Now live: Indian sports content catch-up
On Friday 23rd November, many cricket aficionados in India woke up early to see their team getting comprehensively defeated in a multi country tournament. The loss made front-page news in many newspapers and also dominated the sports pages with articles ranging from players crumbling under pressure to dressing room intrigue. The coverage and discussion were heartening for one big reason. For once, the topic was not the Indian men’s team losing down under but Harmanpreet Kaur’s Indian women’s cricket team’s run to the semi-finals of the World T20 in the Caribbean. A decade or even 5 years ago, such coverage on mainstream and social media would have been fantasy.
India is more than just Cricket
Although still dominated by the Indian men’s cricket, India is no longer a one-sport country. We now have sports leagues and, importantly, sports stars across various athletic disciplines from kabbadi to football. There is also a significant following (largely urban) of international leagues such as the English Premier League, La Liga and NBA. Whilst cricket still continues to be the biggest draw, boasting an Indian fan-base of 700 million+, other sports such as football, tennis, hockey etc. also have significant following.
The growth of social media and internet penetration coupled with smartphones has played a massive part in expanding the Indian consumer’s sporting horizon. Consumers can now access live scores, watch live matches, review highlights and read news on the go across multiple sports. Media companies broadcasting these games, on their end, are looking to use the internet to expand the viewer base by winning over newer fans — Fans that can be engaged throughout the year across multiple sporting events.
And that is where the real challenge lies — not just winning fans but creating new ones. In order to create and get new fans, providing access through multiple channel may be thought of as a “push” strategy, however, this needs to be complemented with a “pull” strategy where potential fans can have access to not just news but insightful analyses and content that touches upon the nuances of a sport not discernible to the casual viewer.
A stadium full of fans needs blockbuster content
In India, cricket is well served in the content department not just by newspapers but by dedicated sites like Cricinfo and Cricbuzz. Cricbuzz is among the top 50 sites visited in India and has already crossed the 500 million users mark. These sites include in depth analyses, expert opinion, editorial pieces, stats, community contribution and tracking of all cricket, be it domestic or international. The content, often in mellifluous prose, is accessible to the casual follower as well as to the passionate aficionado. For a potential cricket fan, these websites provide a treasure trove of content that can answer their queries about the sport and also create the kind of “pull” that the media companies and the sports themselves crave. While the hardest of die-hard cricket fans may keep following their sport, building a fan base requires stimulating content to satisfy potential fans’ curiosity. This gap for the rest of sports in India presents an opportunity for companies, to act on creating the “pull”.
Companies like Sports Flashes are trying to address this gap in the Indian market by providing original content about sports that goes beyond just reporting scores. Their coverage of popular as well as niche sports, from local to international sporting events, is intended to allow consumers to traverse the journey, both for the casual follower to the die-hard fan.
Sports Flashes can hit a sixer — sorry, score a goal!
The thesis for SRI Capital’s investment in Sports Flashes is premised on the fact that most sports fans watch multiple sports. However, there is no single platform out there that can currently provide these multi-sport fans with high quality content, personalized according to the fans’ tastes. Moreover, Sports Flashes is making content accessible to users in multiple languages, thereby making sports accessible to not just the english speaking audience but also those fans, over 500 million people, that are looking for content in their regional language.
The long-term vision for Sports Flashes is to become the one stop destination for all sports and create a community where fans can discuss multiple sports as well as connect with fellow sport enthusiasts.
With the huge success of content platforms such as the Athletic and Amazon’s recent bid for all of the 22 regional sports TV networks that Disney acquired from Twenty-First Century Fox, the race for taking the top-spot in the world of sports content has only just begun. India and its millions of multilingual sports fans present a unique opportunity for companies to compete to win over this market. It is our belief that Sports Flashes has the right mix of content IP and technology to create a unique and personalised experience for the underserved Indian sports fans and win them over.
By Shweta Singh, Principal, SRI Capital.
