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Super11 Becomes Title Sponsor of Asia Cup 2023 Fantasy sports platform Super11 has become the title sponsor of the 2023 Asia Cup. The deal is worth $10 million, and it will see Super11 branding featured prominently at the tournament. The Asia Cup is a major cricket tournament that is contested by the top teams in Asia. The 2023 tournament will be hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and it is scheduled to take place from August 30 to September 17. Super11 is a popular fantasy sports platform that allows users to create their own teams and compete against others. The platform has over 10 million users in India, and it is growing rapidly in other parts of Asia. The sponsorship deal with Super11 is a major coup for the Asia Cup. It is a sign of the growing popularity of cricket in the region, and it will help to raise the profile of the tournament. Image Credit: Sportsmint media #sportsbusiness #cricket #asiacup #titlesponsor #super11 #fantasysports #partnership #growth

Disney gambles on free cricket to turn the tables in India streaming war The India streaming operations, which were Disney’s biggest last year globally by users, posted a loss of $41.5 million on revenue of $390 million for the year to March 2022, its last disclosed results. With subscriber exits accelerating and slashing the user base by a third between October last year and July, the Burbank-headquartered entertainment giant’s financial performance in the country is only expected to come under more pressure. Disney’s woes are a cautionary tale about the Indian market where expectations about a swelling middle-class are often frustrated by deeply cost-conscious consumers. The company acquired Indian streaming service Hotstar when it paid $71 billion for some 21st Century Fox global assets in 2019. With the streaming rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest cricket league, in the bag, Disney made cricket on Hotstar a paid service in 2020 and was confident about garnering up to 100 million users within years. But Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani snatched IPL rights away in a $2.9 billion bid last year, and then streamed games for free. Soon, Disney subscribers fled – out of 61 million users in October, roughly 21 million had left by July. Disney internally recognises it misjudged Indians’ willingness to pay – people signed up for Hotstar when it had IPL, but didn’t stick around to buy more premium plans to watch other content, two Disney sources told Reuters. “We were bullish on Indian subscribers’ propensity to pay. That’s not worked out,” said one of the sources. “Free cricket is the only bullet left.” The company will stream live matches of the Asia Cup from Aug. 30 as well as the World Cup in October-November that users of 600 million smartphones in the cricket-mad nation can watch without paying anything. The new strategy comes as Disney is also exploring options of finding a joint venture partner or even a sale of its India business. ‘HYBRID MODEL’ Disney renewed its rights to show the International Cricket Council’s tournaments in India from 2024 to 2027 by paying around $3 billion. It retains digital streaming rights but last year licensed the TV broadcast rights to Indian’s Zee Entertainment for around $1.5 billion, a source said. The company has assessed that going back to the free-cricket model on mobile phones and tablets is the strategic pivot needed to shore up revenues. It calls the move a new “hybrid model” to drive advertising revenues by raising smartphone viewers, while targeting new subscribers for the Hotstar TV app where cricket will remain under paid plans. This strategy is about “how we build a model which will allow us to drive two revenue streams more meaningfully,” Sajith Sivanandan, head of Disney Hotstar, said in an interview, adding Disney was confident its user base will grow in the years ahead. Making cricket free on mobile will help “450 mi...

