As the Indian Premier League (IPL) juggernaut rolls on and guarantees to seize the creativeness of tens of millions of followers internationally for the seventeenth 12 months, the T20 spectacle additionally continues to nearly single-handedly drive the Indian sports activities trade.

According to the most recent version of the ‘India Sports Sponsorship Report’ printed by GroupM ESP, the trade has swelled 6.5 instances for the reason that IPL growth in 2008. Its income from sponsorship, endorsement, and promoting spending has grown from Rs. 2,423 crore in 2008 to a whopping Rs. 15,766 crore in 2023. Remarkably, that is the primary time the trade has breached the 15,000-crore mark.

The bulk of the heavy lifting has been achieved by cricket, which contributed an astounding 87 per cent (Rs. 13,701 crore) of the overall trade spends in sports activities in India, recording a wholesome 13 p.c development from 2022 (Rs. 12,115 crore).

This huge upsurge within the commercialization of the most well-liked sport in India was largely pushed by the IPL, whose model worth has ballooned by 433 per cent since its inception in 2008.

“While the IPL system has grown in brand valuation by 433 per cent, the learning curve gained by the industry through this ultra-competitive cricket league has had a snowballing effect on Indian sports. The past decade has witnessed a six-fold increment in the industry, including cricket and emerging sports,” says Vinit Karnik, head of leisure, esports and sports activities at GroupM South Asia.

The development in spending in cricket was sparked by the extraordinary bidding struggle between Viacom and Disney, who secured the digital and TV rights, respectively, for the IPL for Rs. 23,758 crore and Rs. 23,575 crore for the 2023-27 cycle. In sharp distinction, Star had bagged each TV and digital rights for Rs. 16,347 crore for the 2018-2022 interval.

The media rights sale for various platforms resulted in a per-match valuation of Rs. 118.5 crore for the IPL, second solely to the National Football League (NFL), whose corresponding determine stands at Rs. 141 crore.

Zooming into the granular information, the expansion in sports activities spending in India was spurred by sponsorship and endorsement, which grew by 24 per cent every, whilst media spending, which accounts for promoting on TV, digital and print content material, fell by one per cent.

Cricket once more loved the lion’s share in sports activities sponsorship spending, contributing 79 per cent to the overall income of Rs. 7,345 recorded in 2023 and rising by 32 per cent over 2022. Even although floor sponsorship maintained its conventional sway, accounting for greater than 40 per cent of the overall proceeds from sponsorship spending, it solely grew by six per cent from 2022 to 2023.

In distinction, franchise charge registered a 60 per cent development in 2023, and the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) performed a major half, fetching the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) a income of Rs. 4,669 crore.

The IPL continued its outsized dominance in 2023, accounting for greater than half (over Rs. 3,000 crore) of the sponsorship spending on cricket. The 10-team format, launched in 2022, continued to pay dividends as a better variety of matches contributed considerably to proceeds from central, crew and franchise spending.

The Indian males’s cricket crew, too, raked within the moolah in a packed worldwide calendar, which included the ODI World Cup, as IDFC First Bank and Adidas got here on board as title sponsor and package sponsor, respectively.

Athlete endorsements, which grew on the identical tempo as sponsorship in 2023, once more noticed cricketers draw back from the pack considerably. Out of the 536 endorsement offers that went to Indian athletes in 2023, 380 have been snapped up by cricketers alone.

Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma collectively signed up for greater than 30 manufacturers, whereas Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and KL Rahul additionally made important positive factors. In whole, endorsement offers made cricketers richer by 27 per cent in 2023 in comparison with the earlier 12 months, with the game having fun with an 87 per cent share in endorsement spending.

The solely class of sports activities spending that witnessed a degrowth in 2023 was promoting on sports-related content material. Even right here, cricket held its personal, registering an equivalent share of 94 per cent in 2023 in comparison with 2022.

Despite a fall of Rs. 59 crore in spending in 2023, media spending nonetheless accounts for the most important share (over 47 per cent) in sports activities commercialization within the nation.

It can be on this phase the place the tectonic shifts, facilitated by advances in know-how, are most seen. While TV promoting nonetheless contains greater than 50 per cent of the overall media spending, it fell by 16 per cent in 2023, even because the share of digital swelled by 40 per cent.

This shift was seen throughout IPL 2023 too, the place TV adverts spending declined however digital spending grew by 25 p.c. Print promoting continues to lag, witnessing negligible development – going from Rs. 2 crore in 2022 to Rs. 4 crore in 2023.

The most important positive factors have been made by franchise charge income within the sponsorship bracket and digital income within the media spends phase. Interestingly, each shifts in market dynamics have been facilitated by the appearance of the IPL – which launched the franchise mannequin again in 2008 and witnessed separate gross sales for TV and OTT (Over-the-Top) rights in 2023.

“The IPL and Team India fixtures are eagerly awaited sporting events for people across demographic profiles, enthralling the fans with the finest quality of on-field action.

The famous cricketers in our country are household names – they are brands unto themselves! These remarkable athletes have the power to connect with the Indian consumers, which makes them worthy ambassadors for some of the most influential brands in the country,” Prasanth Kumar, CEO of GroupM South Asia, says.

Investment will naturally comply with the followers, who overwhelmingly appear to be hooked on the T20 blitz. Going by the team-wise TV and digital information, IPL franchises similar to Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore individually trump the numbers of the Indian Super League (ISL) as a complete on most metrics similar to TV attain, TV rankings, search volumes, and social media platforms similar to Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram.