With international stars & 13 sponsors, Rupay Prime Volleyball League woos the masses

Yet another League joins the Indian sporting landscape – the Prime Volleyball League. With RuPay as the title sponsor, the Prime Volleyball League will commence from, February 5, 2022 in Hyderabad. The League has also sparked a lot of interest from various advertisers, who have partnered with the League as sponsors or partners in several categories.

Speaking exclusively to Adgully, Tuhin Mishra, Co-Founder & MD, Baseline Ventures, said, “If we go back 14-15 years, the whole League system in our country actually started with Hockey. From 2008 onwards, football, table tennis, wrestling, kabaddi and badminton leagues have started. People are making an effort to make different sports popular and take it to the masses, which is a very healthy sign. At the end of the day, sports is winning and becoming popular. Volleyball is a mass sport in India and has its roots all over the country. Our Rupay Prime Volleyball League has gained in total 13 sponsors, including Rupay as title sponsor, powered by sponsor A23, Biju, Cred, Dafa News, EatFit, Amol Kool and Nippon as Associate Sponsors, Cosco and Apollo Hospitals as Office Partners, ShareChat and Moj as Official Content Partners and Sony Sports network as our Official Broadcasters."

Commenting on the current focus markets for this League, Mishra said, “We have a pan-India focus as we have 7 teams in total. We have 2 teams from Kerala, and other teams from Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Kolkata. There will always be a focus on the Southern market, but not to forget that the sport is very popular in the markets of UP, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and the North East. Sony Sports Network is supporting us in a huge way in terms of programming initiatives to make this a huge League. From creating the promo film to its distribution, Sony’s production team has always been there with us working closely. The interesting part is that probably for the first time any sport outside of cricket, PVL can also be seen in five different languages.”

Rajesh Kaul, Chief Revenue Officer, Distribution and Head - Sports Business, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), added here, “Volleyball is a sport that every Indian has either grown up playing or watching at some stage of their life. Wherever volleyball is played, it attracts and engages an audience across demographics and has a huge traction in India as well. The viewership for Volleyball during the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 was almost 34 million on Sony Sports Network even though there was no Indian participation. This indicates the popularity and appeal of this sport for viewers across markets in India.”

The tournament will feature top International players like Olympic Champion and bronze medalist, David Lee (USA) and Luis Arias (Venezuela), who was a part of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Along with the star International players, there are several key Indian National players to watch out for, such as captain of the national team Karthik along with Mohan Ukkrapandian, Akhin GS, Jerome Vinith and more.

“This is going to be a very exciting edition of the Rupay Prime Volleyball League and we will telecast the tournament in five languages for the first time – Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam on Sony Sports Network, which will help to reach a larger audience across India,” Kaul further said.