For the love of cricket and foodtech

There were pizza boxes with half-eaten pizzas, bottles of cola and packets of chips. The food lay forgotten, the Kohli and Dhoni combination was too much to take. Hunger would soon strike but there were options, and all we had to do was click a button. With the gripping matches and stellar performances of the Indian cricket team, most evenings are filled with food, friends, family and a large-screen telly.

This seems to be the story across the nation. Everyone seems to be glued to their television sets, and not moving out. A report by Walnut suggests that the online food spends during the recent India vs Australia match held on Sunday 27 March, increased by 50 per cent when compared to the previous Sunday. And interestingly, the report stated that the offline spends saw a drop of close to 40 per cent. The key merchants the reports have taken into consideration are Zomato, Swiggy, McDelivery, Pizza Hut delivery, FoodPanda, Box8, JustEat, Faaasos and TinyOwl.

The increase isn’t just in online food delivery; several reports by the Federation of Hotel and Restaurants Association of India (FHRAI) show that the there is an expected jump of 30 per cent in takeouts during the cricketing season.

It is no surprise that the pizza giants like Pizza Hut and Domino’s have attractive World Cup offers for large pizzas and beverages during the holiday season. McDonald’s, in fact, announced a new number where people across the country could dial in to place orders. Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald’s India North and East regions, told a leading national daily that they are expecting the average home delivery which, normally comprises 5 per cent of the sales to increase significantly during this and the coming month.

The team added that they have seen close to 15-20 per cent increase in delivery sales with the beginning of the World Cup. Papa John’s reportedly saw a 30 per cent increase in home deliveries.

While restaurant footfalls definitely drop during this season, many restaurants are trying to lure customers in by setting up LCDs at their premises. During one cricketing season, Pizza Hut is believed to have received close to 900 home delivery orders across its outlets in Chennai.