INDIAN GOLF PREMIER LEAGUE
From whiteboard concept to ₹25Cr funded league.
A serious investor came to us with a thesis and a question. The thesis: India has the population, the income, and the country club infrastructure for a domestic golf league that pays its players properly. The question: what would it actually take to make this real?
We took the brief seriously. Within ninety days we had pressure-tested the format against three comparable leagues, modelled the unit economics, mapped the broadcast landscape, and identified the eight city markets that could carry franchises. The thesis held. The work began.
THE WORK.
League architecture
Format design, scoring system, season structure, draft mechanism. The thing players and broadcasters had to fall in love with.
Brand identity system
League marks, franchise visual systems, broadcast graphics package, signage. A full design language built to live across stadium, broadcast, and digital.
Investor narrative
The deck, the financial model, the strategic positioning that put ₹25 crore in escrow. We wrote it. We presented it. We answered the room.
Franchise sales
Eight city franchises sourced, vetted, signed. Each one a separate negotiation, a separate set of expectations to manage.
Broadcast partnership
Linear plus OTT deal architecture. The economics that turned a tournament into a media property.
Press launch
42 million in earned reach across the launch quarter. Mint cover, ESPN feature, Forbes India profile, twelve trade pieces.
The hardest part was not the launch. It was making the league feel inevitable by the time the launch happened — like it should have existed all along.
OPERATING LESSONS.
- 01The deck is the asset. The investor narrative is not a sales tool — it is the founding document of the company. We rewrote IGPL's deck six times. Each rewrite removed a question that the room would ask. By round seven, the room was nodding.
- 02Franchises buy belief, not slots. Each franchise owner had to be sold a vision of what their city's team would mean over a decade. The ones who only saw a one-season opportunity were politely declined.
- 03Broadcast is a chicken-and-egg trap. Networks want to see audience traction before they commit. Audience traction needs broadcast distribution. We resolved this with a structured OTT-first window that built a watchable product before linear came in.
WHAT THE LEDGER SAYS.
START YOUR OWN CASE.
Three new clients a quarter. The first conversation is unhurried, free, and structured to be useful whether or not we end up working together.