Ludhiana-based entrepreneur starts a sports consultancy to get more people playing

Sartaj Khan always had an inclination towards sports. Getting an MBA degree from Bangalore, Sartaj worked for a couple of years to save up enough that he could put in his sports venture. “I was always passionate about sports and was saddened by the sorry state of sports in the country,” says Sartaj. In 2012, Sartaj moved back to his hometown Ludhiana in Punjab to start up Sportz Entertainment Media.“I was encouraged by the popularity as well as the feasibility for this business which I must say it acted as a catalysts to move forward,” says Sartaj. The idea of the venture is to get more people playing sports, be it schools or corporates. Sportz Entertainment Media provides various services like conducting and managing sports events, give monthly or yearly sports programs for schools and corporates, sponsorship acquisition, etc.

An year into the business, Sartaj has managed to get 32 schools under his umbrella in Ludhiana and has some big corporates as well - Volvo Cars, Tata Steel, Monte Carlo, SK Bikes, Tata Motors and Allahabad Bank to name a few. A team of seven at the moment, Sportz Entertainment has coaches in various sports which help the students. The revenue model for consultancy works with a monthly or an yearly package with a flat monthly plan of INR 12,000.

Sportz Entertainment helps schools design their sports calendar and also get sponsors for their events. “It was hard in the beginning but once we had a few schools, the word spread. We want to expand to the whole of Punjab by next year,” says Sartaj. Sportz Entertainment has a completely offline play but we're slowly seeing more startups explore the sports area. We recently covered Chauka which is a Cricinfo for amateur cricketers, and there are other portals like Square Drive building a platform for sport enthusiasts.

Website: Sportz Entertainment Media