ITV

Tag: Mashal Sports

  • “Creating sporting events more important than acquiring expensive rights”: Sanjay Gupta

    “Creating sporting events more important than acquiring expensive rights”: Sanjay Gupta

    MUMBAI: Star India is in major over drive mode. The network has picked up a 74 per cent stake in Mashal Sports, which is the owner of Pro Kabaddi League.

     

    While delivering a keynote at the 2015 edition of Asia Pacific Video Operators Summit (APOS) Star India chief operating officer (COO) Sanjay Gupta spoke about the company’s aim to spawn a multi-sport culture in the country by promoting local content with events like Indian Super League (ISL) and Pro-Kabaddi League.

     

    “People are queuing up to buy an English Premier League (EPL), a LaLiga or a Bundesliga, but the question here is how much engagement do these games actually offer as compared to relevant local content. We tried this with ISL and Kabaddi and the initial response has been very encouraging,” Gupta informed.

     

    “Sports is a long haul business and it takes sustained investment to build something ground up. We need to have a long term commitment to build a sport… a 10 to 20 years approach to build it ground up. Take the example of EPL, which has been around for decades and has built an extremely strong consumer franchise, which advertisers are eager to associate with. The three year view of buying sporting rights has to change, which disallows most of the partners to make money and disincentives anyone trying to build a sport,” he further added.

     

    Talking about lack of innovation in stifling sports business economics, Gupta said, “When there’s a big sporting event, people congregate to watch in huge numbers. The only question is if there are enough of these happening and how much innovation has been happening.”

     

    Speaking about mushrooming ventures like ISL and Pro Kabaddi League, Gupta added, “Better engagement in sports will drive greater consumption. People don’t look happy when they win a sports bid. Practices in the sports business have become quite toxic. Instead of a content creation business this has been run as a rent a cab business. If I am league owner, chances are I’ll squeeze more money from you than you can ever hope to earn. One of the challenges that we are seeing is that almost all of the investment in sports is going into rights cost. We are trying to change that by investing in basic sports infrastructure apart from rights, whether it was grooming the players for an on screen experience in Kabaddi or partnering to get the stadiums ready for ISL.”

     

    Speaking about the stake acquisition in Mashal Sports, Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “Star has acquired a majority stake in Mashal Sports with a vision to create an even more favourable ecosystem for the great Indian sport of Kabaddi and build on its successful launch. The investment, completely in sync with Star’s aim to spawn a multi-sport culture in the country, will further help in nurturing India’s sporting talent. We are totally committed to abiding with the vision of Mashal management and all stakeholders of Pro-Kabaddi and will further develop the league in the upcoming season 2.”

  • Pro Kabaddi League season 2 pushed to July

    Pro Kabaddi League season 2 pushed to July

    MUMBAI: The Pro Kabaddi League was a surprise package last year wherein the sport managed to grab eyeballs on television and heavy presence of audience at the stadiums too.

     

    While the first edition of the league was held from 26 July to 31 August 2014, League promoter Anand Mahindra had said on the day of the finale, “We are very happy with the response for the League and Kabaddi and so will be back as early as March 2015.”

     

    However, now official sources have confirmed to Indiantelevision.com that the second edition of the League will not be kicked off in March but during the same window period as last year, i.e July to August 2015.

     

    The reason for the shift in schedule is being attributed to the evident clash with this year’s biggest sporting spectacle, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

     

    Official broadcaster of the World Cup, Star Sports is also the broadcast partner for the Pro Kabaddi League. With Star Sports having its hands completely tied up with the Cricket World Cup, the League’s second season will now only kick off in the July to August 2015 period.

     

    Pro Kabaddi League was conceptualised by Mahindra and commentator Charu Sharma through their venture Mashal Sports. Sharma, known for his knowledge of the game, will also be seen playing the role of a cricket commentator during this edition of the World Cup.

     

    The last maiden season of the league was won by Abhishek Bachchan owned Jaipur Pink Panthers, which defeated Ronnie Screwvala owned U Mumba. Sources also confirmed that the second edition will not see any additional franchises taking part.

  • Patna franchise of Pro-Kabaddi league named Patna Pirates.

    Patna franchise of Pro-Kabaddi league named Patna Pirates.

    MUMBAI: The Patna franchise of the Pro Kabaddi league has been finally christened as Patna Pirates. The owner of the franchise Rajesh Shah, announced the name of the team at a press conference. Unveiling the logo, Shah expressed his hope that Patna Pirates which is being led by Arjuna awardee and ace player Rakesh Kumar would bring accolades to the ancient city of India.

     

    The league which is set to begin in July this year has eight teams from various cities. Captain Rakesh Kumar is the most expensive player in the league who was bought for a record fee of Rs 12. 8 lakh. Kumar had also won a gold at the Asian Indoor games 2013 and Asian Games 2010.

