Prime Volleyball League
Current season, competition or edition: 2023 Prime Volleyball League | |
 | |
| Sport | Volleyball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2021 |
| Inaugural season | 2022 |
| CEO | Joy Bhattacharjya |
| Administrator | Baseline Ventures |
| No. of teams | 9 |
| Country | India |
| Most recent champion(s) | Ahmedabad Defenders (1st title) (2023) |
| Most titles | Kolkata Thunderbolts Ahmedabad Defenders (1 title each) |
| TV partner(s) | Sony Sports |
| Streaming partner(s) | Volleyball TV |
| Sponsor(s) | Rupay |
| Official website | PVL |
Prime Volleyball League (PVL), also known as RuPay Prime Volleyball League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's indoor volleyball league in India. The inaugural season took place in February 2022. The league is an initiative of Baseline Ventures with no involvement from Volleyball Federation of India and a rechristened version of the Pro Volleyball League which was held in February 2019. Sony Pictures Networks India is the official broadcaster of the league. RuPay is the title sponsor of the league and signed the contract for three years.
Background
The Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) in association with the Baseline Ventures launched and conducted the inaugural season of a franchise-based indoor volleyball league called Pro Volleyball League in 2019 and Chennai Spartans won the title. Later it was discontinued in the same year after the VFI and Baseline got embroiled in a dispute and the federation terminated the 10-year contract with Baseline alleging breach of trust. In November 2020, a Madras High Court-appointed arbitrator found the termination wrongful and awarded ₹4.5 crore to Baseline as compensation for terminating its contract. In June 2021, Baseline Ventures joined hands with few original franchise owners from Pro Volleyball League to launch a new league called Prime Volleyball League with no involvement from VFI this time. Five of the six teams (Ahmedabad, Calicut, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi) from Pro Volleyball League returned to this league with two new teams (Bengaluru and Kolkata) were added.
On 14 February 2022, VFI announced the launch of Indian Volleyball League, making it the only recognised league by VFI in India.
Volleyball World has signed multiple-year contract with Prime Volleyball League. Prime Volleyball League will broadcast globally through its platform.
In October 2022, the league announced an eighth team called the Mumbai Meteors that is based in Mumbai which played the 2023 Prime Volleyball League season. They were bought by the PhonePe owners.
In December 2023, the league announced a ninth team called the Delhi Toofans that is based in Delhi which will play the 2024 Prime Volleyball League season. They were bought by the Sanghi Group.
Teams
The Prime Volleyball League encompassed nine franchises, representing cities across India. The new team for the 2024 season is the Delhi Toofans.
| Team name | City | Captain | Head coach | International players | Team owner | Debut | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmedabad Defenders | Ahmedabad, Gujarat | Muthusamy Appavu | Sajjad Hussain S Dakshinamoorthy |
Ryan Meehan Rodrigo Villalboa |
Bonhomie Sports | 2022 | ||
| Bengaluru Torpedoes | Bengaluru, Karnataka | Ranjit Singh | K R Lakshminarayana | Kyle Friend Noah Taitano |
Limitless Human Performance | 2022 | ||
| Calicut Heroes | Kozhikode, Kerala | Jerome Vinith | Kishor Kumar | David Lee Aaron Koubi |
Beacon Sports | 2022 | ||
| Chennai Blitz | Chennai, Tamil Nadu | Mohan Ukkrapandian | Chander Singh | Bruno Da Silva Amorim Fernando David Gonzalez |
SPP Group | 2022 | ||
| Hyderabad Black Hawks | Hyderabad, Telangana | Vipul Kumar | Ruben Wolochin | Henry Bell Cisnero Luis Antonio Arias |
GlobalArena6 Sports LLP | 2022 | ||
| Kochi Blue Spikers | Kochi, Kerala | Karthik | Dr. M. H. Kumara | Colton Cowell Cody Caldwell |
M Liga Sports | 2022 | ||
| Mumbai Meteors | Mumbai, Maharashtra | Abhijit Bhattacharya | Hiroshi Centelles Brandon Greenway |
PhonePe | 2023 | |||
| Kolkata Thunderbolts | Kolkata, West Bengal | Ashwal Rai | Sunny Joseph | Matthew August Ian Woo Satterfield |
Kolkata Sports Ventures | 2022 | ||
Format
PVL 2022
Each team will have 12 players with the provision of a maximum of two reserve players. All teams have a salary purse of ₹75 lakhs from which they can pick their team via an auction and player draft. Each team can pick maximum of two International players for ₹25 to ₹30 lakhs while the Indian players are chosen via an auction from the remaining money. The auction was taken place in Kochi on 14 December 2021. Players were divided into five categories with different base prices set for each category – International, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and U-21 players.
There are a total of 24 matches with each team plays against each other in a single round-robin format with the top 4 teams moving into the Play-Offs. The tournament was earlier scheduled to be held in Kochi but later moved to Hyderabad due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. All the matches will be held in Hyderabad at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium.
Tournament seasons and results
PVL season results
| Season | Final | Final venue | No. of teams |
Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Score | Runner-up | ||||||
| 2022 Details |
Kolkata Thunderbolts | 3–0 | Ahmedabad Defenders | Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad | 7 | |||
| 2023 Details |
Ahmedabad Defenders | 3-2 | Bengaluru Torpedoes | Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Kochi | 8 | |||
Titles by the club
| Team | Winners | Runners-up | Playoffs | Years Won | Years Runner-up | Years Playoffs | No. of seasons played |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmedabad Defenders | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2023 | 2022 | 2022,2023 | 2 |
| Kolkata Thunderbolts | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2022 | _ | 2022,2023 | 2 |
| Bengaluru Torpedoes | 0 | 1 | 1 | _ | 2023 | 2023 | 2 |
| Calicut Heroes | 0 | 0 | 2 | _ | _ | 2022,2023 | 2 |
| Chennai Blitz | 0 | 0 | 0 | _ | _ | _ | 2 |
| Hyderabad Black Hawks | 0 | 0 | 1 | _ | _ | 2022 | 2 |
| Kochi Blue Spikers | 0 | 0 | 0 | _ | _ | _ | 2 |
| Mumbai Meteors | 0 | 0 | 0 | _ | _ | _ | 1 |
Marketing Performance
TV viewership increased by a staggering 55%, with a colossal 206 million people tuning in to watch the matches throughout the second season.The PVL also drew equal interest from female audiences with the gender ratio between male and female TV viewers being 58:42.