The Scheduled Tribe Athlete Development Gap: Why India’s Biggest Talent Pool Has the Worst Infrastructure
Key Highlights Table of Contents The Demographic Context: Who India’s Tribal Athletes Are {#demographic-context} India’s Scheduled Tribes are constitutionally defined as indigenous communities sharing five characteristics identified by the Lokur Committee in 1965: primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, limited contact with the mainstream, and economic backwardness. There are approximately 705 ethnic groups notified as […]
The Khelo India Budget: How ₹4,479 Crore in Government Sports Spending Is Actually Being Used
Key Highlights Table of Contents The Headline Number: What ₹4,479 Crore Actually Means {#headline} India’s Union Budget 2026-27 handed the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports its highest-ever allocation: ₹4,479.88 Crore — an 18% increase from ₹3,794.30 Crore in 2025-26. For anyone tracking the Khelo India budget and sports spending analysis, this is a landmark […]
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 […]
Media Rights 101: How Indian Leagues Should Think About Broadcast Deals in 2026
Key Highlights Table of Contents The Two Stories Playing Out Simultaneously in Indian Sports Media Indian sports media rights in 2026 are telling two stories at once, and most league operators are only paying attention to the wrong one. The story everyone is watching is the cricket media rights crisis. JioStar — formed by the […]
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 […]
How to Price a Title Sponsorship: The Formula Indian Sports Properties Never Use
Key Highlights Table of Contents Why Indian Sports Properties Get Pricing Wrong: The Gut-Feel Problem {#gut-feel} Here is how sponsorship pricing typically works at the majority of Indian sports events and leagues today. The organiser looks at what comparable properties charged last year. They add 10–15% for inflation and ambition. They round to a number […]
The Second Screen Problem: Why Indian Sports Broadcasts Are Losing the Next Generation
Key Highlights Table of Contents The Numbers That Look Good — and the Problem They’re Hiding {#numbers} IPL 2025 produced numbers that are genuinely staggering. Over a ten-week season, the tournament clocked 1.19 billion viewers across TV and digital — one of the largest sustained sports broadcast audiences ever recorded anywhere in the world. JioHotstar’s […]
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 […]
The Creator-Athlete: How Indian Sports Stars Are Monetising Instagram Beyond Brand Deals
Key Highlight Table of Contents The Post-Endorsement Athlete: What the Shift Actually Looks Like In 2014, the typical framework for monetising an Indian athlete’s public profile looked like this: win matches, build a national profile, get on a federation-approved sponsor’s radar, negotiate an endorsement deal in which the athlete’s face appears on the brand’s advertising […]