The Indian sports industry saw a remarkable growth of 49% in 2022 over the previous year, with spends surpassing Rs 14,000 crore. Cricket, as expected, continued to dominate the market with an 85% market share, while the share of emerging sports rose from 12% to 15%. These were two key takeaways from the GroupM ESP’s “Sporting Nation Report 2023”, which was released Tuesday.
The report covers the key highlights of the year 2022, including the Indian sports industry spends, the contribution of emerging sports, cricket sponsorship, sports celebrity endorsements, and sports media spends.
The Sporting Nation 2023 report highlights the unprecedented growth of sports sponsorship in India, with spends on-ground, team, and franchise rising by Rs 3021 crore, a whopping 105% growth from 2021, making the total sponsorship spend Rs 5,907 crore.
The report states that the overall increase in spends was due to the rise in the number of IPL matches, the addition of two new IPL teams, the ICC T20 World Cup, Asia Cup, FIFA World Cup, and the return of emerging sports events and tournaments like Pro Kabaddi League, marquee marathons, Maharashtra Open (tennis), and Commonwealth Games 2022.
Furthermore, Indian women athletes and women cricketers saw a rise, with the Indian women’s cricketers making a name for themselves on the international stage.
The report highlights key aspects of how brands are expected to approach spending on sporting events differently with the rise of OTT, and the sports industry is one of the better-performing sectors in the economy with a 14% cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR). Additionally, two big international racing events, Formula E and Moto GP, are to be held in India for the first time in 2023. The renewal of IPL sponsorships post the 2023 season, BCCI home series title and central sponsorship, along with team India sponsorship, BCCI home series media rights, and the inaugural season of Women’s Premier League last month will be the tipping point for Indian cricket, the report stated.
Overall, the rise of Indian cricket, the performance of Indian athletes and the number of emerging sports leagues have all contributed to the sustained growth that has been witnessed over the last ten years.
The report also reveals that cricket continues to dominate the Indian sports sponsorship landscape, contributing to 85% of the sponsorship spends, while emerging sports like football, kabaddi and marathon have seen a massive upsurge in the sponsorship spends, contributing to the remaining 15%.
The growth of cricket sponsorship can be attributed to several reasons, including the Indian cricket team playing almost double the number of matches, as compared to 2021. The Indian Premier League (IPL) contributed the major revenue by adding two new franchises – Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, and a full house of central sponsorship.
As per the report, the sports celebrity endorsement market in India has seen a 20% increase with total value of Rs 729 crore. Out of the 505 brand endorsement deals, 85% of the total brand endorsement value has come from cricketers. The top athletes in sports celebrity brand endorsement include Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Neeraj Chopra, and PV Sindhu.
Cricketers’ endorsements has grown by 18%, with Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, and Rohit Sharma endorsing over 30 brands each, and adding new brands in 2022. Other cricketers such as Hardik Pandya, Jaspreet Bumrah, KL Rahul, and Surya Kumar Yadav are also scoring big in the endorsement space. Neeraj Chopra and PV Sindhu continue to be leading the non-cricketing athletes endorsement deals.
The report also notes that apart from cricket leagues, hosting of several other tournaments like Indian Super League, Pro Kabaddi, the Commonwealth Games, Prime Volleyball League, and Ultimate KhoKho, along with the return of marathons and the Women’s Indian Open Golf tournament also helped in building a diverse sports content portfolio in the country bringing in more eyeballs and creating multiple opportunities.
