‘The world considers India as the single largest market for sports’

The world considers India as the single, biggest opportunity in sports because the country has a huge and diverse market for the sports industry to grow, said Joy Bhattacharjya, CEO, Prime Volleyball League, at the inaugural e4m-GroupM ESP Let's Play: Sports Marketing Summit, held in New Delhi on Wednesday.

“Be it football, basketball, or tennis, all the sports federations are now thinking of possible ways as to how they can crack the Indian market. We look at ourselves (India) as poor, but the rest of the world regards us (India) as the biggest opportunity in sport”, Bhattacharjya added.

The topic of the panel discussion was- ‘Marketing of a Sport: Fan Engagement for the Next Generation’. During the discussion, experts shared insights on the fast-changing landscape of sports marketing and the evolution of brands in the Indian sports industry. The panel discussion was be moderated by Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom, South Asia. The panellists were Ankit Wadhwa, Co-founder & CEO, Rario, Tenzing Niyogi, CEO, Ultimate Kho Kho2, Joy Bhattacharjya, CEO, Prime Volleyball League and Saumil Majmudar, CEO & MD, Sportz Village. The discussion started with Khemka asking the industry leaders to share their insights about the sports industry and its growth over the years.

The panellists opined that a strong emotional connection between a sports player or the club and their fans, lead to increased brand loyalty and a positive perception of any brand. They echoed the same sentiments that the sports industry has a lot of potential in India and right minds can make it a booming industry in the years to come.

Talking about the sports market in India, Joy said, “We’ve done a bad job in grabbing the opportunities, getting them together and doing it the right way. I think this is the biggest challenge in the future. India has all the potential, there are international federations waiting to come, but somehow, we are not able to manage it”.

Saumil Majmudar, CEO & MD, Sportz Village, shared interesting insights around the same and shed light on the importance of sports for kids. He said letting kids do what they are passionate about can really help the sports industry thrive in the long run, giving the country genuine sports fans. “Let the kids do what they are passionate about, and that will translate to fans, into big stars and revolutionise the entire sports ecosystem,” Majmudar asserted.

“It's the reality that sport has to connect with the kids. So, with so many kids around, the future fans are right there. The main challenge is that kids are not engaging with sports because they are not getting quality sporting experiences when they play. Sports has an extremely high competitive win-at-all cost theme to it, and therefore it's exclusive. Also, many kids are told sport is not for them, which translates into them not becoming a fan of any sport, despite their interest. So, with this our future fans are nowhere in the picture,” Majmudar said.

Tenzing Niyogi, CEO, Ultimate Kho Kho, spoke about the sports club culture which leads to better fan engagement and shared insights on the sports scenario in India. “If you have any sport as club culture in any country i.e., if that one particular sport has a club culture, it is bound to be successful, because the bottom of the pyramid is very heavy”.

Niyogi further added that a strong emotional connection between a sports player or club and their fans leads to increased brand loyalty.

Ankit Wadhwa, Co-founder & CEO, Rario, spoke about the current scenario of fan engagement in the country. He said the engagement is unfortunately limited to watching the sport on TV. “What we’ve seen over the last few years is that there is a second screen companion that has come in, which forms a great popcorn to the TV. You are either playing on one of the gaming apps while you are watching the sport on TV, or you are looking at statistics and numbers and analysis. This is where fan engagement ends,” he said.

“Fan engagement is not the fan engaging with the sport, fan engagement is the fan engaging with another fan, and then engaging with the sport, having a conversation about the sport,” Wadhwa added.