Abhishek Iyer has taken charge as Chief Marketing Officer at ACG Sports and the India Basketball League (IBL), bringing sports marketing experience from FanCode, Sony Pictures Networks India and Star TV Network to a league that still has to win over Indian audiences.
In a LinkedIn post announcing the move, Iyer said he is joining an ambitious team working to “build a league that goes far beyond the game itself.” His stated focus is to create fandom, culture and community around Indian basketball, not just to promote matches.
Why this CMO move matters
The appointment is more interesting than a routine executive shuffle because of the profile Iyer brings. At FanCode he was Director of Brand Marketing, handling brand strategy, audience acquisition and retention, and marketing around sports rights and content. Before that, at Sony Pictures Networks India, he worked on campaigns for cricket, tennis, UFC and WWE. At Star TV Network, he worked on the Pro Kabaddi League, including digital marketing, content strategy, public relations and fan engagement.
That last experience is the one to watch. Pro Kabaddi League is frequently held up as a case study in turning a low-profile sport into a prime-time television property, and the IBL is likely to need a similar community-led playbook if basketball is to grow beyond school and college courts.
From selling rights to building belonging
Iyer described the opportunity as marketing “the world’s second favourite sport to the largest population in the world.” The framing matters. It positions basketball as a global game with scale, while acknowledging that Indian fandom is still being built. The league’s first marketing challenge is not acquiring rights or selling tickets; it is giving viewers a reason to identify with teams, players and stories.
What marketers should watch
For marketing professionals, the IBL brief is a useful test of challenger-brand thinking. The sequence Iyer has outlined puts community and culture before promotion. If the league follows the Pro Kabaddi playbook, expect content, college programmes, creator partnerships and local rivalries to do much of the audience-building work before ticket sales and sponsorship pitches scale up.
- Build fandom before awareness: give fans a reason to belong, then scale reach.
- Treat communities as distribution: colleges, clubs and creators can carry the league’s story.
- Create culture, not just fixtures: content, language and rivalries build memory beyond match days.
The next chapter
Iyer joins ACG Sports at a moment when the league’s long-term marketing bet is clear: turn latent interest in basketball into visible fandom on mobile-first, community-driven platforms. For marketers, the early measures to track will be how quickly the IBL defines its audience, launches formats that suit short-form viewing and makes Indian basketball feel like a culture, not just a competition.
Source: SocialSamosa
