When we think of sport, what first comes to mind? The FIFA World Cup, Bangladesh’s cricket team, or teenagers playing grassroots games in local parks? Although these may seem like very different images, they are all part of the same global sports economy, which generates an estimated US$2.3 trillion annually, equivalent to nearly 2 per cent of global GDP, according to the World Economic Forum.
Today, sport is far more than athletic competition. It has evolved into a vast economic ecosystem encompassing media, broadcasting, tourism, hospitality, fitness services, event management, digital content, and many other industries. As it has become an integral part of the global service economy, it holds particular significance for Bangladesh, where the service sector contributes more than half of the country’s GDP.
Yet in Bangladesh, sport remains largely absent from mainstream economic thinking. It is still viewed as recreation, leisure, or, occasionally, as a source of national pride. That perspective is increasingly outdated and deserves serious reconsideration.
Bangladesh already possesses many of the foundations needed to build a thriving sports industry, including public investment, widespread public interest in sports, youth participation, growing consumer demand, sports goods markets and an expanding service sector. The real question, therefore, is not whether Bangladesh can build a sports industry, but whether it can transform existing sporting participation into sustainable, value-generating economic activity.
The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) provides an example of this. The 11th edition of the BPL in 2025 generated a record Tk12.25 crore from ticket sales alone and roughly US$3 million, or Tk35 crore, in broadcasting revenue. Bangladesh’s domestic sports goods market also indicates rising demand, currently estimated at around Tk1,000-1,500 crore annually and growing by 6-10 per cent. These figures may appear modest individually in macroeconomic terms, but collectively they suggest that Bangladesh already has a fragmented sports economy. The problem is that it remains largely unmeasured and under-organised.
Bangladesh does not maintain a formal sports satellite account or publish any dedicated estimate of sport’s contribution to GDP. Sports-related activity is scattered across broader categories such as retail, entertainment and construction. As a result, sport’s economic contribution remains difficult to assess.
Nonetheless, recent policy developments offer grounds for optimism. In the proposed FY2026-27 national budget, the government allocated Tk2,586 crore to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, a significant Tk782 crore increase from the revised allocation of the previous fiscal year, and announced plans to establish sports villages across all 64 districts.
These sports villages may follow one of two paths. They may remain conventional infrastructure projects whose impact is confined to construction expenditure, or they may evolve into local service hubs. If a district sports facility hosts two organised sporting weekends each month, the economic effects would extend beyond ticket sales or venue use. Visitors and participants would spend on transport, food, accommodation, equipment, photography, mobile payments, local retail and recreation. The event itself would be only one component of the wider value chain. To generate sustainable economic value, such facilities would need to operate as multi-use platforms rather than stand-alone venues.
Beyond this, sport also carries an employment dimension. The country’s demographic structure necessitates further exploration of this potential. Young people aged 15-29 account for around 28 per cent of the population, or nearly five crore individuals. The youth labour force stands at approximately 2.7 crore, while youth unemployment remains around 7.2 per cent, affecting about 19.4 lakh people.
Sport cannot absorb labour at the scale of manufacturing or export industries. But its employment potential can generate service-oriented opportunities in coaching, event management, facility operations, sports retail, physiotherapy, media production, digital content, fitness training, analytics, tourism and small entrepreneurship. Such jobs are particularly compatible with Bangladesh’s already service-led economy.
India offers an insightful case study. WPP Media’s Sporting Nation 2025 report values India’s sports market at US$2.13 billion in 2025, having doubled since 2021 while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. More than half of its value came from media spending, showing that growth was driven more by commercialisation than by athletic success alone.
For Bangladesh, the first requirement in this regard is measurement. A sports satellite account, or at least a preliminary mapping exercise, could estimate employment, spending and value addition linked to sport. Without measurement, policy decisions will continue to rely on assumptions rather than evidence.
The second requirement is utilisation. Existing sports facilities should be used year-round for local competitions, training programmes and community events. Public investment should be accompanied by private involvement from clubs, businesses and media platforms to maximise returns. Human capital and digital integration should form the next stage. Training coaches, administrators, physiotherapists, event managers and sports service professionals would strengthen institutional capacity, while digital platforms could provide visibility to local competitions and create opportunities for monetisation.
Finally, governance must remain critical. Management, maintenance, accessibility and accountability mechanisms will determine whether investment achieves its intended impact.
The real policy challenge is not to treat sport as a substitute for industry, exports or infrastructure-led growth, but to recognise it as an underdeveloped service economy already present in fragmented form. If Bangladesh can measure, organise and connect it with local commerce, sport can move beyond recreation to become a modest but meaningful source of employment, entrepreneurship and economic dynamism.
The writer is a student at the Department of Economics, University of Chittagong
