RATHINDRA BASU, IMG VICE PRESIDENT & head of India, South Asia and Regional Sales APAC, is an industry veteran fully embedded in the sports ecosystem. With 25+ years in the business, over 12 years of which have been at IMG and just under 12 years at ESPN STAR Sports, he brings to the table not just an insider’s perspective, but also a true passion for sport.
In a conversation with SportzPower, Basu offers a deep dive perspective as to what is being envisioned for the coming decade and beyond at the global sports marketing agency, now under the TKO Group Holdings umbrella.
EDITED EXCERPTS
There are two pieces in the IMG story now. One is the whole production piece, where you have to work for various leagues across multiple geographies, and for networks, streamers, audio platforms. And second is the media rights piece, which is your primary mandate for this region. Does the production piece enter into your discussions here or elsewhere in South Asia?
So just to take a step back and give you a little bit of background, because a lot of things have changed at our end. We were part of Endeavor with WME Group. Then Endeavor went back into private mode from being listed. However, TKO, in which Endeavor has a majority stake, stayed listed. And within TKO now there are quite a few companies which are housed. So there’s WWE, there’s UFC, there is IMG. There is On Location, which is our premium sports hospitality division, and there is PBR (Professional Bull Riding).
So there are these five main pillars within TKO. We have actually redefined ourselves, in the sense that we have made a very fundamental shift, and that’s all being spearheaded by Adam Kelly, our president. We are trying to get away from a purely transactional business and have now evolved into a full service, embedded partner for a client or a federation.
Which means the company is now rightly placed to provide strategic advice and end-to-end delivery.
You could say that. Over the last few years, this process had already started. Adam had already started that. And now, after the TKO transaction got over and we formally became part of TKO, this has now become like almost part and parcel of our DNA. What that means is we now have quite a few capability centres. So production is IMG’s Studios business. It’s just named as that because, in addition to live production, we also have a healthy amount of programming, or content creation, which could be documentaries, which could be surround programming.
We have the Rights business, we have Consulting. We have our Channels business, which is Sport 24. And then there is the Event Management Division and also Brand Partnerships, and, of course, Digital as well. So with all these capability centres, what we are telling our clients and everybody else is that, with today’s media consumption and media habits, the landscape is constantly changing and evolving and we are well-equipped to cater to all their requirements.
So the pure consultancy model is no longer the core strength.
This, you would know, is also something which broad-scale consultancies have also faced recently in India. Gone are the days when they would just come in and do an early deal and give some advice, give a massive presentation, a report, and then suggest some five, six things to restructure the business and walk away. Nowadays, people are saying we need you to have more skin in the game. So if you are giving us advice or if you’re telling us to do something drastic in some way, shape or form, to improve our bottom line or top line, then you have to stick with us and see that entire process through and actually show us the sort of results.
Take the rights game. Rights competition has intensified. Rights fees, in case of, let’s say, cricket has gone through the roof. There is a lot of consolidation. But more importantly, today’s clients, whether it’s a federation or whether it’s a customer like a JioStar or Sony, are no longer focused on just a transactional approach. They want the agency to do more. They want the agency to be a part of their DNA and work almost like a division or a department within their organisation, and be a part of their targets, their business perspectives, their business imperatives and so on.
This is the way we approach a client when we meet them. Whether it is CONMEBOL, or, let’s say, Wimbledon (All England Lawn Tennis Club), The R&A, Euroleague Basketball, United States Tennis Association, Saudi Pro League, Major League Soccer; across various sports, this is what we do. We go and sit with them, and our approach is that we want to partner you across our capability centres, each of which can start working with you and help you meet your organisational objectives. And that has gone down well; people are saying this means you are now more seriously involved with us, and just not, you know, selling something, getting a paycheck and then running away and clearing a commission. So that’s the new IMG in a nutshell.
So how does that engagement work within the context of the Indian market, what with all the challenges that are embedded therein?
Look the challenges have always been there, right? There are some new ones now. I mean, India, our market, is completely dominated by one sport, which is cricket. And it’s not like as if there aren’t any challenges in cricket either. I mean, you must be reading all about the IPL stories coming up, which is, I guess, now in its third cycle or fourth cycle. So you are aware of how it is from our perspective. I think we are far stronger now. We are far better-rounded in terms of capabilities. Buying media rights, we have been doing that, you know, that’s, that’s my day job, right? Whatever we have, whatever we own or represent, whether it’s a Wimbledon, whether it’s a US Open, whether it’s The Open championship golf, or whether it’s, you know, Asian Tour, Euroleague Basketball, UFC, WWE – they are now our sister company – we help them as well. And all that work is still ongoing; we speak with all the broadcasters and everything, that’s one part of it.
So you are putting the new capability centres in play.
