Brand Rishabh Pant hits a sixer, endorsement value to zoom over 30%

Rishabh Pant's brand value to soar.

Playing on the front foot, cricketer Rishabh Pant is drawing all the attention both on the field as well as off it.

The formidable batsman and wicket-keeper who sports more than 15 brands in his endorsement portfolio, including the likes of Thums Up and Dream11, looks set for a sixer in the world of advertising after putting up a great show across formats - from T20 to Test matches.

Standing at a brand value of $15 million, Pant is likely to see his endorsement fees zoom 30-40 percent from Rs 3.5-4 crore in the next six to 12 months, as brands zero in on the 27-year-old swashbuckling cricketer.

Wonder what's driving this uptick?

It's both his on-field performance as well as the salience he brings to the brands.

Pant recently joined hands with sports and athlete brand management consultants Anant Arora and Indranil Blah. His off-the-pitch portfolio was earlier managed by JSW Sports and Collective Artists Network.

Set for top slot?

According to Blah, Pant has the potential to become the number one brand in cricket.

"I see enough potential in Rishabh to say that he will become the number one brand in cricket after the retirement of Virat Kohli, if we get our communication right and if he continues to perform on the field," Blah told Moneycontrol.

Pant's Test performance is being called a fairytale comeback in Test cricket with him matching MS Dhoni's feat of six Test centuries.

"Just look at the prices he is expected to command at the IPL auction. His brand value will be going up significantly," said Blah, who ranks Pant among the top five Indian cricketers.

Late last month, the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises had announced the list of players they would retain in the upcoming season. Pant didn't feature on Delhi Capitals list, although he has been associated with the franchise for around nine years.

With Pant on the block for the IPL auctions on November 24 and 25, big bids are on the cards as most of the IPL teams look for Indian players who can captain the team. Pant captained Delhi Capitals in IPL from 2021 to 2022 and in 2024.

Along with the IPL auction, Blah said, the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India, starting November 22 will be an important tournament. "The next three to four months will be big for him."

A formidable power

Blah, as Pant's brand custodian, wants to focus on his performances and his quality of being relatable to all.

"Test matches define a cricketer. For Pant, whether it was his series in England which is one of the toughest places for a batsman, the historic Gabba heroics or even the New Zealand series that we unfortunately lost but people knew that when Rishabh was batting, there was still hope. He's a man to be relied on when the chips are down and this he has proven at the age of 26-27. This needs to be highlighted a lot more," he said.

Pant is also relatable to all, he said. "From a housewife or a young kid to an aspiring cricketer, from a metro or from a smaller town, people love this guy (Pant) because he's relatable and authentic."

While Virat Kohli's brand is aspirational, Rishabh's is more like that of Dhoni's. These are the facets of brand Rishabh Pant that Anant and Blah want to bring out.

He also sees little competition for Pant after Sharma and Kohli hang up their boots. "The big names like Virat Kohli are almost on their way out. And then you look at the next league of under-30 cricketers. There are few who have proved themselves. So, if a brand is looking at a celebrity who works across the country they won't have too many options apart from the likes of Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill."

The brands kitty 

Going forward, the idea is to increase the number of brands Pant endorses and identify those that resonate with what he stands for, Blah said. "Anant and I signed Rishabh around three weeks ago. And conversations had started maybe a month before that. We reached out to Rishabh and had a few interesting conversations in terms of where his brands are and what is our vision for him going forward."

Pant endorses brands across athleisure, health and fitness, media broadcast, banking and finance, education, beverage and fantasy gaming. "Men's grooming is a big category. Then FMCG products which I don't think he is endorsing right now. So, there are quite a few categories that we want to target," he added.

But endorsement is just one part of his off-the-pitch portfolio.

Investment interest

"He's very smart off the field. He understands the value of equity-based deals and he understands the value of investments. So, that's a significant area of focus for us. He's open to investing in potentially a new category or a new startup," Blah said.

In September, Pant acquired a 2 percent stake in TechJockey.com, a growing online marketplace for software solutions, for Rs 7.40 crore.

"He understands the investment space because he's actually spent a lot of time in terms of understanding how the market works, how the stock market works. His investments depend on what the trends are, what the categories are, and how the founders are. It could be a great product and a great category but if he feels that he cannot see eye-to-eye with the founders on objectives or values, he'll walk out," Blah said.

One category Pant is staying away from is edtech but he is exploring the finance space.

While he keeps abreast of the latest developments, he will be relying on the guidance from Blah and Arora for future investments. "Yet, Rishabh will do his own research and ask enough questions," he said.