Tag: league

Viacom18 and SA20 announce strategic 10-year partnership

Mumbai: Viacom18 Sports, India’s newest sports network, on Wednesday announced a 10-year partnership to exclusively present SA20, South Africa’s recently launched premier T20 league, in India.

The addition of SA20 strengthens Viacom18’s portfolio of world-class sporting events, including the Indian Premier League, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, NBA, Diamond League, LaLiga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and top ATP and BWF events.

Viacom18 is reshaping sports fans’ experiences and building one of the most-loved media platforms in India. The SA20 and Viacom18 will work closely to grow and engage cricket fans in India. South Africa’s strong cricket roots, domestic set-up, and popularity of its players with Indian fans will enable SA20 to stand out among other international T20 leagues. South Africa and India have a long and storied cricket relationship that this partnership will further strengthen while bringing high-quality T20 action to Indian fans.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) is leaving no stone unturned to deliver a massively entertaining and competitive show by encouraging all their marquee players to be available for the SA20 tournament.

The inaugural SA20 auction in September saw over 100 players signed by the six teams. Teams could sign up a maximum of ten South Africans and seven overseas cricketers in their squad. For every match, each team will be allowed to have up to four overseas players in the XI. All teams have also opted to sign one uncapped, young player.

The SA20 will see international superstars like Quinton de Kock, Faf Du Plessis, Kagiso Rabada, David Miller, Anrich Nortje, Rashid Khan, Jos Buttler, Eoin Morgan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Liam Livingstone, Maheesh Theekshana, and Jason Holder in action.

The league features six teams playing each other twice in a round-robin stage before the semis and final. In all, 33 matches will be played over four weeks starting 10 January 2023. The six teams—Joburg Super Kings, Pretoria Capitals, Durban SuperGiants, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Paarl Royals, and MI Cape Town—are owned by groups that have teams across various global leagues, including the Indian Premier League.

“We continue to offer fans an immersive and engaging experience by strengthening our sports portfolio with some of the best cricket action through SA20,” said Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj. “T20 is the most popular cricket format with Indian fans. The history and legacy of South African cricket and the popularity of South African cricketers in India make it a thrilling proposition for cricket fans in India. We expect significant viewership and fan engagement as the event will be played in primetime.”

“Today is a ground-breaking day for South African cricket. This long-term partnership between the SA20 and Viacom18 as our official Indian broadcaster is a catalyst that supports our ambitions to build the world’s second-biggest league,” said SA20 League commissioner and former South Africa captain Graeme Smith. “With six IPL owners expanding their brands in South Africa, Viacom18 is the perfect partner to take the SA20 into the homes of the passionate and cricket loving Indian market.”

“The benefits of domestic cricket will be far-reaching, with more South African players exposed to a global cricket audience and a stimulus to build a strong and sustainable cricket ecosystem. As SA20, we look forward to working with the dynamic team at Viacom 18 to build a world-class league,” Smith added.

Viacom18 recently announced that JioCinema will live-stream all the matches and offer curated content around the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The world’s greatest show, the football World Cup, which happens once every four years, will be exclusively presented on JioCinema and Sports18 platforms from 20 November through 18 December.

November 3, 2022
Esports Premier League season 2 postponed due to govt’s ban on Battlegrounds Mobile India application

Mumbai: The broadcasting of Esports Premier League (ESPL) season 2, the country’s first ever franchise-based esports league, has been postponed on account of the ban imposed by the government to remove Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) gaming application from Google play store & Apple app store.

In a press statement, ESPL said, “This year’s league has been engaging gamers from across the country in high-voltage action of the battle royale game, BGMI which carries a massive prize pool of Rs 1 crore. After a month-long of riveting actions, packed with rivalries, gripping moments and thrilling finishes, the top sixteen teams were franchised and they were set to fight in a grand LAN finale from 1-5 August 2022.”

The government banned the Battlegrounds Mobile India gaming application on 28 July.

Also Read | Battle royale: Why govt’s ban of BGMI spells bad news for gaming in India | Indian Television Dot Com

ESPL added that the entities concerned will evaluate or pursue the matter in accordance with the directions issued by the government.

“We are therefore constrained to put the ESPL Season 2, on hold, in light of the government’s directions and the prevailing circumstances. This is an unfortunate situation for all esports enthusiasts, and also a huge setback for India, at this stage of the tournament,” it also said.

“However, upon closure of the matter favorably, we intend to renew the ESPL from the stage where we are leaving it now, which means that the selected finalist teams will be invited again to take the tournament forward for the Finals” it further added.

August 1, 2022
Former PepsiCo India’s David Pross joins Elite Pro Basketball League as chief advisor

MUMBAI: David Pross has joined the Elite Pro Basketball, a first of its kind in India a 5×5 Pro Basketball League as an advisory board member for the league. Having worked in various countries across the globe, David Pross with all his experience will help the team in planning and executing the league. Organized by Elite Sports India (ESI), it will attract top players, coaches across India and will have the highest salaries in the Indian basketball circuit.

Pross ESI said someone who has a great idea of the Indian market as he has launched his fourth new business initiative in India with Mobile Global Esports (MOGO). He also led the financial development of PepsiCo’s investment in India. This project achieved the first new launch of a global brand in India in 15 years, a market previously closed to investments by foreign consumer product companies. In his stint with R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, he managed to gain government approval, environmental clearances and the industrial license for the only new foreign investment in India’s tobacco industry in 75 years.

Pross said, “Elite Pro Basketball gives the most exciting players in India a chance to prove their skills and create a dynamic showcase for the way basketball should be played — a fast-paced, nothing conceded, score-at-will game of the best.”

