IPL 2026 Brand Activation: The Sponsorship Playbook Every Marketer Needs Before March 28
Key Highlights Table of Contents Why IPL 2026 Is Different From Every Season Before It {#why-different} The 2026 Indian Premier League — officially branded TATA IPL 2026 — features 84 matches, expanded from the previous format, running from March 28 to May 31. Wikipedia That expansion is not just a logistics upgrade. It is two […]
The Globalisation of Indian Sport: From Buying English Cricket Clubs to Exporting the IPL Model
Key Highlights Table of Contents In 1744, a group of English gentlemen codified the laws of cricket at the Artillery Ground in Finsbury. For the next two hundred and fifty years, the game’s administrative, financial, and cultural centre of gravity sat in London — at Lord’s Cricket Ground, in the offices of the England and […]
The Sports Property That Died: Lessons from Indian Leagues That Failed
Key Highlights Table of Contents Graveyards are where the most useful lessons live. Indian sports discourse is fascinated by origin stories — how the IPL was conceived in a rush after the ICL threat, how Pro Kabaddi made indigenous sports viable, how the HIL revival gave hockey a professional heartbeat. These are important stories. But […]
Why Indian Sports Management Needs to Stop Copying the American Model
Key Highlights Table of Contents The American Model: What It Actually Is {#american-model} Before critiquing it, it is worth understanding what the American sports management model actually looks like in full — because the parts most commonly imported into Indian sports discourse are selectively chosen, giving a distorted picture of the whole. The American sports […]
The 10 Worst Mistakes Indian Sports Brands Make (And What to Do Instead)
Key Highlights Table of Contents Mistake 1: Buying a Logo Placement and Calling It a Sponsorship This is the foundational error from which most other mistakes flow. A brand signs a deal, gets its logo on a jersey, a boundary board, or a broadcast title card — and stops there. The cheque is written. The […]
From Disability to the Podium: Why Para Sports Is India’s Most Underinvested Sports Category
Key Highlights Table of Contents The Athletic Achievement That Deserves Commercial Respect Let’s begin with the numbers, because they are extraordinary. At the Rio 2016 Paralympics, India won 4 medals. Nineteen athletes competed. The nation’s Paralympic presence was modest, its commercial attention minimal, and its public profile close to zero outside the circle of para […]
Why Indian Sports Teams Need Their Own OTT Strategy (Not Just a JioHotstar Deal)
Key Highlights Table of Contents The Fundamental Problem With Rented Reach {#rented-reach} Here is a scenario that plays out across Indian sports every year. A team or league secures a broadcast deal. Matches air on JioHotstar or FanCode. Millions of people watch. The team gets a rights fee, some impressive viewership numbers in a post-season […]
The Indian Sports Merchandise Market Is Growing at 19% But Most Teams Are Missing Out
Key Highlights Table of Contents The 19.26% Number — And Why It’s the Right One to Track {#the-number} When sports business analysts discuss revenue in Indian sports, the conversation almost always starts with media rights. That is reasonable — media rights represent 43.33% of the current Indian spectator sports market and are the engine that […]
The Shooting League of India: Why India’s Newest League Could Be Its Smartest Business Play
Key Highlight Table of Contents The World’s First: What It Actually Means {#worlds-first} When the Shooting League of India held its inaugural edition in February 2026, the NRAI and its franchise owners were not just launching another sport’s attempt to replicate the IPL playbook. They were creating an asset class that had never existed anywhere […]
Sports Data Is Worth ₹1,000 Crore But Indian Leagues Are Giving It Away for Free
Key Highlights Table of Contents The Billion-Dollar Asymmetry: Who Made Money from India’s Sports Data Here is a number worth sitting with: Dream11, at its peak valuation in 2021, was worth $8 billion. It was India’s first gaming unicorn, the most followed fantasy sports platform in the world with 250 million users, and the title […]