Cricket South Africa (CSA) today announced IMG ARENA, OpenBet’s sports data and streaming products arm, as its exclusive official Cricket South Africa Data Supplier and Betting Live Streaming Partner. IMG ARENA, in partnership with CricViz, will collect detailed data, both live and in-venue, for CSA’s domestic and international matches spanning a wide array of competitions, from bilateral series to domestic leagues. Data for international matches will be gathered across Men’s and Women’s Test, ODI, and T20I formats, while domestic matches will see data collection for Men's 4-day, 50 Over, and T20, as well as the Women's 50 Over and T20 formats. The data will then be distributed by IMG ARENA to more than 460 regulated sportsbook operators worldwide. IMG ARENA will also distribute live streams of CSA matches to the global betting industry. Mark Wrigley, Vice President & Head of Rights at IMG ARENA, said: “IMG ARENA is serving fans and sportsbook operators across a wide breadth of sports and markets around the world. Alongside CricViz, we’re excited to partner with Cricket South Africa to bring fans the ultimate sportsbook experience incorporating reliable, informed data and live streaming.” CSA Chief Executive Officer, Pholetsi Moseki, said; “Our partnership with IMG ARENA is poised to revolutionise the way detailed data is collected, both live and in-venue. This collaborative endeavour will introduce South African cricket to a fresh betting audience, and we are extremely excited about this opportunity. We are collectively shaping the future of sports data collection and broadcasting, setting new standards of excellence in the industry.” The deal further diversifies IMG ARENA’s portfolio of data and streaming rights, adding CSA to its breadth of sports properties including soccer, tennis, golf, basketball, mixed martial arts and more. IMG ARENA delivers live streaming and data feeds for more than 65,000 events across a wide range of sports annually, as well as for on-demand virtual sports products and front-end solutions including the UFC Event Centre. Clients include UFC, MLS, PGA Tour, DP World Tour, USTA, EuroLeague, and the NWSL. IMG ARENA is part of OpenBet, a world leader in sports betting entertainment. The two Endeavor-owned businesses were integrated under the OpenBet banner in 2024 to form a global sports betting and data business.

Disney’s Hotstar loses 12.5 million subscribers in a quarter amid cricket shortfall - https://lnkd.in/gEZE22RS - ( New Post Shared by www.shipwr3ck.com ) - Disney+ Hotstar lost nearly a fourth of its customer base, or 12.5 million subscribers, in the quarter ending June, Disney disclosed in its earnings Wednesday, the ongoing setback at the India-focused streamer that’s reeling from the lack of cricket content. This is the third consecutive quarter in which Disney has lost subscribers. In the past three quarters ending June, Hotstar has lost overall 18 million subscribers. The fall in subscribers comes at a time when Disney is rumored to be exploring a sale or forming a joint venture for the broader India business. Bob Iger, Disney CEO, didn’t necessarily offer a strong India outlook on the earnings call. Asked how Disney+ Hotstar was shaping the company’s view on long-term international streaming strategy, and whether Disney was mulling exiting some markets, Iger said: “We actually have been looking at multiple markets around the world with an eye toward prioritizing those that are going to help us turn this business into a profitable business. What that basically means is there are some markets that we will invest less in local programming but still maintain the service. There are some markets that we may not have a service at all. And there are others that we’ll consider, I’ll call it, high-potential markets where we’ll invest nicely for local programming, marketing and basically full-service content in those markets. Basically, what I’m saying is not all markets are created equal. And in terms of our march to profitability, one of the ways we believe we’re going to do that is by creating priorities internationally.” The Indian streaming platform, a crown jewel in Fox’s portfolio to become part of Disney with the acquisition, attracted tens of millions of customers in the past decade in part by providing livestreaming of cricket matches, particularly the local IPL tournament. That changed when Disney was outbid for the last season’s IPL digital rights by Viacom18, a company backed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. To aggressively win customers, JioCinema streamed this year’s IPL for free in India. “In essence, this outcome allowed the new entrance of the country’s largest mobile telecom operator (backed by one the wealthiest men in the world) into a market once dominated by Disney. The defense of the linear business through securing IPL rights by Disney made little sense once Reliance introduced their IPL mobile product for free. As mobile operators in India like Vodafone have learned over the years, it has hard to compete with a local champion hellbent on disrupting the market with cut-rate or free offerings,” wrote boutique research house MoffettNathanson in a report last month. - <div>Disney+ Hotstar los

Learnings from Last One Year #CricketOnTV 👍 Streaming Cricket Free or Putting it Behind a Paywall has NOT Impacted Television Viewership of any Cricket Tournament. 👍 Star Sports has delivered Higher Ratings on All Cricketing Properties in the last nine months with it's 90%+ reach in C&S homes. #Availability Ratings Trends - IPL (34% UP v LY), bilateral series - T20Is (48% UP) and ODI's (63% UP). 👍 With a Billion Viewers being targeted (800 MN on TV) between September to November - #Cricket must be part of every #MediaPlan. The only thing that gets bigger than #WorldCup is #WorldCupInIndia! #FestiveSeason eyeballs are consolidating with #StarSports. #Believe! #AsiaCup #CWC23 #Sports #Reach #Impact #Television #SportBusiness #IndiaKaWorldCup #BARCINDIA #afaqs | Star Sports Ad Solutions | Ajit Varghese | Kingshuk Mitra | Amit Wadhwa | Danish Saiyed

