Pickleball debut league: Brands in wait and watch mode, but star power piques interest

World Pickleball League.

Selling sponsorship slots to brands has never been easy for any sports league, be it hockey or badminton. The story is no different for the new kid on the block, pickleball, although star power has piqued interest.

In the World Pickleball League (WPBL), India’s debut league for the sport, Chennai Super Champs, the franchise owned by actor Samantha Prabhu, has attracted attention, but converting that interest into sponsorships has been slow.

"It was definitely a challenge and a lot of them wanted to wait and watch. There's been a lot of initial interest, but conversions are slow. But I feel that the ones who really want the sport to grow are the ones who have come on board," said Himank Duvvuru, Co-Owner, Chennai Super Champs.

The franchise has signed six sponsors including Satyabhama, Gataca, Apollo, 3 Sisters, Secret Alchemist and Tula.

Star power

"It helps to have a very active owner like Samantha (Prabhu). Also, the conversation was that this is not a one-week activity, but a year-long activity that we will be doing in Chennai and Tamil Nadu. We are going to be doing local tournaments in Chennai with Satyabhama and Apollo. We're going to be working with schools and colleges. We are going to do open tournaments. And at all places, we want to integrate and get the partners into this space. So for a brand it's not a one-time thing but an engagement through the year. That was the selling point," he added.

WPBL sports six franchises including Mumbai Pickle Power owned by Swiggy and cricketer Rishabh Pant. Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh along with Sudhir Mehta own Pune United. Dilli Dilwale is backed by former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar and commentator Rohan Gavaskar, along with Ankiti Bose, founding Partner at Terra-Invest.

Bengaluru Jawans is owned by filmmaker Atlee and his wife while Chennai Super Champs is owned by Samantha Prabhu.

A couple of franchisees have done remarkably well and have sold sponsorships on the basis of the owners they have, noted Indranil Das Blah, founder of AMP Sports.

"That makes a big difference because if you have invested owners, not just the brand ambassadors. While most teams are still finding their feet, a couple of teams have actually done significantly better than most other franchises. Every team has at least four sponsors. For example, team Mumbai has sponsors like Skullcandy while Pune has a clean energy company called EKA as sponsor for the front of the jersey. Between four to six sponsors is what most franchises have landed up with. Some have made a lot of money out of the six. Some have not made that much money," he said.

Top teams like Samantha Prabhu's Chennai Super Champs have clocked Rs 3-4 crore worth of sponsorship deals, with expectations of reaching Rs 5-6 crore by the second season of the league.

Other teams have secured sponsorship deals ranging from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2.5 crore for all slots.

Sponsor slots

The branding slots available on any team's jersey are across three Tiers — Platinum, gold and silver.

"Platinum is for the chest of the jersey while the gold tier includes two associate sponsors, also called co-sponsors, that are on the right chest and at the back of the jersey. Then we have four silver or affiliate partners which are your right chest, collar and two on the shorts. We also have category partners like hospitality, apparel, equipment, and physio partners. We have a couple of them (brands) who are supporting us with kitting," Duvvuru said.

The Chennai team has Satyabhama as the main sponsor, which is visible on the front of the jersey. Apollo and 3 Sisters are co-sponsors and can be seen on the right chest and back of the jersey, respectively. Secret Alchemist, Gattaca, and Tula, the associate partners, are visible on the left sleeve, under the collar and left shorts, respectively.

Dr Sudhir Mehta, Co-Owner, Pune United, pointed out the sponsors the team has locked. "EKA Mobility, Kohinoor, Mother's Recipe, Dragon Hill, Ajeenkya DY Patil Group, Sancheti Hospital, Rivulis Irrigation, and Imagine Foods have partnered with us."

Hyderabad SuperStars recently got on board actors Rakul Preet Singh and Jackky Bhagnani. In addition, KLO Sports, co-owned by sports enthusiasts Sanjay Jupudi and Srinath Chittoori are also the co-owners.

Franchises have sold sponsorship not just on the back of pickleball as that alone would not have resulted in strong sponsorship deals. Teams have packaged it with celebrity names. However, the teams that signed a celebrity last minute would have closed title sponsorship deals for Rs 50 lakh, however a team with a popular star name would have sold the title sponsorship deal for three or four times that amount, experts tracking the league, said.

Sponsorship strength

Sponsorship is the main source of revenue for both franchises and the league. Brands like PNG Jewellers, Dove, Volvo and Barclays are the central sponsors.

"Ticketing is almost insignificant because it's a much smaller arena. Capacity is 750 people per day, out of which more than half are VIPs and sponsors. They are selling 350 tickets a week. In terms of sports broadcasting today, as most people know It's not easy to get broadcast money. So, league sponsorships would make 70-80 percent of total revenue," Blah said.

At the league level, sponsorship is estimated to be in the range of Rs 10-12 crore for three to five years.

Duvvuru is expecting the Chennai team to break even by the third or fourth year.

"It's a small tournament. It's ten days, two weeks. It is in one venue. The league is ensuring that there is uniformity in handling players and logistics. Everyone is in one hotel, all the teams. Everything is centralised. So, that really helps keep costs down. The players have come from 14-16 countries and none of the team owners had to bother about visas. Everything was handled by the league. All this helps keep costs down."

The league, which is being aired on Sony Sports Network and streaming on FanCode, is expected to record around 8-12 million in viewership across platforms with advertising revenue touching Rs 100 crore, contributing one to two percent to overall India's advertising expenditure.