Vivo Pro Kabaddi League: India's Premier Kabaddi Spectacle

Experience the excitement of Vivo Pro Kabaddi League, India's top professional Kabaddi competition. Get to know about the teams, stats, winners, team stats, top defenders, and raiders over the seasons.

What is Vivo Pro Kabaddi League?

The Pro Kabaddi League, also known as Vivo Pro Kabaddi, is a professional men's Kabaddi league held in India. It started in 2014 and is shown on Star Sports. However, Season 8 was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually began on December 22, 2021.

The league was inspired by Kabaddi's popularity at the 2006 Asian Games and took ideas from the Indian Premier League.

It follows a franchise-based model, with the first season having eight teams that paid fees of up to US$250,000 to participate.

Initially, there were concerns about the league's success since Kabaddi had fewer well-known players compared to cricket.

However, the league hoped to attract viewers from rural and urban areas by capitalizing on the sport's widespread grassroots participation.

Viewership of Pro Kabaddi League:

The first season of the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League had a large audience, with 435 million viewers, ranking second after the 2014 Indian Premier League.

The final match between Jaipur Pink Panthers and U-Mumba was watched by 86.4 million viewers. In 2015, Star Sports, the league's broadcaster, acquired a 74% stake in its parent company, Mashal Sports.

In the following seasons, particularly in 2017 and the 2018-19 season, the Pro Kabaddi League expanded by adding four new teams and using a division-based format called "zones."

However, starting from the 2019 season, the league returned to its regular double round-robin format.

Format of Vivo Pro Kabaddi:

The rules of the Pro Kabaddi League are similar to indoor team Kabaddi, but with some extra rules to encourage more scoring. Kabaddi is a contact team sport played by two teams, each with seven players.

• The objective of the game is for an offensive player, called a "raider," to enter the opponent's half of the court, touch as many defenders as possible, and return to their own half without being tackled, all while holding their breath. 
• Points are given for each defender tagged by the raider, while the opposing team earns a point for successfully stopping the raider. 
• Players are eliminated from the game if they are touched or tackled, but they come back in when their team scores a point from a tag or tackle.
• If a raider fails to score a point after consecutive unsuccessful attempts, they face a "Do or Die" situation, where they must score a point or be declared out.
• When the defending team has three or fewer players left, tackles made are called "Super Tackles" and are worth two points instead of one.

Teams & Home Arenas in Pro Kabaddi League:

Now let us discuss the teams that participate in the Pro Kabaddi League and the stadiums where they play their home games.

Team	Home Stadium/Arena	Champions
Bengal Warriors	Netaji Indoor Stadium	Champion 2020
Bengaluru Bulls	Kanteerava Indoor Stadium	Champion 2019
Dabang Delhi K.C.	Thyagaraj Sports Complex	Champion 2021
Gujrat Giants	EKA Arena	Nil
Haryana Steelers	Motilal Nehru School of Sports	Nil
Jaipur Pink Panthers	Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium	Champion 2014, 2022
Patna Pirates	Patliputra Sports Complex	Champion 2016, 2017, 2018
Puneri Paltan	Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex	Nil
Tamil Thalaivas	Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium	Nil
Telugu Titans	Gachibowli Indoor Stadium	Nil
U Mumba	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium	Champion 2015
UP Yoddhas	Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium	Nil

Vivo Pro Kabaddi Season Results & Stats:

The below table describes briefly various stats like the Winner, Runner-Up, Best Raider, Best Defender, and Final Venue in each season of the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League.

National Sports Club of India, Mumbai Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium, Mumbai Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai Dome NSCI, Mumbai The Arena, Ahmedabad Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium, Mumbai

Season	Winner	Final Score	Runner-Up	Final Venue	Best Raider(Most Raid Points)	Best Defender(Most Tackle Points)	Overall Total Points
Season 1	Jaipur Pink Panthers	35–24 SD = 11	U Mumba	National Sports Club of India, Mumbai	Anup Kumar	Manjeet Chhillar	Anup Kumar
Season 2	U Mumba	36–30 SD = 6	Bengaluru Bulls	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium, Mumbai	Kashiling Adake	Ravinder Pahal	Kashiling Adake
Season 3	Patna Pirates>	31–28 SD = 3	U Mumba	Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi	Pardeep Narwal	Manjeet Chhillar	Pardeep Narwal
Season 4	Patna Pirates	37–29 SD = 8	Jaipur Pink Panthers	Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad	Rahul Chaudhari	Fazel Atrachali	Rahul Chaudhari
Season 5	Patna Pirates	55–38 SD = 17	Gujarat Fortune Giants	Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai	Pardeep Narwal	Surender Nada	Pardeep Narwal
Season 6	Bengaluru Bulls	38–33 SD = 5	Gujarat Fortune Giants	Dome NSCI, Mumbai	Pawan Sehrawat	Nitesh Kumar	Pawan Sehrawat
Season 7	Bengal Warriors	39–34 SD = 5	Dabang Delhi	The Arena, Ahmedabad	Pawan Sehrawat	Fazel Atrachali	Pawan Sehrawat
Season 8	Dabang Delhi	37–36 SD = 1	Patna Pirates	Sheraton Grand Whitefield, Bengaluru	Pawan Sehrawat	Mohammadreza Chiyaneh	Pawan Sehrawat
Season 9	Jaipur Pink Panthers	33–29 SD = 4	Puneri Paltan	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium, Mumbai	Arjun Deshwal	Ankush	Arjun Deshwal

This was a descriptive and exciting overview of the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League.

This game has given great entertainment to the people all around the world.

The interest of south asian people was halted by the previous format of the game, However, this new format has given a life to this game and gained a great viewership and appraise from people all around the globe.