Rathindra Basu, IMG vice president and head of India, South Asia and regional sales APAC, is a veteran in the sports ecosystem with over 25 years in the business. In a conversation with SportzPower, Basu offered a deep dive into the vision for the coming decade at the global sports marketing agency, now under the TKO Group Holdings umbrella.

Rathindra Basu, IMG vice president and head of India, South Asia and regional sales APAC, is a veteran in the sports ecosystem with over 25 years in the business. In a conversation with SportzPower, Basu offered a deep dive into the vision for the coming decade at the global sports marketing agency, now under the TKO Group Holdings umbrella.

Basu explained that the company has undergone a fundamental shift under president Adam Kelly. "We are trying to get away from a purely transactional business and have now evolved into a full service, embedded partner for a client or a federation," he said.

This means providing strategic advice and end-to-end delivery through capability centres including production (IMG Studios), rights, consulting, events, and digital.

The agency now demands more “skin in the game" from its consultants. Basu noted that clients such as JioStar or Sony want an agency to be "a part of their DNA and work almost like a division or a department within their organisation".