EP18: Building a sports league in India, first with Futsal & now in racing {Abhinandan Balasubramanian, Co-founder & CEO of X1 Racing}
Abhinandan (Abhi) is a Vellore Inst of Tech & Warwick grad who has built 3 businesses, Altflo, Chefhost & Liquity right from the moment he graduated. He also launched Premier Futsal prior to X1 Racing.
In his latest entrepreneurial venture Abhi has teamed up with 2 young racing drivers Aditya Patel and Armaan Ebrahim to launch the league X1 Racing League and Ultimate E . The league is not only very innovative but has gone about creating a moat from the beginning to capitalize on the growing interest in entertainment I.P being built out of India. We’re witnessing e-sports gain popularity & leagues like the IPL and Kabbadi League break some records, now uptake of new forms of entertainment in India.
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X1 RL is not only Venture-backed by a some high-profile angels and family offices, it’s first edition saw participation from international drivers including names like former F1 champion Niki Lauda’s son Mathias, and F1 winner James Hunt’s son Freddie. Adding major cred to the league.
Abhi has taken his learning from launching Premier Futsal into X1 RL, Futsal was 5 a side short form football league that had brand ambassadors that included Virat Kohli and Luis Figo and Falcao. Futsal also had football superstars involved — Ronaldinho, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, etc.. which Abhi touches upon a little bit (at min 30:40 if you want to hear about that experience!)
The venture is backed by a consortium of high-profile angels and family offices including Jiten Gupta, Mohit Burman, Chris Chaney, Raghunandan G, Angellist, Kunal Shah, Rattha Group, White Unicorn Ventures, Lets Venture, Anupam Mittal and Kronos Ventures.
Enjoy this episode, this is a good one. Stay safe.
— Varun (@varunvummidi)
Timeline:
02:30 — Impact of COVID on the X1 League
03:24 — X1
06:38 — Drivers, integral to success
10:55 — Team
11:30 — Mindset of building a team
13:52 — Motor Sports and Global Interest
15:39 — Origin
21:00 — Addition of Teams
21:58 — Support and strategy
24:30 — Marketing for the New Gen
28:03 — eSports & racing from home
29:29 — Regulation of Motorsports
30:49 — Premier Futsal
35:16 — Learnings from Futsal
37:08 — Investors
42:54 — X1 post-COVID
46:24 — Plans & hiring
