Mobile payment and wallet companies are tapping into the nation’s love for cricket to reach out to their current and potential customers.

Companies such as Oxigen, Paytm, Mobikwik, and Citrus are investing over ₹700 crore around branding and marketing activities related to sports.

Payments solutions provider Oxigen Services India has roped in master-blaster Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador and would be spending over ₹100 crore in the next three months on brand promotion.

“Sachin Tendulkar cuts across demographics, States and cultures. We at Oxigen will reach out to a large mass of people across the country. We have something for everyone — a mobile wallet for the youth, money transfer and payments services through our retail network.

“We expect this campaign to give us 500 per cent growth in this financial year,” said Meher Sarid, President – Corporate Affairs – Brand & Marketing, Oxigen Services.

Oxigen recently became official sponsors of the South African T20 Cricket Team, which will be visiting India for The Mahatma Gandhi – Nelson Mandela Series this week.

Similarly, Patym and Mobikwik are investing ₹500 crore and ₹100 crore, respectively, for promoting sports such as cricket, football, hockey and kabbadi over the next few years. Patym has recently acquired title sponsorship rights for BCCI India’s matches at home till 2019 for ₹203 crore.

“Sports is the quickest and surest way to reach a wide audience. Sports audiences, fans, ticket purchasers, cover the entire gamut of the economic spectrum — high-value goods and services to medium and lower price categories.

“Hence, you will often find companies that serve a broad demographic sponsoring/endorsing sports,” said Neetu Bhatia, Founder and CEO of sports and event related ticketing website Kyazoonga.com.

Key factors

According to industry experts, growth in revenue in sports via increased sponsorships, ticketing and other new streams will naturally provide encouragement to newer events, formats and entrepreneurs.

A PwC study said sponsorships still represent a major proportion of the sports market in the Asia-Pacific region and they make up over 43 per cent of the total, the highest in the world, as opposed to gate proceeds in other advanced economies.

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