Pretty much every sport in the country has a professional league and the list is growing by the day. Come November, motorsports will join the list with the X1 racing league, a concept started by Indian racers Aditya Patel and Armaan Ebrahim.
The league has been in the works for over a year and will kick-start in late November with eight city-based franchisees racing in New Delhi and Chennai.
eSports Championships
But before that, the nascent league has decided to start one of the largest eSports Championship in the country in September, across eight cities.
The plan is to hold it in colleges and shopping malls before the top three from each city fight it out in a grand finale.
Speaking to The Hindu, co-founder Aditya Patel said, “we have got great responses so far with some exciting international drivers which includes former F1 drivers and promising youngsters from junior categories.”
“We are starting with eSports because it is a [better] way to start from the grassroots than going through the traditional mode of going to a go-kart track. This way we go to the fan base — be it in colleges or public places like malls.”
Considering motorsports is not an easy sport to run — with huge costs involved in terms of machinery and track facilities — the league has ensured an all-inclusive and equal cap on the expenses of all teams.
A key person who has joined the team to make it a success is Ravi Krishnan, former IMG MD, who was instrumental in getting India’s first ATP event in the mid 90’s that had a two-decade run in Chennai before moving to Pune in 2018.
“My role as chairman of X1 is to work with the founders on commercial, operations, strategic and other critical aspects of the development of the Business and the Ecosystem. To build a sporting property, you need to think about the 2nd year and 3rd year while doing the first. While it is easier to get things started it’s much harder to keep them going and make them successful at scale.”
Big market
Speaking about the potential, Krishnan added. “India is potentially a big market for motorsports that is starting from a relatively low base – that is the opportunity! Motorsports has not yet gained mainstream traction, but the core fans still make for a very viable target group on which to build.
“With the integration of esports in X1, we are targeting a new and wider audience section that remains untapped. This target group increases the potential reach of X1.”