MUMBAI, June 25 -- With a staggering 1.19 billion viewers and over 514 billion minutes of watch time, Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 has set a new benchmark for live sports in India. But behind the record numbers is a strategic gamble that Sanjog Gupta, chief executive-sports and live experiences, JioStar, says goes far beyond cricket.

Speaking at the APOS 2025 summit in Bali, Gupta revealed that the company has pumped more than $500 million to build a platform-led sports ecosystem, in addition to the rights acquisition costs, over the past 15 years.

"While numbers around acquisition prices for sports rights tend to be thrown around a lot, what at times gets missed is the sheer investment that a network such as ours has made to grow t...