That’s right. I’ll give you a few examples. Three or four years back; this is just after the pandemic ended and people started getting back into offices. Major League Baseball came to us and said, we have a plan to look at a few different markets, and we want to bring in baseball from a grassroots level and start doing some work. Can you, as IMG, help us? And India is one such market we have identified. So we did a consultancy project at that time with MLB. We told them that baseball, while it has a bat and gloves and a ball, the similarity with cricket probably ends there because the whole concept of the game, the format is very different. So there is a very good chance if you educate people properly about the sport, and not just, you know, come in and try and sell the rights to the World Series. If you invest in a few years, bring in coaching, look at grassroots, approach schools, and then work with a broadcaster who can amplify what you are doing at a grassroots level through its medium, then there could be a story. And it also culminated in JioHotStar coming in as a partner. This was actually Viacom18, before they became JioHotStar. They said, yes, if it’s like an investment, yeah, it’s worth taking a punt. It’s worth trying out. So JioStar still remains a partner for MLB, and we also told them that, in addition to working at the grassroots, can you create some content which could be interesting and engaging? And with the help of our Studios team, we created a three-part documentary series on how baseball has changed in India.
Then we decided not to restrict ourselves to India. So, we are currently in discussions with a football league which wants to be set up in a neighbouring country. We have advised the Bangladesh Cricket Board for their T20. And these are pure consultancy opportunities. Sometimes there could be a transactional sales angle attached to it, but it need not necessarily be the same.
We have worked with golf in India. We are currently working very closely with the PGTI on how to develop the sport in India. While the PGTI Tour is the main one, there is also ‘72 The League’.
You’re working with Kapil Dev…
Kapil is extremely open-minded. And he’s openly said as well, that as long as Indian golf improves, I’m open to as many leagues as possible, which I thought was a massive statement from somebody who’s actually seeing a rival league come up, if I can use the word rival.
Golf, I think, with the people at the helm, is doing good stuff, The 72 League as well as IGPL. But those are the leagues. I’m also focused more on the PGTI tour itself. Because, while the 72 was a six-day event, the PGTI tour is across the entire season. But looking at a non-transactional, strategic relationship, it’s my hope and dream that I get to work with someone like Kapil directly. The PGTI is also linked to international tours, and through the European tour, through the Asian Tour, where IMG works very closely with them. So there is already a linkage whenever there is an international tournament happening in India.
But the value proposition which Kapil has already brought in, it’s fantastic. The hard work both he and the CEO Amandeep (Johl) are doing is incredible. And the results are showing. There’s a tournament almost every other week, the tournaments have good prize money. They’re well-funded. There’s sponsorship. People are coming back to watch golf when these tournaments are happening, and the biggest thing is the quality of players. You can see the pool of Indian golfers develop, and it takes time.
From our perspective, we like what’s happening on motorsport, in rugby, in chess, in volleyball, but it’s not a very large palette that you have to work with. Who do you feel are the good, forward-thinking, federations?
The biggest example would be Rugby Premier League. I think that Rahul (Bose) being there, and you very rightly said, he’s extremely passionate, and that’s exactly what we need. I just saw announcements that the second edition is also coming up, I think they are doing a very good job. I think the Prime Volleyball League, which is run by our mutual friend Joy Bhattacharjya and Tuhin (Mishra, Baseline). I think that has done quite well. PVL has done very well. I’m very optimistic.
It’s a warm, positive story, which is building, as you rightly said in volleyball, golf, rugby, chess.
What’s your view on motorsport?
I think the challenge with motorsport is it’s like a little bit like football, which means that there are geographical areas within the country where the sport is very popular. Motorsport rocks in South India. But there are vast areas where you would struggle to find true fans of motorsports.
We have a different take. Which is that you should look at India like a continent, and view the catchment areas like a continent and which are the countries in that continent where a sport or game will have legs, and then you focus on that. India is called a subcontinent for a reason so, except for cricket, one shouldn’t be wasting energies on this pan India hope.
Absolutely right. I mean, if you take away cricket, and kabaddi and football to some extent, I think at the next step, you immediately go into regional level for various sports. Yes, there always will be challenges. As you said, we are a subcontinent. And therefore we have different languages, different cultures and subcultures. And some sports resonate in some places and some don’t. I think the focus has to be horses for courses. Don’t automatically assume that every sport has to have a national footprint from day one. And if you can take away that thinking gap, and look at how to develop a sport, maybe focus on the core audience, the core participants, and then use that to build the funnel, and then go into larger sports fans, and then try and bring them into the funnel. That’s, I think, the way forward and the way to go.
By the way, you haven’t mentioned padel and pickleball, the two new sports which I think, from participative viewpoint, have actually taken off.
Again, some of these new sports, will have teething problems. We have seen this happen, not just in India, but across the world. New sports, new federations, they are all trying to find their feet, sanctioning who controls it, the establishment of a governing body. You know, it takes a little bit of time. Remember, these sports all started off more from a participation viewpoint. Even today, you have, you know, apps like Huddle and companies like Rulo, who are now setting up pickleball courts at the rate of knots in every big city in India. And people like you and me are playing irrespective of age. It’s very much like, I would say, like cycling in India. A lot of people participate in the sport. A lot of people play the sport, and that brings in a lot of affinity from a viewership or a fan following perspective. So I would say, you know, these new sports, will take some time.
