Viacom18 on Thursday announced the appointment of Anil Jayaraj as CEO – Sports. This development comes when the media and entertainment network is looking to expand its presence in the sports broadcasting segment.

He will be leading the company’s foray into acquisition, broadcasting and monetisation of sports properties, the company said in a press release.

Jayaraj joins Viacom18 from Star Sports, where he was Executive Vice President and successfully led his team to deliver business performance across multiple sporting events, including Indian Premier League, Cricket World Cup, Pro Kabaddi League, Indian Super League, among others.

Before joining Viacom18, he worked at Pidilite Industries as chief marketing officer. Prior to that, he was at BP/Castrol for 16 years in sales and marketing roles based in the UK and India.

Jayaraj has been a passionate follower of sports since childhood. He works as a mentor with various start-ups during his free time, and conducts sessions/guest lectures on business and marketing at various B-Schools.

Welcoming Jayaraj on board, Network18 chairman Adil Zainulbhai,said, “As a leading media & entertainment network in India, Viacom18 has been dialling up its offerings to tap into whitespaces across platforms. We believe that sports is an important category in our promise to deliver wholesome entertainment to our 800mn+ viewers across demographics and geographies. With his rich experience in identifying and building sporting events into high value sportainment phenomena, Anil is aptly poised to lead our newest sports vertical.”

Speaking on his appointment, Anil Jayaraj said, “Sporting events in India have evolved beyond just one or two games with increasing fandom amongst audiences towards newer competitive sports. This democratisation has created an unmatched opportunity for sportainment and I am excited to build Viacom18 network’s foray into sports as a category.”