IPL unmatched in valuation, but Pro Kabaddi sparked India’s league boom: GMR Sports CEO

GMR Sports is betting big on non-cricket sports.

For GMR Group, co-owner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Delhi Capitals, India’s sports story is not just about big money — it’s about momentum. While the IPL may have set the gold standard for valuations, it was the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) that proved how Indian audiences could rally behind an indigenous sports.

IPL is the most successful model not just in the country, but globally, Satyam Trivedi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GMR Sports, told Moneycontrol. "Globally, I don't think any league has created multiple valuation that IPL has created or scaled the way IPL has scaled."

But it is the PKL that has inspired many sports leagues in India, he said.

"PKL has inspired so many sports leagues. Currently, there are 14 leagues in the country and most of these leagues derive their inspiration not from IPL because they know that IPL is a different setup, is in a different league, is in a global league. They derive their inspiration from PKL. They think that if an indigenous sport like Kabaddi can do so much for their country, even we can do it."

GMR Sports owns franchises including UP Yoddhas in PKL, Delhi Capitals in IPL, Telugu Yoddhas in Ultimate Kho Kho, Dubai Capitals in International League T20, India Capitals in Legends League Cricket and Seattle Orcas in Major League Cricket.

IPL versus PKL

On IPL versus PKL, Trivedi said investments in the two leagues cannot be compared. "There is no competition because the volumes are very different and IPL and PKL are at a very different scale. IPL investment matured way back. As for PKL, we were not among the first set of franchises. We were among the last six franchises. Yet, the franchises who came in later are also doing well. We are very happy with both the investments."

GMR Sports began its sports investments with cricket and IPL. Trivedi noted that, 2016 onwards, they started looking at different properties because there was a growing interest in non-cricket sport. "The youth started showing great interest in non-cricket sports."

Emerging sports

Along with kabaddi and kho kho, the company recently backed a new sports league--- Rugby Premier League (RPL).

After concluding the first season, Trivedi thinks that the sport has great potential.

"I am specifically talking about Rugby sevens (Rugby sevens is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves.) It is great on ground property, entertainment property with a shorter format. It is an Olympic sport played in more than 140 countries."

He added that the Indian rugby ecosystem is also doing great. "The women's team is among the top 10 teams and the men's team is 12th or 13th."

Tridevi said that RPL is GMR Group's contribution to India's story in the Olympics. "Hockey is the only team game that we have been participating in Olympic. If India (rugby) team is doing great today and with this privatisation, if India is able to do better, that will be our contribution. I am sure that will happen because in the recent rugby season which concluded in June, the players got an opportunity to train under the world's best coaches from New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. They also got an opportunity to play with the world's best players."

More opportunities

GMR Sports is looking at more opportunities. "We are never saying no to any opportunity from infrastructure space, league space to sports tech. We want to have a presence in the 360-degree sporting ecosystem as we think that the coming 30 years will be India's story in sports," Trivedi said.

He added that GMR Sports is one of the core businesses in the group. "Just like we look at airports and energy, we look at sports and that itself speaks of the ambition of the organisation."