Asian star power

Li Na of China, returns a shot from Caroline Wozniacki, of Denmark, at the Sony Open Tennis tournament, March 26, 2014, in Key Biscayne, Miami, US. [Photo/dfic.cn]

Experts believe that one reason for the popularity of sports in Asia is that consumers are turning to leisure activities as they get wealthier. In China, the number of golf courses has tripled in less than a decade.

Taking a cue from the growth of sports in Asia, IMG Reliance - a joint venture between IMG and Reliance Industries, an Indian conglomerate - signed a 30-year partnership with the Basketball Federation of India.

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The deal sees the BFI granting IMG Reliance a range of commercial rights including sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, film, video and data, intellectual property, franchising and new league rights.

IMG Reliance separately signed a 15-year partnership deal with the All India Football Federation, the governing body for soccer in India, for commercial rights to football across all properties controlled by the federation, including media rights, sponsorship and advertising rights, and licensing and merchandising rights.

"The center of gravity of sports business will move to Asia. Just as the popularity of cricket in India means that the subcontinent has become the economic and political center of cricket," says Marcus Luer, founder and CEO of Total Sports Asia, a sports marketing agency with offices in Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia.

"More TV exposure, bigger purses and sponsorship opportunities will help sports to grow significantly in the future in the Asian region," he adds.

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study, Changing the Game: Outlook for the Global Sports Market to 2015, the Asia-Pacific region has the world's third-largest sports market, with revenue of around $24 billion, and is expected to have the world's third-fastest growth rate of 3.9 percent in 2015.

The North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) regions are the largest and the second-largest sports markets in the world, respectively. Latin America is smallest with only 4.9 percent of the pie.

"The potential for sports business in Asia is bigger than we can imagine. We have over 4 billion of the world's population and sports are becoming more of a lifestyle and entertainment for us," says Ronnie Lee, CEO of the Singapore-based Asia Pacific School of Sports and Business.

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