Group M's 'Sporting Nation in the Making' report published - A look at key takeaways

The GroupM ESP recently published it's ninth annual edition of Sporting Nation in The Making report. The report highlights that compared to last year spending on ground and franchise teams have seen a massive 73% spurt from last year, while there has also been a massive 79% increase on emerging athletes' endorsements.

Here, are a few takeaways from the report:

Key takeaways from the report highlighting the changing dynamics of Emerging Sports in India:

1. Sports sponsorship spending on the ground and franchise teams have seen a 73% growth from last year to this year and 23% has been emerging sport's growth including football. -based sports properties have grown to become highly influential events

2. 2021 has been a resurgence year for Emerging Sports, especially at the back of the resounding success of the Tokyo Olympics. Emerging sports contributed to 15% of the total endorsements in 2019 which traditionally is dominated by Cricket.

3. While 2020 saw a complete dip due to the stoppage of sports activities resulting in the performance being 8% however 2021 saw a steady jump to 13% amounting to 126 endorsement deals and 86 crores ($11.1 Mn).

4. The Year on year (YOY) growth has been a phenomenal 79% on emerging sports athletes' endorsements.

5. India has doubled its media spending in Sports across platforms total endorsement activity in the market. Focusing on last year, the sports endorsement industry grew by 11% year-on-year in 2021 with a score of INR 625 Cr.

6. Total media spending surpassed a whopping amount of INR 6018 Cr, contributing to 65% of the growth revenue in 2020-21.

7. Emerging Sports alone saw a mammoth media spend of 228% growth from 2020 to 2021 with 361Crs being spent in 2021 alone as overall Digital spending saw a 101% rise from 2020 to 2021.

8. Technology will continue to shape the commercialization of Sports as the entrance of blockchain and Metaverse are key for creating inclusiveness in global sporting events.

9. Innovation and Tech enable possibilities will be key for the sporting ecosystem to explore and use them meaningfully