WPP Media has released the 15th edition of its annual report on India’s sports economy, highlighting a year of strong commercial expansion for the sector in calendar year 2025. The report, titled Sporting Nation: Building a Legacy, estimates that India’s sports business crossed the $2 billion mark for the first time, reaching Rs 18,864 crore ($2.13 billion).
According to the report, the sector recorded a 13.4 per cent year-on-year growth over 2025, while the industry has nearly doubled in size over the past four years, growing from Rs 9,530 crore in 2021 to Rs 18,864 crore in 2025. This translates to a four-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 19 per cent, indicating sustained momentum in the commercialisation of sports in India.
The report evaluates the business of sports through three primary revenue pillars: sponsorships (including ground, team and franchise sponsorships), media spends, and celebrity endorsements by athletes. Together, these components provide a comprehensive picture of how brands, broadcasters and athletes participate in the expanding sports ecosystem.
Among the three pillars, media spends emerged as the largest contributor, accounting for approximately 51 per cent of the industry’s total value. Media spending reached Rs 9,571 crore in 2025, registering nearly 20 per cent year-on-year growth. The surge reflects the continued strength of sports broadcasting and streaming in India, particularly as digital platforms increasingly compete with linear television for premium sports inventory.
Cricket alone accounted for over Rs 9,000 crore of media spending, underscoring the sport’s continued dominance in attracting advertiser interest. The report notes that strong viewership numbers and advertiser confidence in sports content, particularly live cricket, have helped maintain premium pricing for broadcast and digital inventory.
The second-largest contributor to the industry’s revenue pool was sponsorships, which generated Rs 7,943 crore in 2025. Sponsorship revenues grew 7 per cent year-on-year, driven largely by rising asset valuations and premiumisation across sports properties rather than an increase in the number of sponsorship deals.
A significant milestone during the year was the growth of sponsorship revenue associated with the Indian Premier League (IPL). For the first time, IPL team sponsorship revenues crossed the Rs 1,000 crore mark, reaching Rs 1,033 crore in 2025. Across all cricket teams — including franchise and national teams — sponsorship revenues touched Rs 1,777 crore, highlighting the increasing commercial depth of cricket franchises.
The report suggests that the milestone reflects a shift in how franchise-based sports properties are valued by advertisers. Rising demand for limited branding assets such as jersey placements and digital integrations has led to higher per-asset valuations, reinforcing the IPL’s position as the most monetisable sports property in the country.
The third revenue pillar, celebrity endorsements by athletes, contributed Rs 1,350 crore to the sports economy in 2025, representing a 10 per cent growth over the previous year. The report notes that athlete endorsements remain largely cricket-led, with top cricketers continuing to command multi-crore deals across sectors such as FMCG, BFSI, automobiles and lifestyle products.
However, the endorsement landscape is also gradually expanding beyond cricket. Athletes from sports such as badminton, athletics and kabaddi are beginning to attract niche brand partnerships, reflecting a slow diversification of athlete-led marketing opportunities.
The report also points to a structural shift in how top athletes approach brand deals. Leading cricketers, including players such as Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya, are increasingly professionalising their commercial engagements through family offices and management teams, evaluating partnerships not only for endorsement fees but also for equity and long-term strategic value.
Despite the growth of the broader ecosystem, the report reiterates that cricket continues to dominate the Indian sports economy at an unprecedented scale. In 2025, the total business generated by cricket—including media, sponsorships and endorsements—reached `16,704 crore, accounting for approximately 89 per cent of the entire sports industry.
In fact, the report highlights a striking comparison: the cricket economy in 2025 alone was larger than the entire Indian sports industry in 2024, which stood at Rs 16,633 crore. This level of concentration, the report suggests, underscores the extent to which cricket shapes the commercial trajectory of sports in the country.
While cricket continues to expand, emerging sports faced a challenging year. Sponsorship revenues from non-cricket sports declined by 12.2 per cent in 2025. According to the report, one of the primary reasons for the dip was the absence of the Indian Super League (ISL) during the year, which created a gap in football-related commercial activity.
The lack of a major football property had a noticeable impact on sponsorship revenues from emerging sports, which currently account for about 11 per cent of the total sports economy.
However, the report also highlights a number of events and properties that partially offset the absence of the ISL. These include initiatives such as the Neeraj Chopra Classic in athletics, the World Pickleball League, the Prime Volleyball League, and the revival of properties such as the Hockey India League and Rugby Premier League. In addition, global sporting attractions, including high-profile international tours such as visits by football icon Lionel Messi, contributed to episodic spikes in interest and commercial activity.
Even so, the report notes that emerging sports in India still struggle to achieve the structural continuity that cricket enjoys through long-running leagues and established broadcast ecosystems. Instead, much of the growth in non-cricket sports remains event-driven rather than league-driven, making revenues less predictable.
Another key development highlighted in the report is the industry’s resilience to regulatory disruptions. The year saw advertising restrictions affecting real-money gaming (RMG) companies, which had previously been significant sponsors across sports properties. Concerns initially emerged that the withdrawal of RMG brands could create a major revenue gap in sports sponsorships.
However, the report suggests that the ecosystem adapted quickly. Traditional sectors such as banking and financial services, automobiles and FMCG stepped in to absorb the available sponsorship inventory. In some cases, replacement deals were signed at even higher valuations. For instance, tyre manufacturer Apollo Tyres replaced a gaming brand on the Indian cricket team jersey at an increased sponsorship rate.
According to the report, this shift not only prevented a decline in overall sponsorship revenue but also improved the diversity of brand categories participating in sports marketing.
Taken together, these developments indicate a broader maturation of the sports business in India. The report argues that the sector is moving beyond its earlier narrative of ‘potential’ toward one of institutionalised commercial scale.
Over the past four years, the sports economy has added more than Rs 9,300 crore in incremental value, driven by expanding media rights deals, increasing franchise valuations and deeper brand participation across leagues and tournaments.
As the industry crosses the $2 billion milestone, the report identifies several structural themes shaping its next phase of growth. These include the increasing scale of the sports economy, the central role of cricket in driving revenues, the IPL’s evolution as the commercial backbone of Indian sports, the ecosystem’s ability to absorb regulatory shocks, and the continuing search for sustainable league structures in emerging sports.
The findings suggest that while India’s sports economy is expanding rapidly, its growth remains highly concentrated around cricket. For emerging sports to achieve comparable scale, the report concludes, the ecosystem will need stronger league continuity, more consistent media exposure and deeper brand investment.
