Leander Paes back in play as a franchise co-owner, bets on tennis growth in India

Paes said: "Tennis has given me so much and I am what I am because of this amazing sport. I am putting my heart and soul into this. I want to be as involved as I can."

Former tennis player Leander Paes has made his first investment in a sporting league and no surprise when it came to the sport he chose -- tennis. Paes now co-owns the Bengal Wizard franchise in Tennis Premier League (TPL), a tournament that began in 2018 and was launched by Kunal Thakur and Mrunal Jain.

Along with Paes, actors Taapsee Pannu, Sonali Bendre Behl, and Rakul Preet Singh own franchises in the league.

More than 60 percent of urban Indian residents consume sport regularly, Paes said.

"While cricket gets the largest slice of the content pie, the next most popular sports among urban Indian sport subscribers are football and tennis. The numbers for sports content subscriptions are increasing at a rapid pace, that is showing an increase in interest for tennis."

Batting for tennis 

Paes said the interest level in non-cricket sports in India is on the uptick among fans, sponsors and brands.

"Sports content is being consumed with more gusto in the current day and age due to the ease with which it is available for everyone. This increased attention and viewership is showing as sponsors and brands are invested in being part of the journey right from the get-go. Fastest finger first – no one wants to miss the bus here," he added.

The league will soon announce dates for a player auction for the new season which will take place in December.

Gearing up for his new franchise, Paes said that while Bengal Wizards is in talks with brands for sponsorships, the more important thing in his book right now is to put together a strong team at the auction.

"Once we have that aspect taken care of, the sponsors will surely sit up and take note."

He said: "Tennis has given me so much and I am what I am because of this amazing sport. I am putting my heart and soul into this. I want to be as involved as I can."

Said Thakur: "The new franchise, the Bengal Wizards, was added because we saw a lot of demand from the tennis fraternity from the East for a team representing this region. All India Tennis Association (AITA) felt that we need to promote tennis in that region."

New format

Paes said that the South Club in Kolkata is the most iconic tennis venue in the country that has hosted the most number of Davis Cup matches in India and even produced legendary Indian tennis players such as Jaidip Mukerjea and Zeeshan Ali to name a couple.

In addition to expanding to newer regions with new franchises, Paes said that the shorter format will attract more audience.

TPL follows a 20-point format wherein every match has a total of four games and each game in the fixture is worth 20 points.

"Almost every sport is going through various phases of innovation. If you look at cricket with the shorter formats and the Pink Ball Test, or with discussions of a shorter game in football, similarly the format at the TPL is extremely interesting. And that in turn will surely lead to tennis giving cricket competition in terms of dominating the way sport is consumed in the country," the sports star said.

Tennis viewership 

Broadcaster Sony, which has been airing many tennis  games, noted that the sport has a sizeable following in India, with close to 100 million viewers who watched tennis on TV during 2022.

The TV network has seen reach for tennis grand slams like the US Open and Roland Garros (French Open) grow over 5x and over 3x, respectively, in the last two years.

Expecting more viewers for TPL, Jain said that they estimate a 2x growth in number of sponsors as well sponsorship revenue in 2023.

"Brands like Yonex, Chroma have been in association with TPL from inception. However, we are looking at brands that have synergy with the players. We have avoided categories like aerated drinks," he said.

Jain added that the TPL franchises are close to breaking even and are seeing corporate backing for them in the form of sponsorship.

"The Indian sporting ecosystem is growing at a rapid pace across the board and we can see that in the way there are so many takers for sport content of all kinds. What’s helping is that Indian athletes are performing well at international events, and there is more investment overall domestically, all of which together has really shone the spotlight on non-cricket sport," said Paes.

Share of emerging sports, which include non-cricket sports, grew from 23 percent in 2021 to 25 percent last year, according to a 2023 report by media agency Group M. On the other hand, the share of cricket in sports sponsorship dropped marginally to 75 percent last year from 77 percent in 2021.

Even smaller cities are taking up tennis, said Thakur. "We are launching a TPL app which will have affiliation with 100 top academies from all over India and we will have 600-700 grassroot level tournaments across India," he said.