The annual revenue from China’s professional sports industry will reach 1.6 trillion yuan (US$242 billion) by 2025, according to a report by China eCapital Corp.

As stated in the report, the sector is expected to grow at a rate of more than 20% from 2016 to 2025.

At the same time, amateur recreational sports will grow from the current 1.2 trillion yuan to 3.5 trillion yuan. It is said that the growth will be mostly driven by broadcasting rights fees for professional sporting events.

The report believes that this trend started with Ti’ao Dongli’s whopping 8 billion yuan bid to air Chinese Super League games from 2016 to 2020. Later, the company resold the first two seasons rights to LeSports for 2.7 billion yuan.

It explains "the capital market has apparently been paying more attention to the sports industry in the past year as the industry enters a period of explosive growth."

China's ongoing acquisition of global sporting properties has reportedl seen China Media Capital (CMC) and the  Dalian Wanda Group this week bid US$4.1 billion for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

11th May 2016 - CHINESE SPORTS INDUSTRY TO BE WORTH MORE THAN US$460 BILLION BY END OF 2020

21st March 2016 - WANDA GROUP PARTNERS WITH FIFA

3rd March 2016 - ADIDAS LOOKS TO BE OPERATING 12,000 STORES IN CHINA BY 2020

10th February 2016 - CHINA TO HAVE 20,000 SCHOOLS SPECIALISING IN FOOTBALL BY 2017

18th December 2015 - CHINA ADVANCES MASSIVE INVESTMENT IN YOUTH FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT

10th September 2015 - ALIBABA GROUP LAUNCHES DEDICATED SPORTS VENTURE

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