Business of Sports

Catch 'Em Young & Go for Goal: On the sidelines of the largest Under 21 youth tournament nationwide - the  Reliance Foundation Development League, host Arijit Barman sits down with India's most famous footballer Sunil Chhetri.
In a candid tell-all chat, this Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awardee reveal what it takes to start young and strike big in the fast-moving football ecosystem in India. The captain of Bangalore FC and the Indian National Team dives into creating not just players but passion for football across the nation. 

Credits: Soccer Freak (G21)

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Catch 'Em Young & Go for Goal: The largest Under 21 youth tournament nationwide - the  Reliance Foundation Development League - with teams across 9 regions in India from ISL, I-League division 1st & 2nd division and even Independent Academies nominated is striving to build a robust pipeline of the future cohort of champions who can match the best in class. Simultaneously, for the last 2 years, the Next Generation Cup has been conceived in partnership with English Premier League to expose our domestic talent with peers who are poised to break out in England or South Africa or any other playing nation that are ranked far higher than us. 

Host Arijit Barman gets you this two-part special with 

• Neil Saunders, Director of Football at Premier League 
• Sunil Chhetri, India’s captain 
• Siddharth Shanker, Head of Sports at Reliance Foundation 

On why developing young talent goes hand in hand with long-term success. Also on the show was a young player from Everton, James Collins, Head Coach of the Wolverhampton Wanderers, Chencho Dorji, Head Coach of the young and upcoming Sudeva Delhi – the first Bhutanese coach leading any club in the history of the I-League and many more in this power-packed show. 

Credits: aranFE

You can follow our host Arijit Barman on his social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/arijitbarman76

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arijit-barman-7233a129/

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Office teams that once produced the best playing talent and packed grounds that once saw nail-biting games lie bare and quiet. AIFF wants to start a home-and-away league for public sector enterprises. But sustaining it will be easier said than a kick-off. 

Host Arijit Barman speaks to Shaji Prabhakaran, AIFF’s Secretary-General, Jitu Chetry, Manager of Oil India Ltd’s football team and a Former East Bengal Goalkeeper, Dhronacharya Award Winner and legendary Air India Coach Bimal Ghosh, Bibek Bhowmick, Former ONGC Coach and a host of current PSU team officials from Central Railways, Bank of Baroda, and Income Tax Department among others to understand if this can work in 2023 when football lovers are glued to international tournaments more than local counterparts. For long politicians or babus who had nothing to do with football ran the sport and ran into the ground. Reviving the game among PSUs is one great step in taking football to the grassroots, to broaden its base. The present generation of fans does not recollect an ITI being joint-winners of the first Federation Cup and Air India, regularly causing upsets playing in packed capacities. We have had too many flash-in-the-pan efforts. We can ill afford such misadventures in 2023 when even smaller Asian countries like Vietnam, Bahrain and Jordan are ahead of us in FIFA Rankings.

Credits: Kisku Dada 1, I-League Official, Indian Football Edits 2.0, Wild FIlms India, Indian Football

You can follow our host Arijit Barman on his social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/arijitbarman76
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arijit-barman-7233a129/

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The chief executive of Sports at Viacom 18 Media, Anil Jayaraj. fields bouncers, googlies and even an occasional doosra from host Arijit Barman as the battle for eyeballs gets played both on and off the field this season. It’s the first time the media rights are split between Viacom18 and Disney holding the digital and television rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL). Both sides are bowling beamers at each other, claiming superior viewership numbers and each asserting conflicting claims of superiority of their respective platforms. Recently, Viacom 18 even said over 2 crore concurrent viewers watched a game! But after bidding Rs 50 crore per match, adding up to a total Rs 20,500 crore for the next 5 seasons (2023-27) will there be any money left to be made, especially when streaming is free at least for now? To explain the high stakes game, Jayaraj pads up for the power play.

Credits: CNN-News18, Jio Cinema, CNBC-TV18

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Rajeev Chandrasekhar a former telecom tycoon from the early 2000s turned politician who is well aware of the fractious relationship between the state and private enterprises, is now, as a minister, trying to play referee in another equally high stakes match involving a sector that is perceived to be a problem child to many and therefore has often been at logger heads with the taxman, regulators, politicians and the policymakers – online gaming. Last week he tried to bring in some semblance of sanity by notifying new online gaming rules through amendments to the IT Act… Industry calls it pathbreaking yet states like Tamil Nadu opted for an outright ban within a day of the Centre's notification. Yet in this ongoing chaos, the real illegal sites still run amok, despite an all out crackdown. Jay Sayta, Gaming & Technology Lawyer, Sarah Ramanauskas, Partner, Gaming Integrity, and Trivikraman Thampy,  Founder-CEO, Games24x7 join host Arijit Barman to download the changing game scape while retired Madras High Court judge K. Chandru argues why a ban is not a bane.

