Eternal’s District plays hardball with new sports booking feature
Eternal is aggressively expanding its going-out segment beyond movies and dining, leveraging young users’ demand for engaging fitness to boost transaction values and cement market dominance in out-of-home consumption.
BENGALURU : Eternal Ltd-owned District plans to add a ‘Play’ feature for users to book sports facilities such as pickleball and badminton courts, according to two people aware of the matter, as the event and movie ticketing platform expands its footprint and takes on the likes of Playo, KheloMore, Decathlon India, and others.
District will partner with facilities in Delhi-National Capital Region, Mumbai and Bengaluru as early as next month, before a phased rollout to other cities, the persons said, speaking on the condition of anonymity as the details are not public.
“It has already signed a handful of agreements with facility operators in the three cities and is in talks with many more in other cities like Hyderabad and Pune," said one of two persons quoted above.
The firm aims to attract a variety of users across price points, from standalone badminton courts to high-end facilities like The Ballard Pier in South Mumbai, both people quoted earlier said.
District will charge a commission from venues for every booking, much like its restaurant table-booking offering, while operators will benefit from its brand value and reach.
Eternal’s foray into tech-driven sports bookings pits it against Game Theory, backed by Zerodha’s startup accelerator fund Rainmatter and tennis player Rohan Bopanna, Playo and KheloMore among startups; and Decathlon India and Hudle among larger companies. Cult.fit also offers court bookings for select sports like badminton and swimming.
Eternal declined to comment on Mint's queries.
India’s growing sports tech market
The outdoor sports venue booking market is growing, fueled by younger users, who see this not just as a way to meet fitness goals more engagingly, but as an easy opportunity for leisure time with friends and family.
The sports tech market in India, which includes venue/infrastructure solutions, e-sports, fantasy gaming and performance analytics, was valued at about $1.6 billion in FY25 and is projected to grow 3-4x by 2030, driven by OTT and data-driven performance tools, according to a September 2025 report by KPMG India.
“Integrating sports facility booking is a textbook evolution for a platform focused on the out-of-home consumption segment. By expanding their offering to cover dining, events, and now high-demand activities like pickleball, Eternal is creating a single, indispensable ecosystem for a user’s entire leisure spend," said Prasanth Shanthakumaran, partner and head of sports sector at KPMG India. “The increase in utility means more frequent app usage, higher customer lifetime value, and eventually brand loyalty," Shanthakumaran noted.
Expanding out-of-home ecosystem
Eternal forayed into the ticketing segment by buying Paytm’s entertainment and ticketing business, Insider, just over a year ago in an all-cash deal worth ₹2,048 crore. The company aims to dominate the ‘going-out’ market, covering everything from restaurant table bookings and movie and event tickets to activities like pottery classes and book clubs.
District competes with market leader BookMyShow, Network18 and Elevation Capital-backed company, which has been building its muscle for nearly two decades.
Eternal's out-of-home consumption business has been experimenting with new features to increase platform stickiness. In June, it added a pilot feature called ‘Stores’, offering exclusive deals on purchases made at partner retail stores, including Souled Store, Heads Up for Tails, Puma, Baggit, and Snitch. The aim was to turn a routine store visit into a planned, value-driven experience, aiming for higher customer retention and engagement for District’s merchants.
“Dining out and events are fast-growing segments driven by affluent, digitally savvy, urban population looking for curated experiences – a profile which overlaps well with food delivery and quick commerce customers," said a note by Bernstein dated 3 November. “Steady progress on these metrics is critical for both Eternal and Swiggy as it indicates their ability to penetrate the incremental share of the consumer wallet."
In an interview with Mint in September, District’s chief executive officer Rahul Ganjoo had said that Eternal is focused on finding product-market fit for its new experiments in the out-of-home segment. Ultimately, it aims to acquire more active users, retain them, and nudge them to use the app more often than booking tickets to the occasional movie or concert.
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