Why we Invested in SportVot
India has over 10 million aspiring athletes under the age of 19 playing across 100K semi-professional tournaments annually. But, most of these athletes do not have access to the right networks and audience to showcase their talent. For example, athletes outside of major cities have little scope in getting noticed by scouts for professional leagues. There is little long-term growth opportunity. As a result, they leave the sports industry behind.
The Indian sports market is valued at merely $1.2 billion versus $71 billion in the United States. The rate of athletes dropout is choking the industry’s full market potential. While there are multiple challenges facing the sports industry, we believe one of the key solutions is to shine the spotlight on aspiring athletes.
So far, a few sports have garnered attention from India’s young population. Pro Kabaddi launched a couple of years ago and has since garnered over 350 million viewers per season — trailing the Indian Premier League for cricket. The Brahmaputra Volleyball League, Pro-basketball and Ultimate Kho-kho have also seen similar trajectories on a smaller scale. There is still much to be done to broaden the scope.
That’s why we invested in Sportvot.
Sportvot is a multi-sports streaming platform for local talent and emerging leagues in India. It is a cost-effective, easy-to-use, online streaming platform that caters to the needs of franchises, teams and fans. In addition to its streaming services, Spotvot has a rich layer of tools to edit, analyse and share videos across various channels. They are enabling multiple stakeholders to engage with rich data and add value to the community.
Within a short period of time, Sportvot has streamed 18,000 sports matches amassing 75 million views, ultimately featuring over 90,000 up-and-coming athletes across different sports. The increased visibility has been instrumental in placing over 30 aspiring athletes in professional leagues including Pro-Kabbadi and city-level football divisions. Many of these athletes were from tier 3 and 4 cities.
Looking ahead, Sportvot has the potential to become India’s largest multi-sport talent scouting platform. Led by second time entrepreneurs Sidhhant, Shubangi and Yash, SportVot has the right mix of technologists and sports enthusiasts to create a disruptive sportstech company.
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