According to a news report in Business Standard, following sports becoming a serious business in the country with IPL and half marathons, sports education and management is finally taking off the in country.
In last two years, around six players have started operations. One of the first to start was IMG Reliance, Reliance Industries, in a JV with IMG Worldwide, an international sports marketing and management company to develop, market and manage sports and entertainment in India. It has already bagged commercial rights to football for 15-years from the All India Football Federation and for basketball from the Basketball Federation of India. It has also tied up with the All India Tennis Association and Professional Golf Tour of India to develop tennis and golfing talent in the country by setting up academies.
According to experts, with Corporate sponsorship in sports marketing growing at 12 per cent annually, sports education and management could be a $38 billion business in a few years. Hence companies like Edu Sports, Kooh Sports, Sports Education Development India, Cricket India Academy, Leap Start, Tenvic and India Khelo are all trying to sell the concept of sports education to schools and other educational institutions . While some companies are offering complete turnkey solutions, others are focusing on specific functions of sports education and management.
Bangalore Edu Sports which had a three fold increase in revenue to 12 Crores and 130,000 students is targeting million students and 100 Crore revenues soon. It provides complete solutions and charges Rs 125-250 per kid per month for its programmes with 180 partner schools.
Mumbai’s Kooh Sports, which has a similar business model but focuses more on competiton level sports training has partnered with 9 schools since April 2011. It identifies potential talents and then trains them rigorously with coaches from Army sports. ITs charges are between Rs 150 and Rs 200 per child per month.
Sports Education Development India Limited (SEDIL)’s Cricket India Academy, how ever is setting up its own academies to train students. It believes schools should focus on academics while it takes care of sports. It wants to be an educational hub working with schools unlike an external service provider. Currently focusing just on cricket SEDIL might go in for badminton and tennis in future.
Cricket India charges between Rs 1,000-1,500 per child at its Academy. It has nine centers in Mumbai, a few in Pune and three in Jaipur currently with plans to open in four or five other cities in next few months.
