Week 13: PUMA India re-enter IPL merchandising and other updates

PUMA India re-enter Indian Premier League merchandising with a partnership with Royal Challengers Bangalore 

Our first update is about PUMA signs a partnership with Royal Challengers Bangalore.

PUMA has signed a 3 year partnership with Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore and aims to accelerate the merchandising market’s growth in India.

Puma will have exclusive retailing rights to RCB’s take down and replica jerseys, adding pan-India merchandise reach for the franchise across retail and e-commerce channels. The collection will also include a fanwear range of polo tees, shorts, pants, flip flops and caps.

Indian Super League Season 7 posts interesting viewership numbers

Our Second update is Indian Super League’s impressive viewership numbers.

The Indian Super League was the first Live sports league in India during the COVID-19 lockdown and it started with a bang when it registered 3.42 billion viewing minutes in the first week of the televised event. The opening game clocked in a 0.96 TVR while the time spent per viewer (TSV) for the entire season shot to 28 mins (16% growth over season 6). It also registered a spike of 16% on viewership at an all-India level, with an 18% growth in Hindi speaking markets. 

comScore highlights digital media consumption trends in India’s state clusters

Our third update is about the recently conducted ‘State-level clusters in India’ report by Comscore. This is a report highlighting digital consumption in India and the findings are very insightful for international sports entities who are looking to enter India. The Top 5 publishers in these clusters are Google, Facebook, Amazon Sites, Times Internet sites and shopping giants Flipkart.  

How big is India’s sports betting market

Our fourth update is about the size of India’s sports betting market

In a recent report by the International Center for Sports Safety it was reveleakled that:

• There are estimated 183 million bettors in India.
• 48% of the mature males in that category bet on sports atlest once a month.
• The total turnover of the market is $130 million USD.
• 80% plus of the bets are placed on Cricket.

These are some mind boggling numbers for a country where legal betting is only allowed on horse racing!

Facebook opts out of UCL and La Liga deals 

Our fifth and final update is about Facebook making a decision to exit  livestraeming rights fo

There was a time when Facebook had bid $610 million for IPL live streaming rights but they were beaten by a consolidated bid by Star Sports. Since that failed bid Facebook looked at focusing on Football/soccer media rights deals  and successfully onboarded deals with La Liga in India and UEFA Champions League in Latin America.