Startups game for sports beyond cricket as investor interest grows

1. Startups Game for Sports
Beyond Cricket as Investor
Interest Grows
Game On! Whether it's the Rs 1,320-cr football opportunity in India or
the growing middle-class bent towards tennis, emerging businesses
never had it so good

2. Contd..
Entrepreneurs are game for tapping into the increasingly lucrative
sports sector in India. The Football Mind, a Pune based football
networking website that brings together football clubs, academies,
players, coaches, associations and fans onto a single platform, got live
three months ago. It has already notched up 5,000 users, more than
500 clubs, 200 academies and 50 football associations on its platform.
“Popularity is directly proportional to sponsorship and that helps any
sports club or association grow,“ said Pragnesh Krishnamurthy , an IIT
graduate who is chief executive and co-founder of The Football Mind.
Football presents a $200 million (about . 1,320 crore) opportunity in `
India, he said, as the country has more than 25,000 professional clubs,
three lakh players and 8.5 crore fans.

3. Contd..
The future is bright for sports startups, said Devinder Singh Bhusari,
who left his job with Indian Oil Corporation to launch tennis firm
Shaishya Edu & Sports three years ago. More people are taking to
sports not only as future profession for young students but also as
exercise for busy working professionals and even housewives, said
Bhusari, a former Asia number one in the under-14 category and first
Association of Tennis Professionals ranker from Gujarat.
The company , which clocked a turnover of `. 95 lakh in 201415, has
225-275 players round the year. Of these, 50 are business persons and
working professionals, 10-15 are housewives and the rest are students.
It has already organised two Asian ranking tournaments and about 10
na tional level tournaments of various levels.

4. Contd..
Citing a KPMG-CII report, Bhusari said tennis has caught the attention
of the middle and higher classes owing to higher disposable incomes
and share of spending on educational and recreational activities set to
increase from 5% at present to 9% in 2025, quite a few Indian tennis
icons to look up to, corporate participation and major international
events such as the Chennai Open, ITPL and Champions Tennis League
being held in India.
Tuhin Mishra, managing director of Baseline, a startup which deals in
sports marketing and licensing, said the overall sports industry in India
has grown 10% from . 4,372.5 crore in 2013 to ` . 4,806.9 crore in 2015.
“The ` global sports industry is growing faster than overall GDP and
long-term prospects remain strong,“ he said.

5. Contd..
According to Mishra, the industry has grown mainly due to the emergence of
new sports leagues such as the Indian Super League, Pro Kabaddi League and
World Kabaddi League, among others.
“We have grown from 10 schools in 2010 to 400 schools in five years,“ said
Saumil Majmudar, managing director and cofounder of EduSports, a
SeedFund-funded startup. Its growth led it to being featured in the 14th
edition of marketing guru Philip Kotler's book `Marketing Management a
South Asia Perspective' as a case study .
Bharati Jacob, managing partner of Seedfund Advisors, an early-stage
venture capital firm, said, “We are always looking for scalable ventures and I
believe sports-related ventures scale up well.“
According to other venture fund experts, startups are set to cater to auxiliary
sports services too.

6. For details and bookings contact:-
Parveen Kumar Chadha… THINK TANK
(Founder and C.E.O of Saxbee Consultants & Other-Mother
marketingandcommunicationconsultants.com)
Email :-saxbeeconsultants@gmail.com
Mobile No. +91-9818308353
Address:-First Floor G-20(A), Kirti Nagar, New Delhi India Postal Code-110015