Kabaddi, which is a popular sport in the Indian subcontinent, got competitive status in the 1920s. It started on a low-key note and was part of the several Asian Games. Though the sport developed good popularity in the following years, it was only during the 2006 World Cup that came as a revolutionary moment for the sport.
TV personality Charu Sharma, who co-founded Mashal Sports, understood the immense potential that the game had. Together with broadcaster Star Sports, he organized the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) in 2014. It was the newest addition to the list of franchise-based sports leagues in India. Soon the league became so popular that millions of people in India began watching it.
There are already many betting predictions with the 2021 IPL. As the PKL is also growing in the popularity, the comparison will be unavoidable.
Social media:
Cricket is the most popular game in India and even has a better global appeal as compared to Kabaddi. Some statistics and insights prove why IPL enjoys more popularity than PKL. Due to the global popularity of cricketers, the IPL manages to grab eyeballs from several corners of the world. If you see the Twitter following, the IPL has an advantage. It is primarily because it started six years ahead of the PKL.
In any case, the PKL's total number of followers of over 300k is great. The ISL had a following of 690k fans in 2019. In contrast to football, kabaddi is scarcely followed outside India. The game never having had a significant tournament as large as this one to build a fan following.
Audience:
People were surprised when it was declared toward the finish of the PKL's first season in 2014 that it got 435m watchers. The final match was watched by 86.4m viewers. Some months back, the IPL had a viewership of 560m. So, you can see that the difference was not much when it was only the inaugural season of the PKL. The numbers have remained steady and were no one-time surprise.
The fourth season of the PKL witnessed a 51% increase in viewership from the first season. There was a steady rise in the numbers for seasons two and three as well. The groundwork done by Star Sports in 2014 proved that the acceptance of the PKL will never be endangered. The viewership curved in during the 2018 edition as the season got shifted to the October-January slot because of the Kabaddi Masters and Asian Games.
It also clashed with India’s cricket season at home and there was naturally fatigue among audience. However, the popularity did not go down much. The 2019 edition saw PKL advancing way ahead of the Indian Super League (ISL) with 1.2bn impressions. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 season got postponed, but viewers will be eagerly awaiting the return of the league.
Commercial aspect:
The PKL has set up itself without huge names to advertise the game around unlike the IPL. The stature of players has developed over the long run, as opposed to the league attracting big names from the word go. As the league has grown financially, the players have started to build up themselves as cross country stars. They have seen a rise in their brand value. However, it is not to the extent of the IPL players.
Star Sports and other stakeholders involved in the league need to be congratulated for their marketing efforts in ensuring the right sponsorship and investments for the league. The PKL managed to generate 122 crores from ground-related sponsorship and 62 crores from team-related sponsorship.
The fifth season of the league saw Vivo coming on board as title sponsors. It was the largest non-cricket agreement that the Indian sport has ever witnessed. This also led to the increase in the prize money amount to 8 crores.
Final words:
There is no doubt about the commercial feasibility of the PKL as most sponsors renewed their agreements in 2019. It was closely following the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Over the years, PKL has managed to come to the second spot only behind the IPL in terms of popularity and revenues. There will be a lot of growth and improvement in the numbers and the standard of the league in the coming years if we go by the trends.
