How LaLiga Is Putting Football On The Map In India
February 21, 2020
This month LaLiga marks three years since it arrived on the Indian subcontinent and began a series of projects designed to grow the reputation of the league and football in general. From its office in New Delhi, it has built one of the competition’s largest fanbases outside of Spain and embraced new digital trends, while increasing access to the country’s second-favourite sport.
The challenges of entering a market like India are clear, from the relatively low profile that football has in the country to the lack of a Spanish-speaking population. Despite this, LaLiga has been able to make significant progress in its time here and is well positioned for future growth.
Between 2016 and today, the competition has grown its online following from 300,000 to over 4 million. Across the whole Indian subcontinent, this number reaches more than 10 million, which represents 10% of LaLiga’s global followers. Fans have also been engaged in person, with more than 50,000 people attending viewing parties of LaLiga matches in 2018 alone. Meanwhile more than 10,000 youngsters have been trained in the game through the LaLiga Football Schools initiative.
The reasons for this success lie in a wide-ranging strategy that the league has implemented. However, one of the key initiatives has been a first-of-its-kind broadcast agreement with Facebook that allows fans on the Indian subcontinent to stream live LaLiga matches for free. Matches broadcast on the platform are now receiving engagement from more than 1.1 million fans in some cases, while LaLiga’s Indian following on Facebook has also overtaken that of the Premier League.
“Broadcasting through digital platforms creates more opportunity for real-time engagement, which is very important for growth” said José Antonio Cachaza, the managing director for LaLiga in India. “Everything we do has to resonate on digital platforms for us to be successful.”
Building a strong digital platform has helped the competition to carry out a series of successful campaigns with clubs and local stakeholders. Initiatives of note include Girona FC’s trip to play against Kerala Blasters in Kochi, a partnership with fantasy football creators Dream11, working with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation to promote women’s football in rural India and the naming of cricket legend Rohit Sharma as the first ever Brand Ambassador of LaLiga in India.
Commenting on the success achieved so far, LaLiga President Javier Tebas said: “Our three years in India have passed very quickly and we have accomplished our sporting and commercial objectives. To all our fans in India, who follow us through Facebook and other platforms, we can say that our work is only just beginning.”
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