The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the most significant disruption to the sports Industry volume since World War II. Across the world and to varying degrees, sports events have been cancelled or postponed.

 The pandemic and the ensuing event cancellations have drilled a large impact on sports in 2020, reducing the overall industry size by over 34% to Rs 5,894 crore in 2020 as against over Rs 9,000 crore in the year-ago period.

The Sports, ESports and Entertainment company's Head for South Asia Vinit Karnik termed 2020 as an "outlier year" which cannot be compared to any previous ones. "The running events in January/February, IPL in October and Indian cricket team playing in Australia were the only events that took place," Karnik said. In the overall industry pie, the biggest share went to media, where advertisement spends on TV, digital and print media contributed to Rs 3,657 crore or 62% of the total spends, the yearly GroupM ESP Sporting Report said.

Sponsorship spends, which included on-ground sponsorships, team sponsorships and franchise fee, stood at Rs 1,673 crore, contributing 28% to the industry pie, the report said. Athlete endorsements increased by 5% as compared to 2019 despite the ravages of the pandemic, the report said. During the period of inactivity in sports, there was a significant step jump in the level of social media influencer activity among popular athletes, it said.

 Cricketers commanded 92% of the pie here as 275 of the 377 endorsement deals involved sportspersons from the game, it added. The year gone by (2020) also saw female athletes pulling in brands, the agency's report said.

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