How has Kabaddi League fared till now?

Pro Kabaddi the league now known as Vivo Pro Kabaddi league has become the second most famous league of India after IPL. Initiated in 2014 with an attempt to take Kabaddi game at the professional level, there were doubts over whether PKL would be successful or not because at that time there were very few well-known kabaddi players. But the viewership stats were surprising as the inaugural season was viewed by approximately 430 million people and the number increased to 552 million in the next season. It followed the Indian Premier League (IPL) model since its inception.

Season one started with eight teams fighting for the title but three years later, i.e., in 2015, with the addition of four new franchise in the league, PKL became the largest league of India in terms of a number of teams. Total twelve franchise played this year, and U Mumba lifted the trophy. Till now, Patna Pirates are the most consistent team of PKL history as the team has won the lifted the trophy thrice while Bengaluru Bulls are the defending PKL champions.

At present, the seventh edition of Kabaddi is going on, and double round-robin format is being followed this year in which all the teams will play each other twice. Total twelve teams are fighting out for the prestigious title. Four new teams UP Yoddha, Tamil Thalaivas, Haryana Steelers, and Gujarat Fortunegiants have been named in the league this year.

 As per the available data of the opening two weeks of 2019, Star Sports Pro Kabaddi TRP on TV increased by nearly 56% from the 2014 year's viewership. Apart from this, the online viewership also increased by 1.3 crore unique visitors, which is 18.5 times than of last year's 7 lakh unique visitors.

PKL’s the journey has been remarkable till now. Over the years it provided a platform to Indian talent to showcase their skills and capabilities on the big stage. It gave excellent opportunities to Indian player to get fame and money. The likes of Siddharth Desai, Nitin Tomar, Deepak Niwas Hooda, Fazel Atrachali, etc. have been PKL 2019 top earners. The Indian all-rounder, Manjeet Chhillar who has been part of PKL since inception was the costliest buy of 2017 with 75.5 lakhs, the number that was soon overtaken in 2018 auction where six players entered crore club. And this year Telegu Titans signed Siddharth Desai for Rs 1.45 crore.

Now, with PKL’s increasing popularity with time, fantasy kabaddi is also influencing people. Instead of just watching PKL, people are participating in different fantasy kabaddi league on multiple fantasy sports apps with their teams and experiencing the thrill of victory by earning real cash.