JSW Sports, which entered the sports sponsorship consulting industry in 2022, has successfully brokered sponsorship deals worth Rs 250 crore in 2022-23, said its chief operating officer Divyanshu Singh.

He said the sports management firm has facilitated more than 150 deals in the past year, comprising both owned and third-party assets.

Sports sponsorship consulting is a logical extension for JSW Sports, which was already involved in athlete management, said Singh.

According to GroupM ESP, sports sponsorship in India exceeded Rs 9,500 crore in 2021, primarily driven by cricket media and on-ground sponsorship expenditures.

Singh said the next major opportunity in the Indian sports business ecosystem is unlocking the value of non-cricket sports.

He said JSW Sports’ vision and mission are to expand sports sponsorship while also revolutionising the way sports are evaluated and presented to brands.

JSW Sports owns teams in football, cricket and Kabaddi, besides managing athletes across disciplines such as cricket, boxing, wrestling and track & field.”We have worked with brands and rights holders, and now we are starting to do partnerships not only for our assets but also for third-party assets,” said Sigh.

The key sponsorship deals facilitated by JSW Sports include those with HSBC, Athletics Federation of India, Qatar Airways-RCB, Sportzbuzz with multiple WPL teams and HRX’s licensing and merchandising deals with four IPL teams.

According to Singh, sports management should use data and analytics to sell sports sponsorship to advertisers. “We are also building capabilities in sponsorship evaluation, analytics and the role of content in sports partnerships,” he said.