Prime Volleyball to look for investors as value tops $90 million

livemint.com:

MUMBAI : Prime Volleyball League, India’s first private sporting league, will soon start looking at getting a strategic investor, as its valuation has more than quadrupled since its inception to over $90 million, said a top executive. Prime Volleyball was co-founded in 2021 by Indian sports marketing firm Baseline Ventures, the erstwhile promoter of the Pro Volleyball league, along with five original franchise owners of the now-defunct Pro Volleyball.

In 2020, just after the initial season of Pro Volleyball, the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) and Baseline got embroiled in a dispute and the federation terminated the 10-year contract with Baseline, alleging breach of trust. While the Madras high court-appointed arbitrator found the contract termination wrongful and awarded ₹4.5 crore to Baseline as compensation, the sports marketing agency got the support of five franchise owners to launch a private volleyball league in the country that has an operating structure similar to NBA (National Basketball Association), Major League Soccer (MLS) and other US sporting leagues, where team owners are also stakeholders in the leagues.

In 2022, the first edition of Prime Volleyball took place with seven franchises, of which five had been part of Pro Volleyball. Since then, the league has added one new franchise every season.

Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, co-founders of the payments platform PhonePe, acquired the eighth franchise, Mumbai Meteors, last year, while Alok Sanghi, director of the Sanghi Group, bought the ninth team, the Delhi Toofans, ahead of the third season. “We are delighted and honoured to witness the response from top businesses and organizations, showcasing their interest in partnering with Prime Volleyball