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  • GroupM’s ESP Properties releases ‘Business of Indian Sports Playbook’

    Opportunity Knocks for Sports in India

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vinit Karnik

    GroupM’s ESP Properties released its ‘Business of Indian Sports Playbook’ in the backdrop of Covid-19. The playbook is a guide for multiple stakeholders like broadcasters, fans, sponsors, right holders, and the government, who play a vital part in the sporting ecosystem.

     

    It notes that the sports sponsorship industry in India has been growing at a CAGR of 12.8 per cent over the last 10 years, with the overall sports sponsorship market in India crossing the mark of Rs 9,000 crore for the first time, highlighted the GroupM ESP report on the business of Indian Sports in the wake of the crisis.

     

    Further, it states that mobile gaming will be the biggest gainer in the post Covid-19 era, with 20 per cent increase in the monthly active users during the lockdown in India, with daily average session going up to 45 minutes and frequency of these sessions increasing to 5-7 per day.

     

    The report also states that the situation is an opportunity for sports in India. India is a sporting nation in the making with the sector showing strong growth in the last 6-7 years. At a world level, everything is a standstill. It therefore needs to focus on athletes and performance of sports and have a strong vision for 2024 and 2028 Olympics. Keeping the fans engaged is an important KPI for a rightsholder and  broadcaster.

     

    Government partnerships in the sports realm are the need of the hour, it states. Government and sponsors have worked together as Public-Private-Partnerships.

     

    Talent needs to make full use of the lockdown to enhance relationships with fans via social media. Live talent interaction on social media has caught the eyes of a large fanbase since the fans need to see some action happening between the talent instead of no-action. Gaming & virtual sports should definitely be in the consideration set for active fan engagement, it noted.

     

    Here’s the executive summary:

     

    Business of Indian Sports COVID-19 Outlook Context – Sports sponsorship industry in India has been growing at a healthy CAGR of 12.8% over the last 10 years, with overall Sports Sponsorship market in India crossing the mark of INR 9,000 Crore for the first time

    1. 2020 was a year of Tokyo Olympics, T20 World Cup, Euro 2020 along with major tournaments like Vivo IPL. With most of the sports tournament either cancelled or indefinitely postponed, YOY growth / estimation for year 2020 pre COVID-19 will not hold true.

     

    – While there are many speculations around Sports to be conducted for TV audience only with no fans or limited fans in the stadium, anything is a possibility at this point in time. But from an audience appetite standpoint, fans are hungry and waiting for live sports.

     

    – Sports is a universal language that connects people regardless of their origin, background, religious beliefs, economic position. Sports brings us together. Once the dust around COVID-19 settles down, sports will play a pivotal role in helping fans deal with the emotional stress, post-pandemic trauma and give people at large reasons to look forward to.

     

    – This situation is also an opportunity for sports in India. India is a sporting nation in the making with the sector showing strong growth in the last 6-7 years. At a world level, everything is a stand still. We need to focus on our athletes and performance of sports and have a strong vision for 2024 and 2028 Olympics.

     

    – Mobile gaming will be the biggest gainers in the post COVID-19 era. We’ve already seen 20% increase in the monthly active users during the lockdown in India, with daily average session going up from 30 min. to 45 min. and frequency of these sessions increasing to 5-7 per day as against 3 sessions per day during pre COVID-19. Internationally, we’ve also witnessed rightsholders toying with gaming and virtual sports as a concept to keep athletes and fans engaged in the lockdown times (for example: UAE Tour launching cycling event namely ‘UAE Tour Mubadala Ramadan Virtual Challenge’ on virtual cycling platform Zwift). We see more of these pushing the envelope of virtual and real-world merger.

     

    – In a parallel world, esports has been trying to emulate traditional sports for some time now to reach a larger and more mainstream audience. It had already become a billion-dollar industry pre-COVID pandemic with tournaments witnessing arenas filled with screaming fans and sponsors increasingly injecting monies in the ecosystem globally. With the lockdown in place and millions forced to stay at home; esports has shifted to online format filling up the void for many of the LIVE sports’ hungry fans worldwide.

     

    Further breaking the playbook down, here are the key takeaways:

     

    I. The post COVID-19 time is expected to define “new normalcy” which in turn will have a telling effect on all aspects of business including sports

     

    II. Keeping the fans engaged is an important KPI for a rightsholder & broadcaster. The lockdown times could be a perfect opportunity for both to make heroes off their fans

     

    III. Broadcasters should toy around with various non-live sport-ainment formats as the fan acceptability quotient is high right now. Innovative content formats need to be thought of between the talent and broadcaster to make the most out of a fan’s interest in some sporting action.

     

    IV. Government partnerships in sports realm is the need of the hour. Government & sponsors have worked together beautifully as Public-Private-Partnerships. Post COVID-19 time will call for many such initiatives

     

    V. Talent needs to make full use of the lockdown to enhance relationships with fans via social media. Live talent interaction on social media has caught the eyes of a large fanbase since the fans need to see some action happening between the talent instead of no-action. Gaming and virtual sports should definitely be in the consideration set for active fan engagement during current times taking a cue from how cricket world cup winner Ben Stokes engaged with his fans through F1 esports Vietnam Grand Prix.

