NBA India Chief Steps Down

Yannick Colaco, Vice President and Managing Director of NBA India (pictured above on the right side), is stepping down after six years of heading the NBA’s growth in the market.

NBA Vice President of Global Business Operations Diane Gotua will relocate from New York to the NBA’s Mumbai office to lead the business in India on an interim basis and oversee the search for a new Managing Director of the NBA in India.

In his current role since February 2013. Colaco helped spearhead the growth for the NBA in India, expanding the distribution of NBA games to more than 350 live NBA games each season on SONY TEN 1, SONY TEN 3 and SONY ESPN, including 78 games with Hindi commentary and the introduction of live games that air primetime in India.

He led the NBA’s retail presence in India, with NBA merchandise now available at more than 750 retail stores nationwide and through NBAStore.in.

He was also responsible for partnering with Dream11 to launch the official NBA daily fantasy game, which is projected to have more than 1.5 million registered active users by the end of the season.

During Colaco’s tenure, he was influential in the formation of the NBA’s partnership with the Reliance Foundation in 2013, which has reached more than 10 million youth from 10,000 schools and trained more than 10,000 physical education instructors nationwide through the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program.

Additionally, Colaco oversaw the launch of The NBA Academy India, an elite basketball training center in Delhi National Capital Region for top male and female prospects from throughout India and first of its kind in the country, and the NBA Basketball Schools, a network of tuition-based basketball development programs open to male and female players ages 6-18.

Most recently, Colaco was instrumental for the plan to bring the live NBA experience to fans in India with the NBA India Games 2019, two pre-season contests in Mumbai this October featuring the Indiana Pacers and the Sacramento Kings.

The NBA India Games 2019 will be the first that the NBA has played in India and the first games staged in the country by a North American sports league.