Wimbledon's India Strategy: Tapping Cricket Fandom, AI, and Star Power for Growth

New Delhi: Wimbledon is strategically targeting the Indian market by leveraging the nation's passion for cricket. Recognizing the immense popularity of cricket, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) aims to create collaborative opportunities rather than directly competing with the sport.

Indian cricket stars like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, and Sachin Tendulkar have been frequent attendees at the Wimbledon Championships. Their presence underscores the tournament's appeal and its efforts to expand its reach in India. Rohit Sharma's Wimbledon-related Instagram post garnered a record 4.5 million likes, highlighting the potential for engagement.

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain serves during a practice session prior to The Championships Wimbledon 2025 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Brendan Dinen, Head of Marketing at Wimbledon, explained to TimesofIndia.com, "Cricket is much loved and certainly king for Indian audiences. So rather than trying to compete with that, I think it's about trying to find interesting ways to collaborate. Both sports are rich in heritage. England and India Test matches are happening now. So I think there's interesting ways to be able to bring that to life for audiences, so that they might want to come and watch it as well."

Wimbledon is exploring various avenues to connect with Indian audiences:

• Collaborating with Indian social media influencers to provide exclusive behind-the-scenes experiences.
• Partnering with Star Sports to create cross-promotional content blending tennis and cricket, such as trailers aired during the IPL.
• AELTC are working with PVR INOX to take the finals to large screen theaters.

Despite its prestige, Wimbledon acknowledges the potential for further growth. Last year, the tournament saw 60-70 million engagements across broadcast and social media platforms. With a potential audience of over a billion in India, there's significant "headroom" for expansion, particularly among the country's younger demographic.

Dinen emphasized the importance of engaging younger audiences: "Younger audiences and audiences of the future are crucial to us. It's clear in the activity that we focus on and our content strategy, whether that's for Instagram, YouTube and the sort of content we create."

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain celebrates Wimbledon 2024 title (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Wimbledon aims to engage wider audiences by:

• Creating content tailored for social media platforms.
• Collaborating with influencers and content creators.
• Recognizing India as a sport-loving nation where Wimbledon can appeal beyond just tennis enthusiasts.

To further enhance fan engagement, Wimbledon is embracing technology. The tournament is leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI), in partnership with IBM, on its app and website.

During live matches, the 'Match Chat' assistant provides fans with immediate responses and match analysis, allowing them to engage using pre-written prompts or their own questions.

Dinen concluded, "We continue to embrace technology, and it sits at the heart of the balance between heritage and innovation... We've brought experiences to life in places like Roblox. So we absolutely want to make sure we bring the brand and the Championships to life in new and interesting ways."