Sign in with Google Before 2010, the year of the Indian Premier League (IPL)’s first-ever online broadcast, sports advertising was like a sprint for limited opportunities.
Brands raced for airtime during live matches on linear TV. And if your ad didn’t catch spectators’ attention during that narrow window, there were no second innings.
Read the Think Sports 2026 marketing playbook to elevate your strategies
Today, sports marketing is more like a marathon. Sports fans are active 24/7 and are consuming always-on content — throughout the live match season and beyond — on digital platforms like Google and YouTube.
Savvy CMOs know this. So they’re pacing their 2026 marketing strategies to efficiently reach sports audiences across multiple channels year-round, as our latest Sports marketing playbook shows.
Here, we share key insights and strategies from the playbook to help your brand connect better with modern Indian fans.
Fans stream, scroll, search and shop 24/7 across non-live content journeys
Sports fans’ viewing journeys used to be passive and confined to the few hours when the ball was in play. Today, the live game is just one part of fans’ 24/7 cycle of immersion in digital content.
Our data shows that on average, Indian sports fans spend 20% more time on non-live content than on live sports events.1
And as sports fans watch, they’re seamlessly streaming, scrolling, searching, and shopping. Those 4S behaviours take place across three stages of their fluid viewing journeys: building anticipation for the game; engaging in game-time action, and reliving match moments in the aftermath.
Anticipation: Fan communities build excitement before the live match by streaming and scrolling through video clips and podcasts, and searching for details like player statistics or match lineups.
Fans’ digital engagement actually peaks before matches and during breaks, rather than during the live play itself, Capgemini Research Institute’s survey of global sports audiences, including Indians, found. Nearly 70% of surveyed fans want access to player metrics and match data before the live event.
Action: Game time is a multi-screen experience for most viewers. For example, 90% of viewers are active on another screen while watching live sport.2
Aftermath: Fans’ excitement climax after the match ends, as they relive key moments through celebratory non-live content, such as post-game recaps and analyses by YouTube creators like Gaurav Kapur, whose Oaktree Sports channel has 2.1 million subscribers.
That fan behaviour is driven by the rise of “Crictubers.” These cricket YouTubers no longer just provide match recaps, they act as emotional mirrors for fans. They react to game moments with the exact kind of humour, tone, and technical depth that their audiences love, instantly validating fans’ own reactions and deepening their connection to the sport.
And that’s why fandom journeys can continue for days or even months: 42% of fans engage several times a week with sports content even after the season is over.3
India’s diverse fans choose Google and YouTube for top sports content
As fans cycle through immersive viewing journeys, they’re turning to digital platforms for rich sports content that meets their diverse interests and wards off viewer fatigue.
And the platforms where Indian sports fans of both genders, all ages, and all types — from avid to casual to curious fans — stay continuously engaged across all 4S behaviours are Google and YouTube.
Whether they’re devoted followers savouring in-depth insights from sports experts and legends; fans who enjoy entertainment “inside-the-ropes” access, or viewers drawn to comic Shorts and fun sports memes, audiences can always find content that matches their interests best on those two platforms.
And their increasing usage is seen in the steady climb in Search intent and YouTube views across multiple IPL seasons.
Google is where Indian users satisfy their curiosity about sports. Their avid search interest in cricket matches and personalities, for example, topped the country’s Search trends in 2025. And AI Mode in Search lets users get in-depth insights that fuel fans’ daily discussions.
And YouTube is where most viewers stream and scroll through sports content: 67% of viewers in India watch sports content on YouTube, versus 48% on over-the-top platforms and 53% on social media.4 Here are two reasons why it’s the preferred platform for fans of all kinds:
1. Top-notch, multiformat content: For example, India’s female viewers5 and Gen Z (aged 18-27)6 say YouTube Shorts is the No. 1 short-form video platform for sports content compared to other short-form video platforms (Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels), according to a Kantar survey.
2. Resonant creator-led content: Across all demographic and fan groups, audiences find their preferences met by YouTube creators’ ever-expanding universe of non-live videos. In fact, according to a survey by MTM, 85% of surveyed viewers in India say they feel like creators on YouTube know them, their tastes and preferences, outperforming Instagram.7
Win the marketing marathon: Grow impact using creator-led marketing and deeper storytelling
Our insights on India’s year-round, 24/7 sports fandom can help reposition your brand’s strategies for stronger ROI.
That’s what brands across myriad verticals, like Gulf Oil, Nautilus Mobile, Poco, and Swiggy, have already done. Food delivery platform Swiggy, for example, drove significant brand impact by leveraging YouTube’s non-live sports content during the 2025 IPL season.
Rather than concentrating ad budget on a sprint for brand exposure during live broadcasts, savvy brands are pacing investments across immersive platforms like Google and YouTube. From our playbook of strategies to help CMOs win the upcoming sports season, we share three ways for growing year-round brand impact:
1. Reach more audiences on Google and YouTube
Make your brand an integral part of the fan conversations surrounding every sporting event, from pre-match predictions to post-game memes.
And those conversations are happening on YouTube, where views of cricket-related content in India rose to 190 billion views in India, up from 50 billion views in mid-2024.8
To efficiently maximise your reach with these fast-growing sports audiences, use YouTube Masthead to showcase your brand before and during a match. That lets you secure massive front-page visibility for instant impact during key game moments.
2. Win customers using creator-led marketing
To make your ads truly resonate with sports audiences, move beyond the live match window and integrate your ad messaging into YouTube creators’ authentic, trustworthy content. According to a survey by Kantar, 87% of surveyed viewers in India agree that YouTube has the most trusted creators for product recommendations while shopping, outperforming the competitive average (78%), which includes Facebook, Instagram, and Moj MX Takatak.9
Tap YouTube Select Lineups featuring cricket content to align your brand with top-tier cricketers and high-intent fan communities. Additionally, with more than 15,000 channels each boasting over 1 million subscribers on YouTube,10 you can find the right partners to seamlessly drive brand consideration at scale.
3. Unlock deeper storytelling at scale
Video views campaigns and 30-second non-skippable in-stream ads provide the canvas to run your longer, high-quality ad assets. That ensures your full brand story reaches a highly engaged audience across Connected TV and mobile devices, which cannot be done with fleeting ads during traditional broadcasts.
For more winning strategies, read the full 2026 Sports Marketing playbook
Whether you’re a leading or challenger brand, investing in Google Search and YouTube marketing can help you effectively reach India’s fans. Explore our 2026 playbook for more strategies to ace the “game beyond the game.”
Contributors: Pushkar Joshi, Account Manager; Pooja Baluja, Associate Product Marketing Manager
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