Man U Jumps Into £50m Mobile Deal In India

Manchester United has forged a pact with Anil Ambani, the second-richest man in India, as the Premiership football team moves to extend its global fanbase through a series of mobile phone-based games.

Local sources expect a three-year deal agreed by Jump Games, a software developer owned by Mr Ambanis Reliance Entertainment business, and Manchester United to be worth about £50 million.

The two sides will share revenues from football-themed games that will be distributed globally through mobile handsets at prices ranging from about £3 in the UK to 50 rupees (64p) in India.

The tie-up comes amid persistent rumours that Mr Ambani, who has suggested that he aims to be among the worlds five biggest video games developers, is keen to expand across the technology sector. It has been suggested that he is mulling a bid for a large European IT services house, with CapGemini a possible target.

His Reliance ADAG conglomerate already sprawls from power generation to cinema theatres.

The deal may also salve Mr Ambanis annoyance at being beaten in the bidding for one of the eight newly created Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket teams by his estranged brother, Mukesh, last week.

Mukesh Ambani, the only person in India richer than his brother, spent $111.9 million to buy the Mumbai cricket team, which will play in a new competition modelled on the English footballs Premier League. Jump has since claimed that its Manchester United tie-up is more valuable than the IPL franchise.

Meanwhile, mobile gaming could deliver Manchester Uniteds owner, Malcolm Glazer, a valuable new revenue stream. The US sports tycoon acquired the club, which boasts an estimated 300 million supporters globally, with a highly-leveraged £790 million bid in 2005.

Mobile handsets are seen as a prime conduit to young consumers in emerging economies, territories in which Manchester United already enjoys massive popularity. Indian mobile phone users are expected to more than double by 2010, to 500 million, as the country leapfrogs the landline technologies that dominated the Wests communications industries for decades.

Jump, which has so far specialised in Hindu-themed games, operates in 40 countries and works with networks including Vodafone, Virgin Mobile and Telefónica. It is committed to developing six football-themed games for Manchester United over the next year.

Salil Bhargava, the chief executive of Jump, said that his companys experience in India – one of the fastest-growing, yet cost-savvy mobile societies in the world – will be drawn upon as the group seeks to go global. Manchester United is the ideal platform for us, he added.

In 2005 the parent Reliance ADA Group acquired Adlabs Films, one of the biggest players in Indian film production and cinemas. It has since launched Adlabs Radio and next month will become the largest private FM radio network in the country with 12 stations.

Last week, Vodafone, the largest mobile group, confirmed a $6 billion investment programme in India over the next three years. Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Mobile is expected to tap the market through a joint venture with Tata, another Indian conglomerate, in a matter of weeks.

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