It all started as a dream to showcase Dambe's cultural significance to a worldwide audience. Today, Dambe Warriors, has achieved global recognition creating a new league and a growing passionate audience. Chidi would share how massive business opportunities can emerge from the most unlikely places.
For Chidi Anyina and Anthony Okeleke, cofounders of Dambe Warriors, it all started as a dream to showcase Dambe's cultural significance to a worldwide audience and open up new opportunities for the local sport and its athletes. Today, Dambe, once a local sport, has achieved global recognition creating a new league and a growing passionate audience. In this chat with Chidi titled Start with what you have , he shares how massive business opportunities can emerge from the most unlikely places.
Dambe Warriors, which started out as a YouTube channel by Chidi Anyina and Anthony Okeleke, with their degrees in Mass communication and History from UNILAG making it a little easier to showcase the sport of Dambe and make it the sensation it is today.
“Dambe Warriors”, sounds like a show you would kick back to watch on a weekend with your friends, and that is exactly it, just not in the way you would have imagined.
Dambe is traditional Hausa sport which is said to have its roots from Ancient Egypt, because it has a lot of similarities to Egyptian boxers of old, and the people who participate in Dambe are called, “daæmaænga”.
Dambe has been modernized from the brutal sport it was to the less brutal sport it is now for both local and international consumption. According to reports, 30% of the shows traffic now comes from the United States, some from other international countries and most of it still consumed locally.
Once they saw the rise in popularity, they decided to set up their own company called “Lost Child Media”, which became a Dambe sport promotional company and housed the Dambe Warriors. After setting up their company, they decided to make Dambe Warriors bigger and better, by getting to know more about the sport from the locals, speaking to the fighters and learning more about its history, before going on to make Dambe Warriors the professional league it is today and is held in both Kano and Abuja, which is broadcast to the whole world on demand.
The rise in the Dambe Warriors was so phenomenal that it piqued the interest of the African Fighter League (AFL), to the creation of the Dambe Warriors League. The AFL, along with other investors, have gone on to purchase stakes in Lost Child Media, with AFL having the majority.
Dambe Warriors has carved a name for itself in Nigerian sports and is still on the rise, so the next time you’re on the lookout for something to watch with your friends on a weekend, or a new sport to indulge in, anyone can become a “daæmaænga”.
Chidi would share how massive business opportunities can emerge from the most unlikely places, click here to register and be a part of this; https://forms.gle/EhRyNo4LWpmmyQMS7