     

     

  • Value of ground sponsorship for cricket fell to Rs 464.7 crore in 2014 from Rs 508.3 crore in 2013 while team sponsorship fell from Rs 389.2 crore in 2013 to Rs 347.8 crore, even as the sports industry grew 10 per cent.

    Cricket losing its charm, sponsors bat big time for hockey, football, says GroupM ESP report

    By Pritha Mitra Dasgupta & Ravi Teja Sharma

     

    Cricket, which has ruled the hearts of millions of Indians for years, may be losing just a little bit of its magic. In 2014, other sports — football, tennis, hockey and even kabaddi — gained in popularity, according to a report by GroupM ESP, the entertainment, sports and content arm of media agency GroupM.

     

    Value of ground sponsorship for cricket fell to Rs 464.7 crore in 2014 from Rs 508.3 crore in 2013 while team sponsorship fell from Rs 389.2 crore in 2013 to Rs 347.8 crore, even as the sports industry grew 10 per cent.

     

    Ground sponsorship is the money central sponsors in any sport pay to the organisers of a tournament. Team sponsorship is the money each team earns from selling the real estate on its apparel. The report compares calendar years. The 10 per cent growth in the sports industry, from Rs 4,372.5 crore in calendar year 2013 to Rs 4,809.69 crore in 2014, is due to the emergence of new tournaments.

     

    Indian Super League for football, two tournaments each for hockey and kabaddi as well as the International Premier Tennis League, among others. The size of the sports industry by revenue includes a number of components: ground and team sponsorships, franchise fees, endorsements and on-air revenues of advertisers.

     

    For cricket, the numbers seem low in 2014 because India played host to fewer international games than in the previous year, says Vinit Karnik, national director (sports and live events) at GroupM ESP. “But it is a fact that there was a price correction in the payouts to BCCI from title rights holders in 2014.”

     

    The Indian cricket team’s sponsorship price dipped to Rs 2 crore per match in 2014, the amount Star agreed to pay, from Rs 3.33 crore per match in 2013 that Airtel was paying. The downward trajectory in the level of interest in cricket can be gauged by the fact that only two companies — Star and Micromax — showed interest in obtaining title rights compared with the last bidding cycle when over 10 contenders were in the fray.

     

    Other sports are starting to attract serious money. Football, for instance, saw a 227 per cent year-on-year increase in the total value of team sponsorship from Rs 26.5 crore in 2013 to Rs 60.3 crore on the back of the new Rupert Murdoch and Mukesh Ambani-backed Indian Super League. Other sports leagues — kabaddi, tennis and others — saw a massive jump of 1,064 per cent in team sponsorship, from just Rs 7 crore in 2013 to Rs 74.5 crore in 2014.

     

    GroupM ESP says in the report that overall team sponsorship across all sports rose a healthy 14 per cent from Rs 432.7 crore in 2013 to Rs 493.6 crore in 2014, despite the 10.6 per cent fall in cricket team sponsorship. And while noncricket sports together accounted for just 10 per cent of the team sponsorship pie in 2013, it has now risen significantly to just under 30 per cent, a startling shift in the course of a year.

     

    IPL STILL GOING STRONG

    IPL, the Twenty20 cricket tournament, still remains a strong franchise with Pepsi committing Rs 80 crore a year to bag the title sponsorship of the league, despite the controversies it has sometimes seen. After a dip in revenues in 2014 because of the Lok Sabha elections and the consequent shifting of a part of the league to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), IPL’s broadcaster Multi Screen Media is expected to make close to Rs 950 crore from the ongoing 2015 edition.

     

    While Pepsi might have grown on the back of non-cricket sports properties globally, here in India, it is one of the biggest spenders on cricket.

     

    Ruchira Jaitly, senior director-marketing (beverages) at PepsiCo India, contends that cricket hasn’t taken any hit. “It’s just that the pool has expanded because of the emergence of other sports in India,” she says. However, as other sports gain in popularity, Pepsi is seriously investing in kabaddi, soccer and hockey. “This is also because international quality of programming has arrived in India,” Jaitly says.

     

    “While cricket continues to be the mother ship, and will continue to be big, brands are slowly opening up to the potential of other sports, especially brands that don’t have massive budgets,” says Indranil Das Blah, CEO of sports management firm Kwan.

     

    For big brands with national campaign plans, cricket and Bollywood are still the preferred platforms, he says, but for smaller brands one can use that money a lot more intelligently by associating with other sports. However, in terms of numbers or reach, no other sport will even come close to cricket in the next five years.

     

    “But the bridge is certainly forming. Five years ago, there were no options, three years ago there were a few options but now there are loads of options. So that gap is slowing being reduced between cricket and other sports,” he says.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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