In this week’s episode, I will discuss how athletes are changing the game of endorsements and how they have managed to make money during the pandemic while sports have suffered financially. I will also share some interesting stats from the sports endorsement sector in India. I will also talk about the crypto currency/fan tokens trend reaching the Indian shores and discuss who are the early adopters of the tech in Indian sports.

In today’s episode, I will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian Premier League. Last week BCCI announced that the IPL 2021 season was suspended due to the increasing cases of COVID-19 in India and because the virus had made its way into the secure IPL bio-bubble. The decision in my opinion should have been taken a lot earlier but it’s important that it was taken. The safety of everyone involved in IPL is paramount after all. So, in this episode I will discuss four big impacts the IPL ecosystem will experience.

In this week’s episode, I will talk about the ‘Sporting Nation in the making 2021’ report from GroupM-ESP. This is the most anticipated and comprehensive report that GroupM-ESP release annually that covers the Indian Sports Industry. It provides a great insight into how the Indian sports industry performs year-on-year. We also discuss the Pro Kabaddi League’s media rights auction from the franchise owners perspective.

This week’s updates include the details on Pro Kabaddi Leagues strange yet not surprising media rights deal, Indian Premier League’s opening day TV viewership numbers and if the performance was better than last season, Dream Sports and will they become the first Indian sports-based startup to go down the SPAC route in the US market, How Puma is supporting talented Indian cricketers and Sony growing their football broadcasting portfolio with yet another deal for Copa America.

In this week’s episode, I will talk about the possibilities of IPL being played in London, JSW Sports partner with India Accelerator to support sports-related tech start-ups in India, Tech Mahindra partner with Rajasthan Royals to build fan loyalty and fan monetization, Real money gaming platform WinZO Games raise $9.5 million in a debt round and Indian homegrown Short-video platform MX TakaTak partners with seven IPL teams with a focus to create a strong sports category.

In this week’s episode, I discuss Mukesh Ambani being listed as the world’s richest sports team owner by Forbes magazine, Star Sports and their crazy list of sponsors for the IPL season, How a local media company is making Mumbai a hyper-local sports capital of India, FanCode’s streaming deal with Cricket West Indies and how a strong digital sponsorship strategy helped IPL franchise Delhi Capitals secure a 50% uplift in sponsorship all this and much more in the first week of IPL 2021.

In this week’s episode I will talk about  India’s sports merchandise sector and how PUMA plans to capture the market by re-entering the Indian Premier League with a Royal Challengers Bangalore partnership, Indian Super League’s impressive viewership numbers, comScores recently conducted ‘state-level clusters in India’ - digital consumption report, International Center for Sports Safety’s report on sports betting in India and why Facebook has opted out from sports rights deals.

In this week's edition of Sports Business Updates, I discuss Star Disney’s bumper ad inventory sale in the buildup to Indian Premier League 2021, Formula E’s plan to add a race in India, India’s sports unicorn - Dream Sports raising $400M and how they intend to spend it, Ajinkya Rahane’s deal with Games 24x7 and ECB’s attempt to attract BCCI and IPL team owners with a revenue share in The Hundred.

In this week's edition of Sports Business Updates, we cover top trending sports business news from India featuring how Football Sports Development Limited pulled off India’s largest football event in a bio-bubble, I will also discuss what to expect from the most anticipated Pro Kabaddi League media rights auction, international investment in Indian eSports and a round-up on all the latest Indian Premier League sponsorship deals.

Top 5 curated sports business updates from India and the rest of the world. In episode 2 of sports business updates, we discuss the impact of having no spectators in stadiums on the teams and the league for the upcoming IPL season, how upGrad added half a million subscribers in 2020 after a successful TV campaign during IPL 2020, Chennai Super Kings struggle to find a main sponsor, MS Dhoni’s sportswear brand Seven agrees to a sponsorship deal with Nepalese Everest Premier League and USA Cricket announcement of re-electing Paraag Marathe as the chair of the USA Cricket board of directors and as an independent director.