MUMBAI: After confirming to SportzPower back in May the dates of the inaugural edition of the franchise based Indian Boxing League, Atul Pande, managing director of sports management company Sportzlive, which owns the commercial rights to the IBL, has provided further details.
It bears noting for the record that Sportzlive is also the commercial rights holder for the Premier Badminton League.
What Pande revealed in May:
1. IBL will comprise six franchisees.
2. It will run from October 19 to November 09.
3. A caravan format, where all teams will move from one city to another during the course of the tournament, will be followed.
4. IBL will see prolific Indian pugilists, including newly-crowned Asian Champion Amit Panghal, Shiva Thapa and veteran L Sarita Devi fight, alongside foreign boxers.
5. Star Sports has been roped in as official broadcaster of the event.
6. Target is to reach 100 million viewers in the first year on television and 200 million on digital.
Speaking to Economic Times, Pande said the IBL has been re-titled ‘Big Bout, the Indian Boxing League’, and will have 18 days of fights, including 45 hours of live content. Each team will have 10 Indian boxers and four international ones, in seven weight categories. Teams will comprise 10 males and four females.
While, as earlier reported, the India territory television rights are with Star Sports, digital rights are being sold separately. “We will separately sell digital rights in India and overseas. Globally, there is an evolved digital ecosystem for fights and contact sports. Even within India, we will explore putting the fights on free-to-air regional channels to get mass reach,” Pande told the business daily.
The rights for regional television channels will be sold separately, he said.
"A lot of Indian players have already signed up for the league. We are also in process of signing up international boxers to have a mixed men and women international team," Pande told ET.
On the talent roster front, a major development is that six-time world champion and Olympics medallist MC Mary Kom has signed on for the league.
What Pande did NOT offer by way of fresh information were names of team owners, though he did inform that each franchisee will pay around Rs 40 million to run the team in the first season.
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