Women’s cricket is a sweet emerging spot in cricket: Sangeet Shirodkar

27th Sports is a $100 million sports fund formed with the backing of Atlanta, US based 27th Investments, a leading investment firm with a billion dollars worth assets under management.

Based in the UAE, 27th Sports focuses on acquiring exclusive and long term commercial rights across Sports federations worldwide with a special focus on emerging markets and emerging Sports. It has successfully acquired long term commercial rights of the Road Safety T20 World Series featuring legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Brett Lee, among others.

27^th Sports has now ventured into women’s cricket and has recently acquired their first global rights to broadcast India-Sri Lanka Women’s T20I and ODI series.

In conversation with Adgully, Sangeet Shirodkar, Co-founder & CEO, 27th Sports, speaks about the company’s plans to associate with various sports properties across the world, supporting women’s cricket in India in a big way and playing an important role in bringing to life Women’s IPL, the road ahead and more. Excerpts:

How did the association of 27^th Sports in women’s cricket with India-Sri Lanka T20I and ODI series happen?

27^th Sports is funded by US-based Investment firm, called 27^th Investments. Our focus has been on emerging sports and emerging markets from day one. So, we have not been looking at matured sports like football or EPL or those kinds of markets, but sports that are expected to reach good growth in the next few years and within those markets where we see a lot of growth. Obviously, cricket is growing in a big way and is the second largest sport in the world. We have seen that at the Indian Premier League. Women’s cricket is a sweet emerging spot in cricket, and we will see a lot of growth in the next few years to come. That’s the reason we want to be part of the growth story and that’s the reason why we went out for these rights.

What are the implications of 27^th Sports buying the media rights and roping in Fancode to stream matches in India?

We have seen the shift from television to digital in terms of the rights value, especially in women’s cricket, where we don’t have the same infrastructure as in men’s cricket, but we are moving in that direction. Streaming it digitally gives you a lot more audience worldwide today. Mobile has become the first preference to stream for viewers and it is easier to engage with the audience through mobile and digital platforms, than television as was the case in the past. However, that doesn’t mean that television can be replaced, but television will have its own core audience. We see a younger, newer audience engaged with women’s cricket, compared to what we see in the past data. Fancode has a great base of 22 million dedicated fans who are passionate sports lovers, so we wanted to go with a platform that was ready to absorb this audience. That’s the reason why we went on with Fancode.

What are the future plans of 27^th Sports regarding women’s cricket?

We are looking at different opportunities across the world. We are in talks with federations for staging a women’s league, we are in talks with federations for taking over their bilateral rights; there are different kinds of conversations in different stages with a lot of cricket boards and other sporting federations. But I think the bigger opportunity that we are looking at is women’s IPL, which might happen next year. It will be a great initiative of the BCCI to have the women’s IPL. It will give a lot of equal opportunities for women to play cricket. If you look at other sports, men and women are gradually being treated at par and paid equal wages. So, I’m sure that will turn around with the IPL for women coming in at some point. Currently, we have not decided in what capacity we would want to play that – whether as a franchise or media rights, etc. But that’s one event that we are looking at with a very optimistic view.

What is the future of 27^th Sports at an international level?

At an international level, 27^th Sports is scouting for the recipe for new rides. We are a very new and fun company. In a short span of time, we have got the Road Safety World Series, which is a great opportunity for us to grow globally. I think it’s a big property for us to grow worldwide. We are looking at making a play for any and all rights in the field of sports – be it cricket (we will be bidding for the ICC rights), or football, or other federations, or acquiring new leads in different sports. There are conversations happening in non-cricket, non-football sports in different parts of the world. We are very excited for 2023, where there will be a great line-up of cricket, non-cricket, India-specific, Asia-specific and world-specific IPs.

What are the future plans of 27^th Sports in terms of broadcasting other sports domains?

We have launched our Pay per view platform globally with this series. We will be aggressively bidding for other rights across the world. We have channel in the Middle East, which is a great platform for putting up sports content, and in the near future, we will be  looking at any and all sports rights, and we will make a play for it. As you know, sports rights are won by tender and bidding, so it’s a fair opportunity for entrants in the market.

What does the future of women’s cricket look like in India?

The future of women’s cricket is massive. We have seen the kind of superstars who have delivered in the game. And once you have superstars in the game, the game will only grow. Women’s cricket has still not reached its paramount place. I think there is quite a journey ahead, but it is in a very sweet spot, with women’s IPL happening at some point, and the ICC world championship, which has got a lot of bilateral cricket guaranteed for the women’s teams. I see a lot more matches played by the women’s teams and that will bring new audiences to the game. The future is only bright – after the men’s team cricket, women’s cricket is the second most watched property in the country.