Recently, Xtep and Wisdom Holdings Group announced their strategic cooperation during which they will launch a joint company to run marathon sport events in China.

With people’s constantly increasing requirement in health as well as the pushing power from government, marathon is becoming more and more popular in China. Wang Xin, the partner of Frost & Sullivan, revealed that there are 22 marathon matches in China in 2011, 33 matches in 2012, 39 matches in 2013, and 53 in 2014. In 2014, according to statistics, there are about 75, 000 people who had finished a Full Marathon. Over 110,000 people finished a Half Marathon.

Marathon, at first, actually was born for professional athletes who are filled with muscle and energy. It used to be a harsh event designed for sports elites. However, in China, the organization form of marathon matches became various. More and more people, even if they might not athletes, could take part in the match to have physical exercise. The business prospects of marathon in China have become far brighter than before. According to the estimate from Frost & Sullivan, the direct revenue of marathon organizer in 2014 can be over 2 billion RMB yuan, while the sponsors of marathon could profit about 10 billion yuan. Among those sponsors, Wisdom Holdings Group is the biggest beneficiary.

According to Wang Xin, Wisdom is one of the earliest companies which engaged in the sponsorship of marathon in China. In 2014, Wisdom cooperated with 13 marathon matches and its revenue from marathon was about 250 million yuan. Compared with 2013, the revenue suddenly increased 148.7%. The gross profits created by marathon were 150 million yuan. What’s more, Wisdom has been authorized by CCTV sports to get the exclusive sponsorship of China’s marathon matches from 2015 to 2018. With the popularity of marathon in China, the 10 billion and even more profits in the followed three years will be shared by Wisdom and its new partner Xtep.

Wang argued that, besides those huge profits, the cooperation between Wisdom and Xtep can establish a new service system. Through B2C market, they will attract more and more people to get involved in marathon matches. Finally, the development of China’s sports industry would be easily accelerated.