Tokyo drift: More private gaming is likely to be played outside of cricket

India’s richest competition to date at the Olympics is likely to encourage more private investment in non-cricket sports that helped groom gold medalist Neeraj Chopra and lead to odisa-style public-private partnerships that have been hailed for success especially hockey, industry leaders said.

Good performance inspires many companies to join the wagon and invest in non-cricket sports. Our spending on Olympics will increase by at least 30-40%, and I hope others like Reliance, Adani and Tatas will do the same, said

Jindal, CEO, JSW Cements.

Neeraj Chopra, who won India’s first gold medal at an athletics event, and wrestler Bajrang Punia, who won bronze, were both trained at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), the country’s first privately funded high-performance Olympic training. center set up by Jindal and supported by 20 companies, including Kotak Group, Citibank,

Bank, Bridgestone and Borosil.

Awareness raising is also a plus

Sports marketing experts said that while India has been a cricket-loving country for a long time, such victories at the Olympics will help the country become a sports nation in the true sense.

As a sponsor of the Indian contingent, we are very pleased with the performance, said Abhishek Gupta, Marketing Director, Edelweiss Tokyo Life Insurance. This will definitely help more brands come to support the athletes. From now on, we will see a lot of activity in this area mainly because awareness will increase with each Olympic version. Second, the way social media has exploded has made these athletes and their inspiring stories reach more people.

The Edelweiss Group has been a sports evangelist since 2008 and was a partner in Olympic gold

(OGQ), a program launched by the Foundation for the Promotion of Nonprofit Sports and Games that supports female athletes such as Ayonika Paul, Mary Kom and PV Sindhu even before they received recognition.

Gupta said the company, which has sponsored an Indian contingent at many international events, is already in talks with the Indian Olympic Organization to expand the partnership.

Support programs

Companies like

, Adani Group and Tata Group have foundations and foundations that have actively supported the sport, while some companies support programs such as OGQ and GoSports Foundation that seek potential medal talent and support talent with the necessary funds.

Most of these are non-profit foundations focusing on non-cricket sports because these sports do not have as much support in India and lack of public resources hampers the performance of nations on the global sports field.

The Reliance Foundation has three grassroots programs, Youth Sports (city, state, and national championships), Young Champs (five-year residency for top football talent), and Jr. NBA (youth basketball).

Many experts said the Odisha model is the road to Olympic sports. The state government has supported the hockey national team and is now collaborating with various companies in various sports. For example, in addition to the hockey -Tata group, it has partnered with Reliance Industries Athletics and JSW Sports in swimming.

Focus on building talent

We need more public-private partnerships to make India a global sports force in the true sense. The two world states and companies need to unite to build talent, said Vinit Karnik, GroupM’s director of sports, sports and entertainment in South Asia. It requires a strong grassroots program to identify and develop talent, manage their fitness, nutrition and education, and mental health, and work with researchers and support staff.

Karnik further said that JSWs IIS, OGQ, Tatas, Reliance Foundation, GoSports, etc. are already doing a commendable job, but I would say Odisha is a great model. If more states start adopting at least one species, the whole dynamic will change. However, experts warned that maintaining momentum may not be easy as public attention shifts from India’s seven medals won at the Tokyo Olympics. Companies should start investing in non-cricket sports now to get maximum leverage, they said.