The Indian Premier League (IPL) remains the only Asia Pacific sports property priced at the top of the global market, commanding about $12.4 million per match, on par with the English Premier League, according to new research from Media Partners Asia (MPA). Despite the IPL’s strength, growth in the region’s sports rights fees is expected to slow dramatically to between 1% and 2% annually through 2030, a sharp drop from around 10% per year since 2021.
MPA’s report, “APAC’s Sports Economy and Where Value Goes Next,” analyzes 14 markets and more than 150 rights contracts, revealing India’s dominant role in the regional sports economy. India accounted for more than half the increase in rights fees since 2021, and 64% of all fees are now concentrated in the 12 most valuable rights packages. By contrast, Korea’s KBO baseball league earns roughly $100,000 per match, highlighting the wide gap between top-tier and smaller properties.
The study estimates the region’s commercial sports economy will reach $16.2 billion by 2026, with media rights valued at $6.1 billion, followed by sponsorship at $4.7 billion, ticketing and hospitality at $3.9 billion, and merchandise at $1.5 billion. Rights fees have risen 58% over five years to $5.7 billion. The broader sports economy is projected to grow about 5% annually, reaching around $19.5 billion by 2030, with sponsorship and ticket sales driving most of that increase.
The report highlights streaming services as a growing force, accounting for 50% of rights fees this year, up from 36% in 2021. MPA said streamers now set pricing in most markets, although only 3% of fans who returned to a sport did so because it was available on a platform they already used.
“This is not the end of sport’s boom in Asia Pacific. It is the end of the easy part,” said Vivek Couto, CEO and executive director of MPA. He pointed out the region generates about $4 in commercial sports revenue per person, compared with over $200 in North America. “That gap is not a ceiling. It is headroom. The next dollar will come from the seat, the sponsor, the local star and the women’s game, and it will go to the rights-holders who know their fans by name,” he added.
MPA forecasts sponsorship priced on audience data could grow 6% to 7% annually through 2030. Markets such as China, India, Korea, and Southeast Asia still trail the global benchmark for sponsorship spending as a share of GDP. If those regions closed half that gap, the company said the region could gain about $5.4 billion a year.
Japan, women’s competitions, and homegrown stars are identified as the areas most likely to attract competing bids. Japan’s subscription streaming market, worth $6.4 billion, dwarfs its sports rights fees by a factor of six. In India, the 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup final attracted 185 million digital viewers, and MPA expects bidding competition for women’s properties to increase, starting with the Women’s Premier League’s 2028 rights cycle.
Local properties are drawing growing crowds. Korea’s KBO baseball league set a record attendance of 12.3 million in 2025, up from 7.3 million in 2019. In Japan, more than 25 million viewers watched the opening game of Major League Baseball’s 2025 Tokyo Series, while the Nippon-Ham Fighters’ revenue rose 59% above 2019 levels in their first year as owners of Es Con Field.
Since 2021, MPA tallied roughly $14 billion in investment and ownership changes in Asia Pacific sport, mainly focused on IPL franchises and venues. The company noted that while this spending has secured scarce assets, it has not yet generated significant cash flow.
MPA’s companion study, “APAC Sports Fandom: The Consumer’s Voice,” polled 10,249 fans across six markets and found that personal connections remain the most common way new fans enter a sport. Thirty-five percent of respondents said they were introduced to a sport by someone they knew, compared with 14% who cited a major event.
Independent creators hold significant attention, capturing 42% to 43% of sports viewing hours on YouTube in Korea and Thailand. League and club channels account for 10% to 19% of viewing time. Fans who follow players, pundits, or creators are almost twice as likely to spend money on sport, with 84% reporting spending in the past year compared to 43% of those who do not follow such figures.
“Fans follow their country, their club and the player from home, and global leagues win fans here through a local star,” said Dhivya T, head of insights at ampd and MPA, presenting the fan research at the Asia Pacific Online Sports (APOS) Sports Edge forum held in Singapore.
The forum featured more than 30 speakers, including Liberty Media president and CEO Derek Chang, LaLiga president Javier Tebas, JioStar vice chair Uday Shankar, and executives from Prime Video Sport, Tving, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team, Bundesliga, J.League, Netflix, and YouTube. The event ran in the lead-up to Singapore’s Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend.
According to Yahoo Sports.