RCB forecasts exponential growth: anticipates fivefold surge in India's sports industry: Team VP

In the centre, Rajesh Menon, Head & Vice President of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) during a press conference in M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Image: RCB

The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) is making significant investments in the growing sports market in India. The team, through its innovation lab dedicated to exploring various aspects of sports, including education, is organizing a Leaders Meet: India for stakeholders in the sports industry worldwide on November 29 and 30.

"The vision is to advance sports in India, and there are multiple aspects to it. One is sports education, and we are in discussions with several sporting universities. We have a partnership with IIT Madras for sports technology. The third aspect is the knowledge summit, where over 400 speakers will participate," said Rajesh V Menon, the Vice President and Head of RCB.

Menon explained that the summit aims to cover all sports, providing a learning environment. "If a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Manchester United comes and discusses how they have built their fan base, that would be valuable knowledge for any Indian league aiming to grow. The summit will be a platform for learning," he added.

Menon projected that the sports industry, including apparel, media rights, equipment, among others, would grow five times from $27 billion in 2020 to $100 billion by 2027. "Sports media was $1 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach around $13-15 billion by 2027. As everything is expanding, sponsorship will also grow. Currently, on-ground, team, and celebrity sponsorship is estimated to be around Rs 15,000 crore, showing an increase of 40-50 percent from 2021."

Regarding global investments in the Indian sports industry, Menon highlighted CVC Capital Partners, a Luxembourg-based private equity and advisory firm, investing over Rs 5,000 crore in an IPL team (Gujarat Titans) as a notable example. Other investments include Manchester City holding a 65 percent stake in the Indian Super League (ISL) football team Mumbai City FC, and the Spanish football league La Liga investing in on-ground football infrastructure in India. "There is tremendous interest in India," Menon noted.

Laura McQueen, Managing Director of Leaders in Sports, the organization partnering with RCB to organize the summit, stated that they have been conducting global events across sports for about 15 years. "We continually explore exciting areas of development, leading us to come to India. Our goal is to stimulate conversations that will contribute to the growth of the industry, bringing international representation to India."