Bluesport Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the official license holders of the Premier Handball League (PHL) under the aegis of the Handball Federation of India (HFI), has announced an investment of Rs 240 crore.
The company has also disinvested shares and onboarded entrepreneurs Vivek Lodha and Abhinav Banthia as their strategic investors.
The company will use the funding to accelerate the growth of both men’s and women’s handball in India in the next five years.
“We will be using 25 percent of the funding in promoting handball across the country, tapping the interest while 15 percent of it will go into developing the infrastructure which, I feel, will be the key factor in the growth of the sport in India,” said Manu Agrawal, CEO, and Co-Founder, Bluesport Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
Bluesport Entertainment has acquired the rights for both men’s and women’s leagues in India for the next 10 years.
With an investment of Rs 120 crore each for the men’s and women’s games, the company plans to spend Rs 35 crore for grassroots development, training junior and sub-junior talents in the country as well as implementing a structured program to help local coaches acquire international standards.
“We expect 33 percent growth in terms of compound annual growth rate and believe both the men’s and women’s leagues are capable of recovering the investment and turning profitable by the end of their respective third seasons,” added Agrawal.
It also plans to provide necessary international exposure and foreign training opportunities to the Indian players through the league.
The first season will have six teams and the first team will be rolled out by the end of August. And by November all the teams will be closed. So far, along with corporates, Bollywood celebrities have also shown interest.
Besides team owners, the company has also started discussions with the sponsors.
“There are brands from Europe that are showing interest and they want to enter the Indian market so they are looking at long-term deals. Indian companies with the current market situation with IPOs, there are mandates for companies to invest in sports. And, the Olympics is going to help us in raising funds as well. If we talk about big companies, around 15 at the moment have shown interest and we are expecting around 100 companies to get associated,” Abhinav Banthia, President of Bluesport Entertainment had told Moneycontrol in an earlier interview.