The Punit Balan Group (PBG), which has diverse interests in real estate and film production with a presence in India, Spain and Dubai, has been investing in sports leagues and supporting sports development, thanks to the passion and vision of its chairman, MD Punit Balan.
The Group currently owns teams in Tennis Premier League (Pune Jaguars), World Tennis League (PBG Eagles), Global Chess League (Balan Alaskan Knights), Maharashtra Premier League (Kolhapur Tuskers), Premier Handball League (Maharashtra Ironmen), Ultimate Table Tennis (Bengaluru Smashers) and Pro Panja League (Mumbai Muscles).
PBG also supports sports development initiatives of Maharashtra Hockey Association and Maharashtra Judo Association, runs a cricket academy along with former India international Kedar Jadhav and extends financial support to over 60 sportspersons across various sports disciplines and had also supported the inaugural Kashmir Youth Football Championships
PBG recently announced the appointment of Anjum Tanwar as the new CEO of their sports vertical. The Pune-based organisation is looking to expand their footprint across various sports disciplines and support upcoming talent across the country.
Medianews4u.com caught up with Punit Balan chairman, MD Punit Balan Group
Q. How did your journey into owning sports teams start?
I have been passionate about sports and fitness and hence it was a natural avenue to look into. It was also my mother who used to always tell me that whatever you earn, a sizable chunk should go into something where you can make a difference; while her words pushed me to think and my passion for sports was a natural fit.
And that is how we started investing in grassroots sports, helping find talents in multiple Olympic sports to start with like hockey, judo and various other sports and then slowly and steadily we got into promoting grassroots talents in cricket across Maharashtra. While we started to look at building champions of tomorrow we also started investing in sports leagues and it’s heartening to see we have a presence with nine sports teams in India and abroad.
Q. Could you talk about the various sports leagues that you are involved with? How are they coming along?
At Punit Balan Group, our aim is to bolster India’s journey of becoming a sporting powerhouse globally and it reflects from our presence in almost every sporting league in India. Leagues are a great way to develop any sport with its structured competition, global exposure to Indians, fan engagement, talent development and many other factors. Currently we own teams in nine leagues that includes World Tennis League, Global Chess League, Tennis Premier League, Ultimate Kho Kho, Premier Handball League, Ultimate Table Tennis, Pro Panja League, Maharashtra Premier League and Premier Badminton League.
Q. What is the investment that you are making and what is the ROI that you are looking at?
Sports investments are not done looking at making profit. The biggest ROI that I want to have is when kids supported by us start playing for India or qualify for the Olympics. Sports investments to be very honest cannot happen if it is not backed by passion and led by chasing dreams of making India a sporting nation with our contributions.
Q. What do you look at before getting involved in a sport?
The viability of talent that the sport can generate in the long term wherein by playing a role of support we can multiply the potential of the sport.
Q. You are involved in tennis. In the past there were a couple of tennis leagues that did not work. What were the learnings from this?
Yes we are involved with tennis and you are right, this is one sport where we are yet to look at a successful league model for the sports. But I strongly believe that talents make a real difference and as part of Punit Balan Group we support close to 60 Indian athletes and we have some good tennis talents in Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale whom we have been supporting for the last couple of years. We have seen the difference that we have been able to make in their tennis careers with the financial support. There are many more players from across the country and from Maharashtra that we are supporting and in due course of time they will bloom and that will benefit India’s sporting graph.
Q. Are handball and the Pro Panja League very niche or is the fan base growing steadily?
They are very niche. However, Pro Panja League has a huge audience in the heartland and despite it not being a mainstream sport the heartland audience is a strong fan base that the league enjoys and it is the difference maker. However a sport like handball, which is an Olympics sport and is one of the fastest played indoor sports, still needs to grow the fanbase. It is exciting and amazing to watch in person and that is where I think as a league they have to work to increase the fan base for the game.
Q. What is the business model for these two sports?
We own a team, so for the business model, the league owners are the right person to speak to.
Q. Are you looking at the IPL?
No, we are not. We are interested in cricket but not IPL.
Q. The value of your franchise in the Maharashtra Premier League has shot up. How important is on-field performance?
We have always emphasised on performance and which is why building the player ecosystem is central to our sports business approach. If you see we have been the winners of the World Tennis League and the Premier Handball League opening season, we have had Top-4 finishes in Global Chess League and Pro Panja League as well as in Maharashtra Premier League we were in the final and only rain washed out the game.
With a structured approach to grassroots and sports teams in multiple sports I believe it is important to perform to enhance the brand value for the team.
You also extend financial support to 60 sportspersons. Is this being done keeping in mind the Paris 2024 and future Olympic Games?
We have Ankita Raina who is doing really well with our support and backing and I am confident we will see her in Paris 2024. However our target is to see our players qualifying for the 2028 Olympics and what’s better to see our contributions germinating in 2036 in India. But more than that, our objective is to back players and get them to play for India and perform at international events, World Cups and World Championships to start with.
Stars are important for any sport to grow. How do you build stars across the sports that you are involved with?
Building or nurturing stars is a natural process which is based on multiple factors, performance, leadership and fan base growth. We have multiple examples; players like Aniket Pote, Milind Kurpe, Gajanan Shengal, Sreejesh and Hrishikesh Murchavade of our team Mumbai Khiladis in Ultimate Kho Kho saw overnight success and recognition. We now have a central team that looks into all sports teams that we own and our communication and social media penetration is strategically used to create this hero buildings and this year too we will approach it strategically.
Is sponsorship support growing for non-cricket sports?
In the second season of Ultimate Kho Kho, our team Mumbai Khiladis had sponsorship worth the value of Rs 8.30 crore and now as mentioned we are looking at a streamlined and coordinated efforts to address all teams in various leagues under one lens.
We are confident that we will see great results for other teams too, where we are trying to give sponsors more value with our reach and penetration across multiple sports.
The three sporting nations in the world arguably are China, the US and Australia. What does India need to do to get remotely close to them?
I think we have come up really fast and globally Indian athletes are feared and revered. India has the maximum youth power and with structured focus in youth sports platforms like Khelo India and Fit India movement, the sporting dynamics of India has already seen a change and the days are not far when we will be giving strong competitions to these sporting nations who are ahead of us.
However, I would bring to light that in sports like boxing, our women boxers ensured that India is among the top three nations in the world at the World Championships last year, and the story is fast changing for other sports too as Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win the World Championships gold last year and also won gold in the Diamond League. The sporting narrative is fast changing and I am happy that Punit Balan Group has been able to play a role in this journey.
