MUMBAI: Overall sports sponsorship in India saw a healthy growth of 12% in 2018 as against 14.1% in 2017, a report released by ESP properties - the entertainment and sports division of GroupM - avers. Sports advertising grew to Rs 77.62 billion.
Cricket has gained ground as IPL hit a maximum. While an overall level of the growth of on-ground sponsorship was 20%, cricket witnessed a momentous upsurge of 34% with IPL central sponsorship contributing to revenue of more than Rs 6+ billion ($88m+) in 2018.
IPL franchise fee, amounting to approximately Rs 2.91 billion ($43m), which ended with the tenth edition of world cricket's biggest annual property in 2017, rendered a year-on-year comparison irrelevant.
IPL team sponsorship, which touched Rs 3 billion ($44m) for the first time ever, registered a significant 20% upside over 2017.
IPL also played the star act on TV as digital moved up the ladder. 85% of all ad expenditures in sports happened on TV in 2018. Digital grew at 44% as it was triggered by Hotstar and Sony Liv and platforms which continued to drive adoption.
Emerging sports too saw positive growth signals. ISL (Indian Super League) over the years had grown into a strong property with a calendar spread over six months. Kabbadi had a good year in 2018, registering a growth of 31% over the previous year in on-ground sponsorship. This was further backed by Odisha government announcing a five-year deal with Hockey India for junior and senior men and women teams.
The year also saw Tata Motors become the principal sponsor of Indian wrestling in the non-cricket team sponsorship arena.
Also, big money continues to chase cricket, widening its lead over the rest of the sports pack. 2018 saw a 22% growth in athlete brand endorsement Value. Of the Rs 4.82 billion ($71m) spent by brands on sports stars acquisitions, crickt accounted for 81% of total outlays.
And if cricket stood in splendid isolation from "the rest" in the endorsement stakes, within the game itself, most of the moolah went to just two of the game's biggest names. Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni pulled in 66% of all athlete endorsement monies spent by Indian brands last year.
Though Virat Kohli leads from the front touching an endorsement value of approximately Rs 2 billion, Pusarla Sindhu had a momentous 2018 both on and off the court. While she created history by becoming the first Indian to win the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals; she topped the non-cricket leaderboard with 11 brands and over Rs 350 million ($5.1Mn) worth of endorsements.
Vinit Karnik - business head, ESP Properties said: “2018 was a spectacular year for the business of sports and 2019 will be another power-packed year. There will be a significant rise in sports leagues and tournaments since IPL has inspired other sports leagues such as PKL, ISL, and PBL. From the IPL team sponsorship seeing a growth of 20% or for the first time ever to Kabaddi registering a growth of 31%, factors like these have given sports sponsorship a boost. With IPL now and ICC Cricket World Cup coming up we also expect sports celebrities to be the talk of the town, monopolizing consumer attention and advertising money.”
“LaLiga signed a three-year exclusive agreement with Facebook to show all 380 matches to users in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. With huge digital groundswell behind viewership trends, digital media should grow disproportionately in the future as a wider viewer base will attract more ad revenue.
“Based on the events across various leagues, tournaments, sponsorships, and non-sponsorships, 2019 looks like a good year for Cricket and emerging sports, which will give rise to bottomless engagement with brands and sporting fans in India."
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