GMR Sports expands portfolio in domestic leagues, eyes growth in kabaddi, kho kho

Sports, the co-owner of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Capitals, is betting on homegrown sports like kabaddi and kho kho. After buying a franchise in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), the company invested in a new league called Ultimate Kho Kho (UKK), which is in its debut season this year.

"Apart from cricket, we have our focus on indigenous sports. There are three indigenous sports (in India) and we are in two of them. If we get the opportunity we will invest in that (wrestling) as well," Sujoy Ganguly, marketing head, GMR Sports, told Moneycontrol.

"When we bought the team (UP Yoddhas), we never thought kabaddi would be this big and the kind of viewership it draws," added Ganguly.

In its seventh season in 2019, PKL recorded a cumulative reach of 352 million. The same year, IPL's 12th season reached 462 million viewers on TV.

However, when it comes to profitability, Ganguly said that it will take time for the PKL franchise.

"Currently we are not on a profitable venture (UP Yoddhas) because we are investing a lot in the sport. Facilities in kabaddi are not easily available so we are doing that and we think we can be profitable in the next three to five years. For kabaddi, the focus is to create talent every year. If the league can feature a new star, then everything will fall into place," he said.

To grow the kabaddi ecosystem, he said they are increasing the capacity of their UP Yoddhas Kabaddi academy, which was started in 2020 in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.

"We are investing and growing our kabaddi academy. When we started, we made a small hostel in 2020 and were catering to 50 people. Currently, there are 100 students and we are trying to increase our capacity to 50 more. If all goes well, we will even have kho kho players," he said.

For the kho kho franchise Telugu Yoddhas, Ganguly said that he would give any league three years' time to stabilise. "It is doing well on TV, so the next target we will know once we have numbers from Sony (the official broadcaster of UKK)."

While it will take time to get a handle on profitability for the kho kho franchise, Ganguly said that when it comes to advertiser interest, brands are ready to invest in homegrown sports. "We got all six sponsors including global brands like DafaNews, Octa, then Indian brands like Coromandel, SSPL, Goel TMT, Shiv Naresh... They have come in for one year," he said.

He said that the kabaddi franchise too has gotten a lot of queries from brands. "There was no impact on sponsorship revenue due to COVID (for the PKL franchise). The last two seasons were good and we have done well compared to other franchises in sponsorship revenue. For Season 9 of PKL (scheduled to take place this year), we have closed our front and sleeve (sponsorship spots) and there is a series of conversations happening (with brands). It (sponsorship revenue) would increase by 10 percent (in the ninth season), which is a good increment in non-cricket," he said.

While cricket dominates in media rights and sponsorship revenue, emerging sports that include sports like kabaddi had a significant share in India's sports sponsorship industry. In 2019, emerging sports contributed 20 percent of the overall sports sponsorship revenue of Rs 9,109 crore, according to Group M 2022 report.

On the cricket front, GMR Sports has invested in the UAE T20 league and is looking to expand international cricket investments. "The objective is to buy a franchise wherever we can as this sport (cricket) will only grow like the NFL (National Football League). The ecosystem of cricket is much larger and brings many stakeholders under one roof, which helps us to create a network in markets like UAE," said Ganguly. He also hinted at an upcoming announcement of the company's investment in an overseas cricket league.