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Every litas spent on basketball in Lithuania gives at least 40% in returns, reveals a study by a Lithuanian bank DNB Bankas published this Thursday.

According to the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, the number of officially registered basketball players (professionals) in Lithuania amounts to 25,000. The small nation also has 350 coaches and at least 100,000 citizens playing basketball on a regular basis, which roughly makes 4% of the country’s total population.

One basketball player spends, on average, 1,500 litas (Rs. 36,000) a year for his sportswear, court rental, and travel expenses. Only in this segment the estimate market size is 150 million litas (Rs. 360 crore).

In addition, lakhs of basketball fans spend millions of litas for game tickets, snacks, drinks, and travel costs. Their estimate impact on domestic trade stands at LTL300 million (Rs. 720 crore), with some extra LTL240 million (Rs. 590 crore) generated through hotel and restaurant revenue.

The study shows that the average spending of basketball fans has doubled since 2000 and was growing despite a significant economic slowdown in 2009-2010.

The government has also played an important role. The construction of new multi-purpose arenas in the last decade cost more than LTL600 million (Rs. 1,500 crore) from the national budget and EU funds. As a result, 59,000 new seats for spectators were created.

“These investments will definitely yield revenue in the future,” says chief analyst Jekaterina Rojaka of DNB Bankas.

She also counts that the basketball-driven value added accrued in Lithuania during the past decade was 9 billion litas (Rs. 22,000 crore). In this regard, the most successful year was 2012, during which more than a billion litas (Rs. 2,500 crore) of income was generated.

“Basketball business is clearly an area where one can to invest and make a profit,” says Mrs. Rojaka.

She also underscores the social aspect of basketball: “The game attracts huge crowds of young people, keeps them engaged and thus helps to reduce crime".

The study insists that all government funds allocated for basketball have already paid off. Now it is turn of private companies to follow up with investment in hotel and restaurant business.

“Such investment would help multi-purpose arenas stay busy all year long and would definitely increase Lithuania’s competitive advantage,” concludes Mrs. Rojaka.

The official press release by DNB Bankas is available here (in Lithuanian).