NEW DELHI: As the second season of the ongoing Vodafone Premier Badminton League (PBL) reaches its business end, the commercial rights owners of the franchise based tournament estimate that this year's event will generate total revenues of about Rs350 million.
This would come primarily from sponsorships and gate collections, Atul Pande, managing director of PBL commmercial partner SportzLive, told Financial Express.
Pande told FE, revenues this time around would be 75% higher than in the first season when the league earned Rs200 million.
That, however, will not be sufficient for the company to post a profit. “While we will have losses this year, the aim is to turn profitable in the third year, that is in 2018,” Pande told the business daily.
Six franchises are participating in the tournament. However, except for the winning franchise and the runner-up in the tourney, the remaining teams are expected to report losses of Rs15-20 million.
Star India, which is the league’s official broadcaster, has roped in a slew of sponsors. Telecom player Vodafone is the title sponsor while the tourney is powered by automotive firm Maruti Suzuki. Additionally, Amazon Exclusive, Bajaj Electricals and Gionee are the associate sponsors.
“LIC is also an advertiser and apart from these sponsors, seven more advertisers have been confirmed for the ad-spots till date,” FEquotes a Star India spokesperson as stating.
Pande expects more traction from the event next year as there will be two more franchises added, which will make PBL an eight team league.
“Despite being a SEC A and A plus tournament, as badminton is largely played in the urban cities, close to 2,000 people watched the matches every day in the stadium. Also, from next year onwards the number of teams will increase to 8. This means the number of matches played will increase from the existing 18 to 31, making it almost a month long tourney,” Pande told FE.
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