Sports sponsorship registers significant growth during 2018

Sports sponsorship grew by 12 per cent to Rs 7,762 crore in 2018 as compared to the previous year, according to a report. The report by ESP Properties- the entertainment and sports division of GroupM noted that cricket has gained the ground thanks to IPL and widen the lead over the rest of the sports.

"While an overall level of the growth of on-ground sponsorship was 20 per cent, cricket witnessed a momentous upsurge of 34 per cent with IPL," it said. It said that athlete brand endorsement value in 2018 saw a 22 per cent growth.

"Of the Rs 482 crore spent by brands on sports stars acquisitions, 81 per cent was accounted just by Indias most popular sport. Two cricketers alone, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, pulled in 66 per cent of all athlete endorsement monies spent by Indian brands last year," it said. Kohli leads from the front touching an endorsement value of approximately Rs 200 crore.

Central Sponsorship contributed to revenue of more than Rs 600 crore in 2018. "IPL franchise fee, amounting to approximately Rs 291 crore, ceased to be valid in 2018 rendering a year-on-year comparison irrelevant in that area, netting off this difference, contributing to the 12 per cent growth," it said.

The IPL team sponsorship fared better in 2018, touching Rs 300 crore, witnessing a growth of a significant 20 per cent. The report noted that 85 per cent of all ad expenditures in sports happened on TV in 2018.

"Digital medium grew at 44 per cent as it was triggered by Hotstar and Sony Liv and platforms which continued to drive adoption and carved a niche for itself," it said. La Liga 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, it noted.

"With huge digital grounds well behind viewership trends, digital media should grow disproportionately in the future as a wider viewer base will attract more ad revenue, it said. Kabbadi too, it noted, had a good year in 2018, registering a growth of 31 per cent over the previous year in on-ground sponsorship.

There will be a significant rise in sports leagues and tournaments since IPL has inspired other sports leagues such as Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), Premier Badminton League (PBL) and India Super League (ISL). From the IPL team sponsorship seeing a growth of 20 per cent or for the first time ever to Kabaddi registering a growth of 31 per cent 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, monopolising consumer attention and advertising money," ESP Properties business head Vinit Karnik said.