The deal between Qatar Airways and Royal Challengers Bangalore sets a new benchmark for partnerships in IPL history
Mumbai: JSW Sports, one of the most revered names in the business of sports today in India, announced a milestone achievement for their Sponsorship Consulting business vertical with the facilitation of one of the most notable sponsorship deals in the history of the IPL. As part of the association, Qatar Airways will be entering the Indian sports market for the first time as the main principal partner of the Bengaluru-based IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for a three-year duration.
Speaking about the growth of their sponsorship consulting business, Divyanshu Singh, Chief Operating Officer of JSW Sports, said, “The partnership between Qatar Airways and RCB is a great landmark for the IPL as we start attracting some of the global and iconic brands to Indian sports, and we all are working towards making this one a successful case study. From a JSW Sports perspective, we aim to grow the market size for Sports Sponsorships in India which at the INR 9500 crore mark, dominated by cricket, is still less than 10% of the ad-ex market in India and has tremendous potential to grow. As one of India’s leading sponsorship groups, we are excited about our growth and future prospects having clocked gross sponsorships of INR 250 crores this FY across our owned assets and consulting verticals. Within a year of starting this vertical, we have done business across sports ranging from cricket, football, kabaddi and Olympic sports, attracting many first-time investors to sports which is an extremely positive sign. A big thanks to all the right holders who have shown faith and believe in our endeavour to create value for the sporting ecosystem”
With an aim to drive leadership in an otherwise fragmented sponsorship ecosystem, JSW Sports ventured into sponsorship consulting in 2022 to address some of the biggest gaps in the Indian sports market, such as measurement and evaluation, purpose-led activation strategy, content marketing, and a data-led approach to decision-making. Having already built a legacy as a rights holder across multiple sporting disciplines for the last ten years, JSW Sports will now harness this unique in-depth knowledge and expertise they have gained to make their sponsorship consulting business a one-stop shop for rights holders and brands looking for sport marketing strategies for the Indian market.
Speaking on behalf of Royal Challengers Bangalore, Nikhil Sosale, Head of Business Partnerships at RCB said, “It has been wonderful to work with the team at JSW Sports. They understand the sports sponsorship ecosystem from the inside out, and we have worked closely as partners to achieve this milestone partnership with Qatar Airways. We look forward to further working with their team closely to add to the success of our brand.”
The Partnership with the two iconic brands will aim to leverage the unparalleled reach of one of the most valuable leagues in the world and usage of rights including the coveted front of the jersey and on-ground branding during the IPL, access to star players such as Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Faf Du Plessis, on-ground activations, turnkey content solutions and bespoke hospitality packages for customer experiences.
Over the past year, JSW Sports Consulting has facilitated over 150 brand partnerships across it’s owned assets and consulting deals for franchises in Pro Kabaddi, South Africa T20 league, – Women’s Premier League and the IPL. It has also facilitated licensing and merchandising collaborations for HRX with 4 IPL teams this season , a long term grassroots development partnership focused on women athletes between the Athletics Federation of India and HSBC along with be spoke partnerships featuring talents across sporting disciplines.
Some of the other partners for JSW Sports Consulting include Google, Coca-Cola, Bridgestone, Nestle, Puma, Dynapar QPS, Pop Eye, Optimum Nutrition, Under Armour, Borosil, Rario, Greenpanel, Vision 11, and Tata AIA.
–Press release
