Sports
India’s sports economy crosses $2bn, cricket leads the charge
WPP Media report shows media, IPL and brands powering growth story
MUMBAI: India’s sports economy has finally stepped into the billion-dollar big league, crossing the $2 billion mark for the first time in 2025, according to WPP Media’s Sporting Nation: Building a Legacy report.
The 13th edition of its Sporting Nation: Building a Legacy report pegs the industry at Rs 18,864 crore ($2,134 million), up 13.4 per cent from Rs 16,633 crore in 2024. More telling than the headline number is the momentum beneath it. In just four years, the market has nearly doubled from Rs 9,530 crore in 2021, clocking an estimated Cagr of 18.6 per cent.
At the heart of it all sits cricket, still very much the sun around which the rest of the ecosystem orbits. The sport accounted for a towering 89 per cent of total industry revenues in 2025, up from 85 per cent a year ago, contributing Rs 16,704 crore with a robust 17.9 per cent growth.
The ever-expanding Indian Premier League continues to be the engine room of this surge, supported by a packed international calendar, including India’s Champions Trophy triumph and the women’s team’s ODI World Cup win. Add to that the rising pull of the Women’s Premier League, and cricket’s commercial grip only tightens.
Follow the money, and media spends tell the clearest story. They made up 51 per cent of the total industry value, with advertising investments jumping 19.8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 9,571 crore. Television still holds strong at Rs 5,117 crore, growing 16.4 per cent, but digital is sprinting ahead with a 24 per cent rise to Rs 4,449 crore.
Sponsorships, meanwhile, grew at a steadier 7 per cent to Rs 7,943 crore, contributing 42 per cent of the market. Growth here is less about more inventory and more about better value, with premiumisation and sharper monetisation doing the heavy lifting.
Even with regulatory headwinds, including the exit of real money gaming players, the ecosystem has shown resilience. Traditional sectors have stepped in, ensuring that premium inventory did not sit idle for long.
Endorsements are also getting a makeover. Sports celebrity deals touched Rs 1,350 crore in 2025, up 10.3 per cent, with cricket once again dominating 87 per cent of the pie. But the real shift is in how these deals are structured. Athletes are moving beyond simple brand endorsements to equity-linked partnerships and deeper collaborations with teams and leagues.
As WPP Media chief operating officer South Asia Ashwin Padmanabhan, puts it, the milestone signals a more mature and structurally sound ecosystem, with the next phase hinging on building a broader multi-sport culture.
WPP Media managing director, content, sports and entertainment, South Asia Vinit Karnik, adds that sport today sits at the intersection of culture and commerce, with brands no longer content to just badge themselves on the sidelines but keen to become part of the story.
The takeaway is clear. India’s sports economy is no longer just playing the game, it is learning how to monetise it smarter, deeper and across more touchpoints. The next leap will depend on how well it can widen the playing field beyond cricket while keeping fans, brands and media in sync.
Sports
Cricket eyes global takeover as ICC’s Sanjog Gupta maps next growth frontier
Record-breaking viewership, new markets and women’s surge power the sport’s global push
DUBAI: Cricket is no longer just a subcontinental obsession; it is pitching for global dominance. And the numbers are doing the talking.
As the clock struck 9 PM on March 8, 2026, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final triggered a historic surge, clocking 72.5 million concurrent digital viewers on JioHotstar in India—a new world record. The figure eclipsed the previous global benchmark set just days earlier during the second semi-final. Three of the four most-watched streaming events globally now belong to ICC tournaments, underlining the sport’s swelling digital muscle.
Sanjog Gupta, chief executive at the International Cricket Council, calls it unmatched scale and engagement. “No other experience, whether individual or collective, user-generated or curated, real or virtual, comes close to delivering this breadth of consumer attention and depth of fan affiliation,” Gupta writes in WPP Media’s Sporting Nation report.
The digital boom is matched by physical turnout. Nearly 1.3 million fans filled stadiums across India and Sri Lanka during the tournament, with strong attendance even for matches not involving host nations. Emerging teams such as Nepal, Italy and Scotland drew record crowds, signalling both deep-rooted passion and untapped headroom.
The global footprint is widening fast. The tournament delivered over 100 per cent viewership growth in markets such as Nepal, Germany and Japan on ICC.tv, while tailored content strategies drove engagement in Italy, Brazil, Indonesia and China. On social media, the ICC generated more than 15 billion views, amplified by over 300 content creators who collectively added another three billion views, offering fans a decentralised, creator-led lens into the game.
At the heart of this push lies a clear ambition: make cricket the world’s sport of choice. That requires more than marquee events. It demands grassroots participation, digital-first fan engagement and robust commercial scaffolding.
Traditional powerhouses such as India, Australia, England and South Africa continue to anchor the sport. But Gupta is clear that the future lies beyond them. The ICC is targeting expansion across the United States, Europe and emerging Asian markets, backed by development programmes and direct-to-fan digital ecosystems.
“The globalisation of the game is not simply about geography,” Gupta notes. “It is about ensuring that wherever the game travels, it retains its spirit while adapting to social contexts and localising when it enters new markets.”
The shift is already visible on the pitch. Associate nations are no longer fringe players. Nepal, Italy and the USA have begun to command global attention, while sides such as Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe have reasserted their pedigree. These performances, Gupta argues, are not anomalies but evidence of a broadening competitive base.
Parallelly, women’s cricket is emerging as a central growth engine. The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 in England and Wales is expected to accelerate momentum built over the past decade. India’s triumph in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 has further amplified interest, with ripple effects across markets. The ICC’s strategy is unequivocal: scale investment, expand visibility and create a pipeline of new stars.
Even as formats evolve, tradition holds firm. Test cricket, buoyed by the ICC World Test Championship, continues to anchor the sport’s legacy, while ODIs and T20Is drive accessibility and market expansion. The coexistence of formats, Gupta argues, is cricket’s unique strength, offering everything from endurance to instant spectacle.
None of this growth comes cheap. Global brands including DP World, Emirates, Aramco, Hyundai, Coca-Cola and Google are underwriting cricket’s expansion, turning sponsorship into a symbiotic engine of scale, visibility and development.
For Gupta, the direction is clear. Cricket’s future will not be defined by a handful of dominant markets but by a widening global community of players, fans and partners.
From packed stadiums in India to new builds in the United States and emerging hubs across Europe and Asia, the game is stretching its boundaries.
And if recent records are any indication, cricket is not just growing. It is accelerating towards a future where its reach is broader, its engagement deeper and its ambition unmistakably global.
