Albert Almeida, chief operating officer of Live Entertainment at BookMyShow, has said the Indian ticketing firm should see a three-fold jump in revenue from sports business in the next two years.
The entertainment giant, which currently sells tickets for Indian Premier League cricket teams the Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders, is also looking into forging partnerships to bring international leagues, such as the NBA basketball competition, to India.
BookMyShow listed over 3,500 sporting events over the last three years between 2015 and 2018, while in 2019 alone it has listed over 1,800 sporting events.
Almeida said, according to the Indian Economic Times: “We have sold tickets of sporting events worth Rs 1000 crore in three years from 2016 to 2018, whereas this year, in the first six months alone, the number is Rs 350 crore. We see this growing three times in the next two years.”
He added that its international sports offering has also grown by three times, forming 30 per cent of its entire sporting revenue after partnering with the Caribbean Premier League and the Sri Lankan Premier League.
He continued: “There’s a lot happening in this space. We are looking for suitable partners, who think like us and are willing to invest. We are happy to build a league together and replicate some of the success.”
The BookMyShow executive added that the firm is in talks with a number of people across different sports, including football, wrestling, martial arts and marathons.
The company has also been named as a promoter of the first and upcoming pre-season game in India between the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings on October 5 at NSCI Dome in Worli, Mumbai.
Almeida said: “Sports is really a critical piece for our business and we have got one team dedicated to building sports and sports-related partnerships. We’re looking at key partnerships, which are a little more strategic, which move beyond just ticketing business.
“This partnership is far more strategic. Together, we’ve actually made the whole commercial model work in a way that they can bring a game here. We are promoters to the first official pre-season game, which will be played in India. This game will be broadcast as part of the official broadcast of the NBA. So, it’ll be available live to viewers in India and 200 other countries around the world.”
Image: Public.Resource.Org
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