-Star is known to have sold 80% of its inventory at ₹10-13 lakh for a 10 second spot even before the ICC World Cup tournament commenced. Advertisers, however, have started to complain about clutter in cricket. "Brands have started looking at non-cricket sports. Most of them have a herd mentality and end up roping in men cricket stars. However, they are realising they are blowing crores with not much RoI. It's like putting money in a multi-star movie where you get limited screen time," points out Tuhin Mishra, co-founder, Baseline Ventures.

A title sponsorship deal for a property such as Prime Volleyball, for instance, costs ₹14-15 crore. The Tata Group paid ₹300 crore to become the title sponsor of IPL. Though cricket does give brands the reach with close to 800 million consuming the sport, the RoI that sports like kabaddi, volleyball or table tennis offer are several notches higher, says Ronnie Screwvala, founder, U Sports (which owns U Mumba kabaddi team, U Mumba TT and Mumba Masters in the Chess League). "It's a law of diminishing returns. You can't pay double the ad spot. It makes no sense if I paid ₹10 lakh a year ago for a 10 second spot on IPL and now I am paying ₹15 lakh." He expects emerging sports to contribute 30-40% to a company’s revenue kitty in the next couple of years.

"Not all brands can afford IPL. It makes it unviable from an RoI perspective, therefore money is beginning to get diverted to a less-watched property, which generates more RoIs in terms of ad spends," agrees Chandrashekar Mantha, partner, Deloitte India.

In fact, a lot of national brands such as Hero MotoCorp, RuPay and Amul are allocating a significant amount of their advertising budgets on sports outside of cricket. Hero MotoCorp was the title sponsor of the Hockey World Cup earlier this year, as well as the title sponsor of ISL. The auto major also supports golf and motor sports. The company is supporting 30 budding boxers at the Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation. "These strategic partnerships are tailored to offer crucial resources and guidance to emerging athletes, encompassing comprehensive training and holistic development," explains the company spokesperson.

Similarly, dairy major Amul has started spending close to 20% of its advertising money on sports such as hockey, football, volleyball and kabaddi. "We were one of the first brands to support the Indian Olympic contingent back in 2012," says Jayen Mehta, MD, Amul. The company has doubled spends on sports outside of cricket in the past couple of years. "We don't overspend on cricket. Every sport has a following in a particular state or region. If you advertise on multiple sports, you can reach out to multiple audiences," says Mehta.

Even for D2C brands non-cricket sports make immense sense. Ankit Nagori, founder and CEO, Eat Fit, invests 80% of his advertising money on cricket, but his media plan comprises a host of local cricket events such as the Maharaja Trophy organised by the Karnataka Cricket Association. "The intent behind local events is to build a strong association between sport and Eat Fit," says Nagori. "In terms of value for money, emerging sports is a strong category. It may have limited reach, but it can get a decent RoI." Eat Fit has partnered with Bengaluru FC as well as PVL.

Yannick Colaco, co-founder of sports streaming platform, FanCode, says most advertisers focusing on non-cricket sports have a clear plan of building association with the followers of those sports. "If you are able to capture a sport like golf and build on it, the ability to stand out and build brand associations with consumers is much stronger," he says.

Brands advertising on non-cricket sports, according to Colaco are not there for the reach. "Advertisers investing in rugby, basketball or hockey hardly talk about buying spots. It's about an association, about how their brand can build affinity or get the message across the audience which consumes these sports."

Brand Endorsements

According to the GroupM ESP report, sports celebrity endorsement saw a 20% jump in 2022, with endorsements in emerging sports growing 30%, and cricket gaining 18%. Mishra of Baseline Ventures claims a large number of brands prefer to support talent from emerging sports as it gives them ownership of the sport, unlike cricket where they are one among many.

The total endorsement value involving cricketers in 2022 added up to ₹637 crore, 85% of all sports, and 18% growth over 2021. As many as 381 deals involved cricketers, three-fourth of the total count. In fact, the average deal value involving cricketers is 1.8 times that of athletes from emerging sports. However, the silver lining is that there were 124 deals in sports other than cricket, delivering a total value of ₹112 crore.

With UNSDG goals laying emphasis on diversity, brands have increased their endorsement deals with women athletes. In fact, cricketer Smriti Mandhana and badminton star P.V. Sindhu command a higher price than most national-level male cricketers. "Enabling our women athletes who have the potential to reach podium positions is the direction we want to take," says Neelendra Singh, MD, Adidas India, which has signed up boxers Mirabai Saikhom Chanu, Lovlina Borgohain, table tennis sensation Manika Batra, long-jumper Shaili Singh and 100-metre hurdler Jyoti Yarraji. Sports such as volleyball, kho kho and kabaddi, on the other hand, have over 40% interest from female audiences, another reason why brands are looking at supporting them.

There's a sports ecosystem developing outside of cricket, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. Companies need to stay the course for the actual growth story to unfold.

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