- Flagship Case Study
India's largest badminton tournament. Free for 10 years. A revenue engine in two seasons.
The Yonex-Sunrise India Open, a BWF Super 750 event run by the Badminton Association of India, had offered free entry for over a decade. Ticmint partnered with BAI to change that. Season 1 (2025): 9,305 tickets issued, fans reached across 95+ countries. Season 2 (2026): 13,062 tickets, 500K+ new users, 138 countries, +27% revenue growth. Two structured seasons. One replicable blueprint for sports revenue in India.
- Badminton
- New Delhi, India
- BAI
- BWF Super 750
- 2 Seasons
- The Results
The numbers after two seasons.
The Challenge
For over a decade, India's biggest badminton tournament asked fans for nothing. And got exactly that in return.
The Yonex-Sunrise India Open is a BWF Super 750 event — top 20 players, fans from 100+ countries, Asia’s biggest badminton stage. For more than ten years, every seat was free.
- No ticketing revenue — a global sporting property with zero commercial infrastructure.
- No fan records — no attendee data, no remarketing, no audience ownership.
- No way to scale — event impact had never been measured, let alone grown.
BAI needed a partner to architect the full transition — free entry to paid, unknown crowds to owned fan data, one-off event to repeatable revenue engine.
How Ticmint Helped
One platform. Built around the tournament.
Not a set of features. A purpose-built system for 13,000 attendees, 138 countries, and zero room for error.
Tiered ticketing that earns
Courtside, Premium, General, structured so every fan had a natural home. Sold out within days.
Full fan data ownership
Every attendee registered. BAI owns the CRM, not a marketplace. Remarketing starts now.
Frictionless entry at scale
Dynamic QR codes. Mobile scanning on the ground. 13,000 fans in, no queues, no paper.
Marketing run end to end
Meta Ads, Google Ads, WhatsApp automations, all coordinated. 3X ROAS. 500K+ new users.
The Transformation
Free for 10 years. Revenue-generating in two seasons.
- SEASON 1 · 2025
“The first question was simple: will fans pay? They did.”
BAI launched the first-ever paid ticketing for the India Open. Structured tiers. Early-bird phases. Digital-first checkout. Fans across 95+ countries bought tickets. The question was answered.
9,300+ tickets · 95+ countries
- SEASON 2 · 2026
“Built for scale. Revenue grew +27%. 138 countries.”
With proof in hand, Season 2 was built for scale. Wider pricing architecture, higher value tiers, performance marketing with full attribution. Average ticket value grew +22%. 500K+ new users acquired.
13,000+ tickets · 138 countries · +27% revenue
Pre-2025
Fans prove they pay
+27% revenue scale
Repeatable model
Two Seasons. One Proven Model. Free → Paid → Scalable Revenue Engine.
Global Reach
A badminton tournament in New Delhi. Fans in 138 countries.
India Open 2026 wasn’t just an India story. Fans from 138 countries purchased tickets, up from 95+ in Season 1. 500K+ new users were acquired across the two seasons. 7M+ organic social impressions reached a global badminton audience that didn’t previously have a direct relationship with BAI.
With Ticmint, every one of those fans became a data point BAI owns. Not a number in a marketplace dashboard. A contact, a remarketing audience, a foundation for next season’s campaign.
The Bigger Picture
One tournament. A blueprint for an entire sport.
The India Open proved something bigger than a single ticketing case study. It showed that Indian sports properties, even those with decade-long free-entry cultures, can be structured into scalable, data-driven revenue engines.
India’s sports economy is growing at 14% CAGR, from $52B in 2024 toward $130B by 2030. Badminton alone is a $103.5M market growing at 9.8% CAGR. The infrastructure to monetise this demand is not yet built for most federations, clubs, and associations. The India Open model shows what’s possible.
The model is replicable. For any federation, any sport, any government-backed sporting event ready to own its audience instead of giving it away.
India sports economy: $52B (2024) → $130B by 2030
“From ₹0 in gate revenue to a +27% YoY growth trajectory, the India Open is proof that Indian sports monetisation is ready to scale.”
"Ticmint Professionalizes Sports Ticketing with Scalable Digital Infrastructure"
I’d recommend Ticmint to any large-scale sports federation or event organizer who is still struggling with manual gate management or opaque sales data. If you are looking to professionalize your commercial operations and want a partner that understands the high-pressure environment of live sports, they are an excellent choice for scaling digital infrastructure.
Mr. Sayan Pal
Secretary General, Badminton Association of India
The Atmosphere
13,000 fans. 138 countries. One stadium.
Every ticket scanned. Every fan registered. Every seat counted — for the first time.
Ready to build the same model for your sport?
The India Open blueprint is replicable. Ticmint works with sports federations, clubs, and government bodies across India, UAE, and globally, building structured ticketing, data ownership, and performance marketing infrastructure for any sporting property ready to grow.