India’s Sports and Gaming industries are currently in the throes of an unprecedented transformation. A host of factors, including a large youth population, the rise of new media platforms, and a rise in disposable income have combined to create a favourable environment for the growth of these industries in recent years. The digital economy has created unprecedented opportunities for all kinds of content creators, marketers and distributors and we believe that the next sunrise sector within this ecosystem will be that of Esports.

Indian Sport has seen the advent of new franchise-based leagues across different sports, including Badminton, Kabaddi and Football, which have opened up huge opportunities for job-creation, monetization, league administration and team management.

While the traditionally dominant sport of Cricket has attracted unprecedented bids for broadcast rights, digital media rights and sponsorship rights, we foresee see other sports and esports mounting a robust challenge to Cricket’s dominance in the 2020s and beyond.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is a significant amount of initiative that is being undertaken by a huge number of civil society organizations to promote Olympic Sports, Grassroots Sports and Sports For Development.

How Do We Help Sports and Gaming Organizations?

• Since its inception, GLA has been recognized for the depth of its experience and expertise in each of these industries. We have advised on several landmark transactions in these industries.
• Our attorneys have also written extensively on sports and gaming laws, and taught courses on sports law and gaming laws at leading law schools and business schools in India.
• Our experience in sports combined with our experience in technology licensing, intellectual property and commercial contracting, enables us to serve the entire spectrum of SEG industry clients.
• We regularly represent sports and gaming-themed venture capital funds, sponsors, owners of professional sports teams, social and digital media platforms, sports-tech startups, coaches and individual professional athletes.

Representative Experience

• Represented Australian Test Captain, Pat Cummins, on the structuring of his Investment Agreement and the Brand Endorsement Agreement with Healthquad, a unique health and fitness platform that offers 360- degree view of health statistics to its users.
• Represented Lumikai Fund, an venture capital firm that is investing in early-stage gaming and interactive media startups in India, on multiple investment transactions.
• Represented an early stage venture capital firm on the structuring of its investment into, and exit from, an online poker platform.