JSW Sports might launch IPO to support athletes in Olympics. Here's the story
As JSW-backed athletes have done splendidly well in most sports at the Commonwealth Games, JSW Sports Head Parth Jindal is aiming to launch an IPO by 2025. This will provide a different level of support to athletes who need structures and partnerships to thrive, especially with an eye on the Olympics.
If you saw Lakshya Sen playing badminton at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham recently, the logo of JSW on his T-shirt might have caught your eye. He was one of the gold medal winners at the Commonwealth Games and like many other athletes, he helped India make a mark in badminton.
The support behind national-level athletes: Remember when Sakshi Malik became the first Indian freestyle wrestler to win a medal - bronze - at the Rio 2016 Olympics? Or when the javelin heartthrob Neeraj Chopra and wrestler Bajrang Punia won gold and bronze respectively at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics? They were all backed by Jindal Sports.
JSW Sports started in 2012 with the purpose of promoting non-cricketing sports in India and focuses on five sports - boxing, wrestling, judo, swimming, and track and field. JSW built a sports institution in Vijaynagar, Karnataka, called The Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS) in 2017, to nurture athletes with a training environment to create medal-winning success at the Olympics.
JSW Sports has collaborated with multiple government sports initiatives to create satellite programs to support athletes. For eg: JSW Sports has collaborated with the Sports and Youth Services Department of the Government of Odisha to create a training centre called Odisha JSW Swimming Grassroots Training Centre to produce world-class swimmers.
JSW Shikhar Boxing Initiative is another opportunity spread in Himachal Pradesh, where more than 240 boxers train at multiple locations in the state and act as a feeder center to IIS. JSW Sports has done similar partnerships to promote Judo in Manipur and Wrestling and Boxing with the Sports Authority of India in Haryana.
How are the funds managed at the moment? India's sports media and sponsorship industry reached about Rs 95 billion in FY 2020 and will reach about Rs 150 billion by 2024. In an interview with Live Mint, Parth Jindal said that JSW Sports raises funds from more than 30 corporate donors, apart from JSW, to contribute to the IIS Trust. JSW Sports has spent about Rs 40 crore every year to support IIS, the athletes, and the research and development.
So what next? Since events like the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Olympics give a chance to the athletes to gain more exposure and win titles, the government's support is incredibly encouraging, in the form of jobs and prize money. The support is evident in the medal tally in the Commonwealth Games this year where the JSW Sports-backed 21 athletes won about 13 medals of the total 61.
According to Jindal, this year, India won awards for different sports for which medals are normally not won. This just proves that Indian talent needs more structure and public-private partnerships to create better environments to thrive.
If JSW Sports expands its programs and launches India's first public sports company via an IPO by 2025, this will mean a different level of sponsorship and money inflow for sports other than cricket, in a cricket-obsessed nation. Of course, all of this is with an eye on the main sporting event in the world: the Olympics.