Champions Trophy without India Team will be the Charity event, Out of the normal course of business for ICC, read below the statistics of advertisement from ICC T20 World Cup 2024 📊🏏✨ 🏏✨ Exciting Insights from the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 Advertising Trends! 🌟📊 Just in: According to the latest report by TAM Sports, 'Commercial Advertising ICC T20 World Cup 2024', the advertising landscape during the tournament has been truly remarkable. 🚀📈 🔍 Key highlights: 📈 38% growth in ad volumes per match compared to ICC T20 WC'22. 📈 57% increase in ad volumes during the final game. 📈 90% more ad volumes during India playing matches. 📈 Super 8 matches saw a 118% growth in ad volumes over Super 12 matches. 📺 Advertisement Breakdown: 📺 15-20 seconds ads were most utilized during commercial breaks, followed by less than 10 seconds. 📈 Brands Betting on the World Cup: 🚀 67% increase in the number of categories. 🚀 76% rise in the number of advertisers. 🚀 83% surge in the number of brands. 🔝 Top Categories: 🍪 Biscuits took the lead with 14% share of ad volumes, followed by Perfumes/Deodorant at 7%. 🏆 Noteworthy Mentions: 🌟 Sporta Technologies and Dream11.com stood out as common players among the top advertisers and brands during both T20 World Cups. Exciting times in the world of sports advertising! 🎉💼 Stay tuned for more industry updates and trends. #ICCWorldCup #AdvertisingTrends #SportsMarketing 💬🏆📺🌐 #Advertising #T20WorldCup #Marketing #BrandEngagement Feel free to share your thoughts and insights in the comments below! 🗨️💬

🆕🏏 The past few IPL seasons each have typically added sponsorship revenues of ~₹1,000-1,200 Cr 💸 to the BCCI’s coffers. But #IPL2024—in its last week now—could see a likely shortfall of a few hundred crores. It brings forth an interesting trend that played out this year 🧵👇 🚨With 3 high-profile 🏏 tournaments—Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, #IPL2024, Men’s T20 World Cup 2024—crammed into a span of 7-8 months, ad budgets 🤑 were split, resulting in low ROIs per event, industry execs told The CapTable A few sponsor categories even went w/o takers 👇 🏏Plus, among the key absentees from #IPL2024's ad roster were top🦄startups, which had burned several thousand crores 🤑 in the league in the last 3-4 years. “They all went missing … Byjus, Paytms, CREDs, Swiggys, Unacademys. Legacy brands returned,” said a person in the know. #Paytm, for instance, which was paying ₹28 Cr/season as IPL’s ‘Official Umpire Partner’ in 2018-2023 backed out after BCCI hiked ⤴ the base price of this category to ₹50 Cr. Until last night's #IPLQualifier1, this category went without a sponsor. The share of startups in IPL's ad inventory has dropped ⤵ from 60% in 2020-21 to ~20% in #IPL2024, with legacy advertisers making a return, sources told The CapTable. Even ad rates for 10-sec slots, which had reached stratospheric levels because of splurging 🦄 have fallen 📉 #Paytm, which was paying ₹28 Cr/season as IPL’s ‘Official Umpire Partner’ in 2018-2023 backed out after BCCI hiked ⤴ the base price of this category to ₹50 Cr. Until last night's #IPLQualifiers, this category went w/o a sponsor. There are no sponsors for Orange/Purple🧢 too. 📺 The splitting of TV & streaming rights b/w STAR and #JioCinema has also eaten into ad spends and impacted ROIs 🫰 Here's Sohini Mitter's deep-dive into the sponsorship economics of #IPL2024 + why legacy brands made a return 🔓 https://lnkd.in/g2X7J8yj