Sports sponsorship sees a shake-up as startups scale back
Once the shining stars of sports sponsorship, edtech, betting and crypto firms have gradually restricted their involvement, leaving media platforms to look for other advertisers
As the barometer for India’s advertising market, sports programming is currently facing a tough time due to the shrinking kitty of deep pocket sponsors.
Traditionally, top brands in the edtech space and crypto & betting companies have dominated sports sponsorship roles, accounting for over 60% of the market share. However, increasing regulatory pressures and insider scams and other factors have led to a collapse of the bitcoin market, with many leading firms filing for bankruptcy. On the other hand, prolonged funding winters and pressures from investors have put several other sports enthusiast startups under stress, prompting them to gradually withdraw from sponsoring mega sports events.
“The change caused more traditional brands to step into the media sponsorship domain. However, these established brands, especially the FMCG ones, are negotiating lower ad rates with television and streaming platforms,” industry leaders told e4m.
While crypto and betting firms largely stay away from directly indulging into direct sports sponsorships now, only two major players in the realm of fantasy sports remain active—Dream11 and My11Circle.
“Conversely, several startups, including Unacademy, Swiggy Instamart and Cars24 have opted out of the IPL this year, showing a marked absence from the sponsorship scene,” industry experts say.
Startups such as boAt, CRED, Upstox and Bira91 participated in IPL, but their sponsorship levels have decreased by around 40%. For instance, boAt partnered with only two teams, and FanCraze reduced its sponsorship from four teams to just the Delhi Capitals this year.
“Despite the overall decline, direct-to-consumer brands still represented over 45% of sports sponsorships in 2024,” industry experts say.
According to GroupM’s India Sports Sponsorship Report 2024, cricket, with the Indian Premier League (IPL) at its helm, contributed a whopping 87% to the overall industry spends in 2023. Slowly but firmly, other sports like football, kabaddi, badminton, athletics and more are carving their niche in the Indian sports industry, the report revealed.
India’s overall sports sponsorship market, whose size is about Rs 14,000 Cr, saw a healthy 24% growth in spends in 2023 against the 2022 numbers, the report noted. However, the media sponsorship of sports witnessed degrowth of one percent from Rs 7,553 Cr to Rs 7,494 in 2022-23.
Strong line up fuels optimism
Sports experts remain optimistic about strong growth in sports sponsorship over the coming months, driven by several high-stakes tournaments on the horizon.
Jigar Rambhia, Sports Lead, Omnicom Media Group India, opines, “Sports advertising in India is largely dominated by cricket which commands nearly 80% of total ad spends across a wide range of properties, fuelled by both legacy brands and emerging challengers. With a full calendar of cricket events year-round, I anticipate overall spends will remain steady and resilient.