     

    Commenting on launch, Shah said, “We are delighted to launch our team identity today. Kabaddi is an Indian game with historical relevance and has a potential to become a global sport. There is huge talent for the game in our country and I hope the team will showcase the resilient ethos of the people of Patna. I appeal to the people of this city to come forward and support Patna Pirates. We have a state of the art facility in the Kankarbagh indoor stadium, an incredible coach in Rambir Singh Khokhar and a strong team. The package is wonderful.”

     

    Patna Pirates Captain Rakesh Kumar added, “I am honored to be chosen as the captain of this talented side. I would like to thank Shah for embracing a sport like Kabaddi which will go a long way in promoting this ancient sport and giving the sport a professional status. I am confident that Patna Pirates will bring laurels to this city and state of Bihar.”

     

    Another player, Sunil Kumar, who was allotted to the Patna team as a state wild card commented, “I’ve been playing Kabaddi all through my youth. It was in school that I took to it as I watched all my friends and brother playing the game. I stuck to the sport, represented Delhi and then eventually earned a call up for the Indian team, which was a huge moment for me, and I never thought it could be topped. But now I hope to build many more new memories with the Patna Pirates and I eagerly look forward to the start of the tournament.”

     

    The Pro Kabaddi league is an initiative of Mashal Sports and intends to bring glory to the Indian game.

  • India to become a Kabaddi nation with Pro-Kabaddi League, this July

    India to become a Kabaddi nation with Pro-Kabaddi League, this July

    MUMBAI: Kabaddi for long has been neglected as a sport in India. Or at least that has been the popular notion. But here are some interesting stats: there are over 4,000 clubs in the country, with live spectator audiences attracting over 50,000 people for a single game. Without the need for expensive infrastructure, 700,000 schools play the sport. Astonishingly, at a global level, 32 countries are affiliated to the International Kabaddi Federation (including Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea).

     

    But now with the launch of the Pro Kabaddi League by Mashal Sports and the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) the prospects of this indigenous game seem to be changing for the better. To be held between July-August, this year, the game is doing all that it can to gain eyeballs.

     

    With sports broadcaster Star Sports bagging the broadcast rights for the Pro Kabaddi League, the sport is looking at greater visibility. Star India COO Sanjay Gupta, after the channel got the broadcast rights had said, “Our association with Kabaddi is in line with our stated objective of transforming the sports landscape and enabling the growth of a multi-sport culture in India. Pro Kabaddi will build an ecosystem that can potentially take this game to the next level. We plan to offer an immersive and engaging experience for the Kabaddi viewers.”

     

    The league will be played on specially developed mats, in state of the art indoor stadiums across eight cities. Top Kabaddi players from across India and the globe will participate in a show of intense competition and sporting camaraderie. Having Star Sports as the official broadcast partners for Pro Kabaddi league will help bring the game to life on television with super audio-visual transmission quality. The game and the event are designed to take television by storm.

     

    There are leading corporates and individuals who have ended up owning the eight franchises. They are: Kosmik Global Media for Bangalore, Kalpathi Investments for Chennai, Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank for Delhi, Abhishek Bachchan for Jaipur, Kishore Biyani of Future Group for Kolkata, Ronnie Screwvala,Unilazer Sports for Mumbai, Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank for Pune and Core Green Group for Vizag.  By roping in Abhishek Bachchan as one of the franchise owners, Mashal Sports plans to use all tools at their disposal to make the game more attractive.

     

    Each of the franchise will have to spend between Rs 45–50 million annually which includes a nominal franchise fee.

     

    With media rights partner frozen, the sports management company is eyeing one title sponsor, three co-sponsors and some partners. The company will share 80 per cent of the revenue from the central pool with the eight franchises. Marketing partner World Sport Group will receive 10 per cent, while the remaining 10 per cent will be retained by Mashal Sports to fund the expenses incurred for organising the league.

     

    It is expected that Mashal Sports will incur an annual expenditure of Rs 100-150 million on the league.

     

    The Pro Kabaddi matches will be preceded by a player auction, where each team will be getting an equal opportunity to build its squads. Almost 100 players will be auctioned, out of which 72 players will be Indians and the rest will be international players from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

     

    These players have been shortlisted by the International Kabaddi Federation as well as the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India, giving the amateur Kabaddi players a chance to perform at a professional level. The prize money for the league is a lucrative 10 million rupees ($165,800) which many hope will add prestige to the league.

     

    The league promises to take the sport to a whole new level of prominence and ensure that stars such as Navneet Gautam, Ajay Thakur, Rajaguru Subramanian and Rakesh Kumar become the new sporting heroes of Kabaddi.

     

     The lineup of sponsors for the league has not been revealed as of now. But Pro Kabaddi will have robust social media marketing strategies. Sports enthusiasts, in India and all around the world, can keep track of the match.

     

    Each franchisee will not only have their team colours and star players, but also create their own fan following with innovative media outreach strategies, scores, players as well as participate in the game through social media platforms such as the Pro Kabaddi league website www.prokabaddi.com, twitter handles @ProKabaddi #ProKabaddiRevolution and Facebbok page Prokabaddi.