Korfball Premier League launches with eight franchises, Star Sports and JioHotstar backing

India’s sports league landscape is adding a new property with the launch of the Korfball Premier League (KPL), an eight-franchise competition that becomes the country’s first professional mixed-gender sports league

The inaugural season has secured broadcast backing from Star Sports and JioHotstar, giving the emerging sport a national media platform from its first season. The competition features Indian players alongside international talent from more than 20 countries.

Korfball’s biggest differentiator is built into its playing structure. Each team has four men and four women on court, competing together under the same rules. The sport originated in the Netherlands and combines elements of basketball and netball, while prohibiting physical contact, tackling and dribbling.

That format is also central to the KPL’s commercial proposition. The league is packaging an unfamiliar sport around three clear components: mixed-gender competition, international participation and a franchise structure supported by established sports-media platforms.

“Our objective is to test whether an equitable team format can build a commercially viable audience in India,” KPL co-founder Zaara Gadhok said. She added that the league is combining national television distribution with overseas professionals to build a “verifiable talent pipeline rather than treating the sport as an exhibition.”

The inaugural competition will use a single-table round-robin format, with all eight teams playing each other before the top four advance to the knockout stage. The league will culminate in the final at the end of the inaugural season.

The involvement of Star Sports and JioHotstar gives the league an important commercial component from launch. Rather than relying solely on live competition, KPL is attempting to establish a sports-entertainment property around a differentiated format, national distribution and an international talent pool.

The league is organised by Sporty Bharat, a sports management company involved in developing, producing and commercialising emerging sports platforms, including infrastructure, athlete management and broadcast-related activities.

For korfball, the KPL provides a formal franchise structure and a national platform in a market where the sport has remained outside the mainstream professional league ecosystem. For the wider Indian sports market, it adds another attempt to build a commercial league around an emerging discipline and a format that differs from conventional single-gender team competitions.