Credit: Parimatch India, CNBC-TV1, Campaign India, Hyvestudio, 

You can follow our host Arijit Barman on his social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/arijitbarman76
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arijit-barman-7233a129/

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On part 2 we explore the potential solutions to this dilemma as our panel gets creative in recommending different methods of bridging the gap between what fans want and what they are currently experiencing. We speak with a crack panel of experts - G Srinivasan, someone who has worked across all aspects of the sports universe, Sudhir Shukla, a marketing and brand management guru, Hrishikesh Shende, formerly of Adidas and Rakesh Patel, founder of the Bharat Army as we break down the different types of Indian fans and ask the question - why are leagues and teams struggling to optimise fan monetisation and what are the challenges in a diverse socio-economic country like India

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On part 1 of this special two part episode we introduce our guest co-host Shiv Burman from our knowledge partners Burman Sports as we speak to some of the sharpest minds of the sports industry - G Srinivasan, someone who has worked across all aspects of the sports universe, Sudhir Shukla, a marketing and brand management guru, Hrishikesh Shende, formerly of Adidas and Rakesh Patel, founder of Bharat Army as we break down the different types of Indian fans and ask the question - why are leagues and teams struggling to optimise fan monetisation and what are the challenges in a diverse socio-economic country like India

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India hosts its first ever first-ever Formula E-Prix, the electric equivalent of a Formula 1 race kicked off in Hyderabad on Feb 11th before it tours off to Cape Town and Brazil. In this episode host, Arijit Barman travels to Hyderabad, the 30th pitstop for Formula E as he goes BTS on how motor racing is putting sustainability on the fast track. Featuring single-seater, electrically powered Formula E cars with batteries charged by solar farms in the state of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and then fed to the grid, the event featured teams such as Maserati MSG Racing, Tag Heuer Porsche, Neom McLaren, Avalanche Andretti, DS Penske, ABT Cupra, NIO 333 and Envision Racing as well as Mahindra Formula E and Jaguar TCS from the Tata Group. Credits: ABB Formula E, NEOM and Mahindra Racing,    

We spoke to:

Leading teams:NEOM McLaren, Mahindra Formula E and Tag Heaur Porsche 
- Ian James - Team Principal of the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team and Managing Director of NEOM McLaren Electric Racing;
- Florian Modlinger - Director Factory Motorsport Formula E at TAG Heuer Porsche 
- Frederic Bertrand, CEO & Team Principal - Mahindra Racing 

Event organizers and promotors:

- Dilbagh Gill, CEO - Ace Nxt Gen; 
- Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty - Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Greenko Group; 
- Mahesh Kolli - Founder, President & Joint Managing Director - Greenko Group

You can follow our host Arijit Barman on his social media: Twitter and Linkedin

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Fifteen years ago, at the inaugural season of IPL, eight franchises were bought for around $724 million. In 2023, five teams for season 1 of Women's Premier League ( WPL) were bought for a cumulative $572 million. It took 26 years for the US women's basketball team to fetch a $1 billion valuation. So if you thought cricket was a gentleman's game you must have been living under a rock. Top corporates Reliance, Adani, JSW, Diageo or brands like Puma and Mastercard have sensed an untapped potential in a cohort that represents the country's 49%. Hosts Arijit Barman & Karan Ravishankar ask Rajesh V. Menon, VP & Head, Royal Challengers Bangalore,  Shreya Sachdev, Head of Marketing at Puma &  Manasi Narasimhan, Vice President & Head, Marketing South Asia at Mastercard the path to monetisation and beyond.

Credits: ThePapar.com, Hotstar, SonyLiv, ICC, England & Wales Cricket Board, cricket.com.au, Fancode

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On this episode Karan Ravishankar travels to Odisha as he gets all the scoop from the stadiums as we break down everything it takes to host a World Cup. He speaks to supporters, players, organizers and sponsors including  Thierry Weil, CEO of the FIH, Mr. R Vineel Krishna, Commissioner cum Secretary, Sports & Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha and Chanakya Chaudhary, VP of Corporate Services for Tata Steel to highlight where we are as a nation when it comes to the state of hockey - the numbers, the response, the future outlook. Is the sport of hockey primed to make a comeback?

Credits: International Hockey Federation, Curly Tales

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