How Digital-First Viewing is Changing Sports Marketing in India

Remember the time when we used to get ads in between cricket matches? The cricket icons like Virendra Sehwag and Rahul Dravid in Britannia ad or the Pepsi ad featuring Shahrukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar, all these ads kept us glued to the screen. For brands, it was all about jingles, jerseys, and the billboards. 

But now in 2025, would those ads still work? Everyone has a phone, and sitting in front of the TV is no longer the only way audiences consume content. Thanks to smartphones, tablets, and OTT platforms, viewers can watch cricket anytime, anywhere. From highlights to live matches, it’s all there—all you need is a good internet connection. 

As the audience evolves, it’s time brands renew their marketing tactics. It’s not just about promotion anymore, but capturing emotions and truly connecting with fans. Let’s discover how this digital-first viewing is rewriting sports marketing in India and how brands can ride this wave to win hearts. 

Why OTT Is The New “Star Sports” For Sports Marketing

Earlier, cricket ruled India’s heart, with football and a few others trailing. But smartphone access rising to 695 million users means other sports—kabaddi, badminton, hockey—are lighting up screens too. People watch matches everywhere: while traveling, working out, or just chilling. Cricket still leads with 492 million fans, but kabaddi (120M), football (85M), hockey (70M), badminton (60M), and kho-kho (64M) pack solid fan bases. This growth offers brands an undivided audience’s attention. 

IPL itself was streamed by 620 million viewers last year, generating 350 billion minutes of content consumption. OTT platforms like JioHotstar turned the game into a mobile-first spectacle with 4K streams and multi-language options including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, and even Haryanvi, helping capture fans in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Offering IPL in multiple vernacular streams created a massive opportunity for brands to reach these audiences at a fraction of the cost of traditional media. This means monolingual campaigns won’t cut it anymore; brands need targeted, regional messaging to resonate. 

Today, sports OTTs in India extends far beyond the JioHotstar-SonyLIV duopoly. FanCode has emerged as a serious contender with 30+ million downloads, streaming everything from Formula 1 and international cricket to niche tournaments like the Carabao Cup and Bangladesh Premier League.  

Meanwhile, CricHeroes is democratizing cricket from the bottom up—its app lets millions of grassroots players live-stream and score their local matches with professional-grade analytics, turning gully cricket into watchable content.  

Even telecom giants are muscling in: Airtel Xstream bundles sports with broadband plans, while Amazon Prime Video Channels now offers FanCode subscriptions directly. The fragmentation is intense, but it's also creating hyper-targeted opportunities—brands can now sponsor a kabaddi league on FanCode or align with grassroots cricket on CricHeroes, reaching passionate micro-audiences that traditional broadcast could never isolate. 

How OTT Platforms Are Creating Immersive Experience For Fans—and Brands 

OTT platforms like JioHotstar and Sony Live are redefining cricket consumption in India, blending traditional and digital with seamless partnerships—for instance, JioStar and Sony Pictures Networks India teamed up to stream India’s 2025-26 tours of England, combining exclusive live streaming on JioHotstar with Sony’s televised broadcasts. Beyond access, these platforms innovate with multi-angle views, player-focus modes, real-time stats, interactive fan zones, quizzes, and fantasy games. These immersive features keep fans engaged, making the viewing experience more personal and dynamic. 

Brands have a unique opportunity to engage digital-savvy sports audiences with deeper, trust-based storytelling as demonstrated by JSW Paints’ “Rangon Ka Khel 2.0” campaign for IPL 2025. Conceptualized by TBWA\India and featuring cricket legends Sunil Gavaskar and Mithali Raj, the campaign celebrates cricket’s vibrant spirit and unifying energy.  

Distributed widely across OTT platforms, it blends cinematic storytelling with community spirit, painting neighborhoods in the colors of IPL and WPL teams. By sponsoring five IPL and three WPL teams, JSW Paints builds emotional relevance and local connections, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where cricket fandom is passionately lived. The campaign exemplifies how brands can leverage OTT’s interactive and multi-dimensional capabilities to create vivid, culturally resonant experiences that engage fans beyond just the game. 

The Extra Homework Brands Need To Do For Effective Mobile-First Marketing 

Make Audiences Feel Valued on Mobile 

Engage fans through interactive contests, games, rewards, and exclusive merchandise linked to live sports moments and teams. Boat’s “Be a Boathead” campaign is a great example where fans were treated as community members, not just viewers. 

Target the Growing Mobile Audience in Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities 

With rural and smaller city audiences making up 59% of India’s sports viewers, vernacular streams are crucial. IPL’s multi-language streams saw significant growth from these regions, giving brands a cost-effective way to reach untapped audiences with targeted, regional content that TV can’t deliver. 

For example: Spinny’s impactful “God Promise” campaign launched during IPL 2025. Featuring cricket legend and strategic investor Sachin Tendulkar, Spinny’s campaign goes beyond traditional ads by pledging sincerity, reliability, and transparency in the used car buying journey. The campaign highlights Spinny’s industry-first 3-year warranty, a 5-day no-questions-asked return policy, and best price guarantees, all communicated with subtle, relatable visual stories starring Sachin.

Running across TV, digital, radio, OOH, and social media, including widespread visibility through high-impact transit and outdoor advertising in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, the “God Promise” campaign creates strong emotional connections grounded in trust and authenticity. 

Use Multiple Mobile Touchpoints in the Viewing Journey

Fans multitask—watching matches on one device while scrolling social, shopping, or ordering food on another. Brands that create connected experiences across these apps—using humor, localized messaging, or even shoppable ads—can capture attention more effectively. Blinkit nailed it by creating a post match ad campaign for Champions Trophy on instagram by humorously celebrating team India’s victory in Champions Trophy 2025. 

Tell Authentic Stories Beyond the Screen 

Authenticity resonates best. Campaigns highlighting athlete journeys, especially in regional contexts or minority sports, create deeper emotional connections. Tanishq’s “Dekhna Hai Toh Khel Dekho” campaign with para-archer Sheetal Devi showcased this beautifully. 

Making The Best Use Of Digital Viewership 

Digital viewership has transformed sports marketing from “TV ads” into rich, multi-channel, emotion-driven campaigns. OTT platforms like JioHotstar and Sony Live offer brands a unique chance to authentically connect with mass and vernacular audiences with rich analytics and targeting possibilities. With nearly 695 million smartphones users in India, the mobile-first opportunity is massive. 

The key for brands is not just to be visible but to be relevant—deeply understanding the nuances of mobile consumption, vernacular preferences, and the interactive nature of modern viewing. Mobile-first is not about TV vs mobile—it’s about grabbing attention wherever the fan is and offering an experience that’s truly engaging. 

Zupotsu is a martech platform on a mission to ‘digitize’ sports marketing. Zupotsu enables the discovery, engagement, and evaluation (the ‘DEE’ framework) for every sports and esports marketing asset. Please sign up at www.zupotsu.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. Reach out at ‘marketing@zupotsu.com’ for any queries.