Taking a long view, how do you see the market, evolving?
That brings me to the next 10 years. We are in 2026, and 2036 is the year when India is bidding very seriously, I hope, for the Olympic Games. And you have in the midpoint the Commonwealth Games in 2030. So what we are looking for is cricket coming into the Olympics in 2032 in Brisbane, Australia (after its re-entry at LA28). So you could imagine that cricket should be getting a run, and then 2036 will be next. So you have basically three Olympic Games where you’ll see a focus on cricket, hopefully both men’s and women’s. That’s a big thing that completely brings a new flavour when it comes to India and the subcontinent and all the big cricket-playing nations.
And I think on a broader scale, if you take cricket aside for a second, I’m sure the government has started allocating resources, creating a 10-year plan on how to build, not only infrastructure, so that the event is done well, but also look at which are the sports where India already has a pipeline of talent. So how to give them exposure, the TOP scheme and so on and so forth? How to get them even better as the years go by, so that by the time these big events come to fruition, our medal chances go from the single digit medals we’ve had in the past to hopefully moving into the double digits. So that for me is a transformational opportunity in these next 10 years.
And speaking from IMG’s perspective, will you, as the South Asia head, have the budgets to also get into it. What I’m asking is, from the TKO HQ, are they fully sold on to this whole new vision?
Yes. This is Adam’s (Kelly) vision.
Let’s circle back to your day job as it were, which is the media rights mandate. What is up for renewal and what is locked in?
We do have long term deals. So if you look at cricket, we have deals locked in with Cricket South Africa, We also do the SA20, which we were involved with right from its inception. That is also locked in with JioStar. We have consulted for Major League Cricket in the US. We’ll have to again discuss what happens 2027 onwards. The 2026 MLC season will also be on JioStar. We have worked with ICC pathways events in the past, when we had our sister organisation, IMG Arena, and sold the rights to FanCode. We have a three-year deal ongoing in motorsports, which is MotoGP, with Eurosport (linear TV) and FanCode (digital). And we have a deal with Eurosport for NASCAR.
If you look at tennis, we have long term deals with Wimbledon and US Open; these are the two we represent. We have recently done both with JioStar. We have also recently done a multi-year deal with FanCode for ATP, and very soon, we will be coming to market with another big premium tennis property, which is the WTA Tour rights. Those rights are going to be available from 2027 onwards. We also work very closely with our sister organizations, namely UFC and WWE. Netflix has done a global 10-year deal with Netflix. There is UFC with Sony. That’s a multi-year deal.
If we were to look at golf, we work very closely with the Asian tour and with the European tour. The R&A is one of our big clients. The Open Championships, which will happen in July, is something we always focus on. That’s very big on our golf calendar. We also own and run quite a few events like the HSBC Women’s World Championships, which happens in Singapore, the Blue Bay Invitational, which happens in China, and similar such events.
From a production perspective, with Barney Francis heading our global production business worldwide, we have seen spectacular success. Case in point is Apple’s Major League Soccer foray, and IMG did the production on behalf of MLS for Apple, so that’s a fascinating case study. And similarly, there would be Saudi Pro League, where I think a lot of insights and a lot of understanding from the Apple experience helps Barney and the team do some exceptional work. They are doing production, and we also represent their international rights. So that’s another deal which we have done with FanCode.
There seems to be a trend where countries in the subcontinent are looking at acquiring rights in a more aggressive manner.
That’s correct. What I’m also seeing recently is that some markets, like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, are also now looking at individually spending monies. As you remember in the past, Indian broadcasters would traditionally pick up subcontinent rights. In Pakistan, for example, esport is gaining traction. Similarly, in Bangladesh, we are seeing a few of these broadcasters or channels coming up and asking for content. Same in Nepal as well. Sri Lanka to a smaller extent, especially when it comes to rugby.
Any new properties in the pipeline.
We have a new and very exciting property of Zuffa Boxing coming from TKO. So basically Dana White and Nick Khan, from UFC and WWE, and Ari Emanuel and our senior leadership got together and came up with pro boxing delivered on the lines of the UFC model. This got launched in January this year. We’ve had about three or four fights. That is a property we are very bullish about.
And there’s also Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. That’s a new property which we are going to be bringing to market. That’s on the fight sports side.
So, yes, lots of stuff we have. We are very proud that way. We have about 250-plus rightsholders we work with across and sometimes, you know, you have to take a step back and realise the magnitude, and this is why we are probably, I think, the biggest global sports marketing agency. We are very proud of that fact, and the way we navigate our relationships and the way we are reinventing ourselves, as to say, into this new IMG.
