With growing affluence, Chinese consumers are increasingly turning to less mainstream sports for fitness and entertainment. And that‘s creating a huge market for businesses.  

Why would people spend on a sport that they are not familiar with? Take baseball, for example. Only a few people in China are familiar with the professional baseball organization Major League Baseball, but they know that baseball caps and T-shirts are cool. That's why they spend on the sports despite the fact that they don't play the sport or even watch the games, which means the market potential is huge with non-sports fans being a valuable market segment.  

Nikki Wang, a professional in sports business consulting, said that "when we talk about niche sports, we have to look at the wider sport industry development in China."

According to JD.com's sports business unit, a sport has to be popular to make money. The five most popular sports in China are swimming, baseball, basketball, ping-pong and golf, based on the spending per capita for each sport.  

Wang explained that China is perhaps one of the countries with the most notable sports industry development in recent years. And the value added to the industry is expected to stand at about 971 billion yuan by the end of 2020.  

"One of the major drivers would be people's awareness on better healthy lifestyle and participation in fitness or sport activities. So the potential of growth is significant. And every sport in the sport industry will have huge potential development," Wang added. 

In terms of overall spending on sports, major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are still leading the game. But since flying to another country for big sports events like the Australian Open or the World Cup is not an exclusive perk for people in the big cities, there is much faster growth in sports spending in lower-tier cities.

Wang pointed that "as an investor, investment decisions need clear business model and control process. Development of the sports activity by the population and with a large consumption ability by the middle class population – that would be the major driver for the investment."

Taking some sports clubs that exploit their own business models. Established in 1997, Capital Archery Sports Club is the oldest indoors archery club in China. Having researched the international market, the club settled on using a modern type of bow called a compound bow, which is easier for beginners to use than traditional bows.  

In addition to traditional martial arts equipment, martial arts gym 24KiCK combines smart equipment, big data and the experience of its trainers to create its own curricula, and has built an online social platform for supplement.  

Wang also observed there are some unique challenges for the sector in China. Though the sport industry develops rapidly in China, it is still in the early stage on the whole in terms of sports services, that is, the structure is undeveloped compared to advanced markets like the U.S. and Europe.

"The percentage of sports services (is) still relatively low. So I think we need to work out the best practice or a local solution, which could mean the requirement for Chinese people's activity habits or the culture of the environment," Wang concluded.