MUMBAI: When Gaja Capital, the city-based private equity firm, provided funding Rs 650 million to SportzVillage, the sports and fitness education venture back in October 2015, little did it know that it would play a part in changing the landscape of amateur sport in India.
SportzConsult, the sports management arm of SportzVillage, teamed up with its new sister company, KOOH Sports to launch the world’s first city-level, franchise-based, multi-sports competition called Mumbai Games. Dubbed as ‘Mumbai’s very own Olympics’, it was held from 15 December 2018 to 20 January 2019.
The first edition of the competition attracted more than 10000 participants across the city and 16 sports namely badminton, basketball, bowling, football, chess, carrom, judo, gymnastics, tennis, athletics, taekwondo, shooting, skating, squash and table tennis. The vision of the tournament is to create a sporting culture gradually across the country, regardless of results and competition. This is where every amateur got an opportunity to showcase their hidden talent.
When the company figured out the format of the tournament of such a scale, it divided Mumbai into eight ‘areas’ and subsequently forming IPL-style franchises or contingents such as Northern Knights, Western Warriors, Thane ThunderBolts, Flying Falcons, Midtown Mavericks, Navi Mumbai Ninjas, Central Challengers and South Mumbai SeaHawks.
Sumeet Das, who is spearheading SportzConsult’s marketing and planning efforts, told SportzPower on the final day of the competition that the company ideated about the event for the first time at the start of 2016, seeing their experience in developing sport at at grassroots levels in schools and colleges.
Gaja Capital’s financial support proved to be the shot in the arm required for SportzConsult to initially hold a small-scale, pilot event in Navi Mumbai and Thane to test its potential popularity. It only went bigger with its plans in 2018 having the event’s ambassadors, marketing plans, approvals all set by then.
Das opined that the biggest challenge for SportzConsult was zeroing in on multi-sport venues across the city. Traditionally, Mumbai has lacked such facilities. Ultimately, 15-16 venues were finalised with two venues allocated to each contingent as their ‘home’ so that there is a sense of belonging and competitiveness at the same time.
Following 6-7 months of planning, the Mumbai Games was vigorously promoted from July-November 2018.
Das said that it was heartening to see the highest numbers of participation in football, badminton and tennis. The USP of the event didn’t just lie in its on-the-field competitiveness, but also events enhancing off-the-field camaraderie where people bonded over sport with fun and frolic.
The marketing head confirmed to SportzPower that SportzConsult had spent approximately Rs. 10 million entirely for marketing and promotional purposes for the event. It opted for a mix of TVCs, digital and outdoor campaigns, with Facebook and WhatsApp proving to be the most effective. Alongside KOOH Sports, it used posters outside schools they have been associated with over the years to spread awareness to people of all ages, gender and levels of talent and reduce its budget at the same time.
Das added that a print campaign was deliberately avoided seeing how a video featuring Pullela Gopichand promoting the event, went viral on social media. Gopichand is one of Mumbai Games’ brand ambassadors and governing council members, giving the initiative a huge push in the first season itself. Through Viren Rasquinha, another big name who has a wealth of experience playing and honing talent in Indian sport, Mumbai Games could affiliate with the Maharashtra Olympic Association.
Roping in former shooter Anjali Bhagwat and former Indian cricket team physiotherapist, John Gloster worked in SportzConsult’s favour too. Gloster designed and conducted the HealthyMindz Fitness Test across venues prior to the event, which enabled participants to determine their fitness levels depending on the sport of participation through metrics such as flexibility, agility, endurance, upper body strength, lower body strength and so on.
Such initiatives also included the Injury Prevention Camp and Sports Parenting, with the latter guiding parents towards making their child love sports for life.
For revenue, The Mumbai Games relied on participants’ registration fees as well as the fees paid by the owners of all eight contingents to possess ownership rights. Although there weren’t any sponsors this season but in the future, Das is bullish of their interest increasing in the coming seasons as Mumbai Games has already signed partnership deals with big brands such as Golds Gym, Bisleri, Scrabble and Auric. Golds Gym promoted the event across all its branches in the city which resulted in many of its members adding to participation numbers and gaining discounts.
The marketing head also revealed that talks are also going on at present with angel investors to fund the initiative’s expansion. The concept will be taken to other top metro cities such as Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and New Delhi this year itself.
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections could potentially delay the expansion by 2-3 months, but the break will be used to mull about bagging more sponsors. Das commented that in 2020, SportzConsult will focus more on venturing with the tournament into Tier II and III cities with KOOH Sports.
The company is confident of the platform being the most sought after for helping amateurs become professionals in sport as an additional outcome besides creating a sporting culture within the next five years. It won’t be long before Mumbai Games become the biggest talent hunt not just in the city, but across the country.
