#101 - The Business of Sports

Hey there! I'm Pranav Divakar, I have been playing multiple sports at different competitive levels all through my life. I have played some Basketball 🏀 & Football ⚽ while in school & later on picked up Tennis 🎾 & competed in the national circuit, & more recently I have started playing Ultimate Frisbee 🥏 competitively.

While, I play a dozen more sports casually, I have always wondered what it takes to build a career in Sports & realised like most middle class Indians, that there's not enough money in sports if you are not in the top 1% in the world.

I have worked for 9+ years in the startup world, & I have started wondering where & how money is made in the sports world.

I have lately gotten extremely curious about How athletes raise money, Find brand sponsorships, How IPL & NBA teams make money to be profitable, Why some companies use their marketing dollars for sponsoring sports & also how some sports have grown to reach a massive audience, while some struggle in the background.

I have been curious about how different sports are grown from grassroots, what it takes to make profit in a sport & how the different nodes in the ecosystem come together for a sport to scale.

So, I have decided to research & write 1 post every week on the myriad aspects in sports & how money is made & burnt in this industry.

I’m not going to stick to just 1 sport, but plan on sharing a story/ insight from different sports, how they function & how companies/ people make money in the sports world.

Sometimes I’ll also just ramble my opinion on a topic.

So, I'm calling out all the sports enthusiasts, armchair athletes, and spreadsheet-loving stat nerds to subscribe to this newsletter. I'll publish a new post this weekend.

Finally, Welcome to my newsletter:), where we'll dive headfirst into the wild and wacky world of sports business & I'll try to sprinkle a generous dose of humour, because let's face it, sports without laughter is like a stadium without cheering fans – it's just not the same!"