Elite Pro Basketball CEO Sunny Bhandarkar said, “Having someone as experienced as Mr Pross will certainly help us immensely. His inputs will be crucial in making this a World class league, our initial conversations have already been beneficial, and he has some great ideas which we will be implementing.”

June 17, 2022
Legends League cricket in expansion mode; looks for franchise buyers

MUMBAI: Legends League Cricket (LLC), which is a Twenty20 cricket tournament comprised of former players had its first season this year in January in Oman. The league is now looking at the franchise model and will start with the sale of four franchises. On the broadcast front the first season aired in India on Sony and it is now looking at longer-term deals. 59 former cricketers took part in the first season.

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com Absolute Legends Sports co-founder, CEO Raman Raheja said that the expectation is to achieve breakeven in the third year of operations. “We have invested more than $7 million into the business and will continue to invest more to develop and promote the eco-system of Legends Cricket. We would also see further investments coming from our Franchisee in the future to promote the space. LLC would not only provide more revenue making opportunities for retired cricketers but also create a unique fan engagement platform and Learning platforms for upcoming cricket talent. According to our business plan, the business is expected to breakeven in the third year of operation.”

The plan he adds is to have four franchisees in season one of Club Series that would be hosted in September 2022. “We would add two more franchisees in Season two next September. The franchisees are expected to invest up to $15 million in acquisition costs over the next 10 years besides the players fees and operational costs.”

Shedding light on the revenue streams available to franchises he said that like any other professional T20 League in the world, there will be a shared central pool for the franchisees. The central pool would have revenues from broadcast rights sales, league sponsorships and ticketing. The same would be appropriately distributed amongst all franchisees.

“Given the business model, franchisees would break even from year two itself,” he confidently avers.

In terms of the broadcast plans, he explains that the first season was broadcast on Sony Sports Network in India, Geo Sports in Pakistan, Supreme TV in Sri Lanka and Crictracker around the world. “Some of the deals are long term but India was single season. We are now going to be negotiating a longer term deal for the India territory. Also, we are in discussion with leading broadcasters in England, South Africa, Bangladesh, Australia and New Zealand after the success of season one.”

Earlier there was a league comprising of retired cricketers. It folded up. Raheja cautions that business can’t be run just based on passion for cricket. He stresses the importance of having the right approach and opportunity to create a solid return on investment. “The previous such leagues were flawed in their business model. The cricket economy is primarily run by the Indian ecosystem. Thus, we are focused on that for the business model. We may be hosted outside India, but the primary target group is Indian fans thereby making for a relevant financial model. Our first season itself showed that. We became the most watched T20 League in India outside of the IPL thereby showing that the content has traction; thus the revenues also flow in.”

Queried about how the idea of LLC came about he said that while cricket is as good as a religion in India with millions of followers the unfortunate fact is that cricket heroes fade into oblivion when they retire from active sports participation. They may have, he explains, some competitive cricket left in them but due to growing age and dropping fitness levels, they are unable to compete at the optimum level with younger players.

Adds Raheja: “We don’t want them to fall off the cliff on announcing retirement. We want to taper off their exit with a gradual withdrawal over four to five years or more of playing competitive cricket amongst other legends of the game. Legends League Cricket is created to provide fans with an opportunity to see the legendary cricket heroes playing some competitive cricket and recreate the old rivalries on the cricket field.

According to him, some of the key objectives behind LLC are: “We want to own the word “Legend” in the sports genre on social and digital platforms. We created and promoted our content accordingly across the world and the result was that we were trending on that keyword on Google. In season one, we had a direct fan base of more than 300 million followers with our 59 Cricket Legends (players) as their social media followers. That’s how we want to engage with fans as our core mission.”

Now would you not call that a win-win strategy?

April 29, 2022
Champions League Twenty20 2013: A Preview

MUMBAI: The coming weeks are going to be a treat for cricket lovers as they have many reasons to cheer. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will be playing their last internationl T20 matches. Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad will be competing against giants from the countries of Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

The Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians will fight for the top two spots in Group A to qualify for the semis, whereas Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad will compete in Group B.

Six on air sponsors have already been signed – Karbonn Mobile and Tata Docomo have come on board as co-presenting sponsors while Airtel Broadband, Pernod Ricard, Bharat Business Channel (Videocon D2H), Panasonic and Toshiba India have been roped in as associate sponsors.

On ground sponsors include – Karbonn Mobiles, Panasonic, Britannia, Panasonic TV and Jaypee cements. This is the second year in a row that Karbonn Mobile has associated itself with CLT20. Previous sponsors include Nokia and Bharti Airtel.

The total prize money is the same as the previous year as $6 million out of which the winning team will receive $2.5 million. ESPN Star Sports bought the global broadcast rights for CLT20 in 2008 at a whopping $900 million for the next ten years.

A musical anthem Ragad Ragad has been created as part of the marketing campaign for this edition which is currently running on electronic and digital media. Prasoon Joshi has written the lyrics for it and the track performed by Mika Singh, who will also be performing at the opening ceremony on 21 September in Jaipur.

CLT20 will also have bilingual commentary in both English and Hindi. Star Sports and Star Cricket HD will be in English while Star Cricket will have it in Hindi. Additionally, this year the first and the final matches will be telecast on Star Gold as well with Hindi commentary. “We have also invested heavily on building strong Karbonn Smart CLT20 centric programming in the run-up to the league,” says ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput.

Commentators who will be giving viewers an ear-gasmic experience include Harsha Bhogle, Sanjay Manjrekar, Wasim Akram, Simon Doull, Alan Wilkins, Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Ian Bishop, Pommie Mbangwa, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Kapil Dev, Sanjay Bangar, Ayaz Memon, Deep Dasgupta, Murali Karthik, Aakash Chopra and Arun Lal.

The action has already begun on ESPN Star Sports channels but the real deal is yet to begin.

September 19, 2013