New Delhi: Indian Premier League It has turned young players into millionaires, created invaluable publicity for team owners and made the National Cricket Board one of the richest governing bodies in the global sport.
The World’s Most Valuable Cricket Tournament, Now In Its 15th Round And Loves Such Games Virat Kohli, Pat Cummins And joss butlerHe was a pioneer in Twenty20 league cricket.
Its success and popularity has given rise to copycat competitions in other countries and has generated a fortune for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI,
The high-octane, big-hitting Carnival provides a must-have product, drives broadcast subscriptions by the millions and draws in huge advertising revenue.
Few businesses are willing to spend around $1 billion for a chance to field a team on the golden wicket of the IPL.
When the tournament expanded from the original eight to 10 teams this year, the auction of the rights to own the new franchise attracted international bidders, including the Glazer family, who own Manchester United.
They were eventually defeated by Indian tycoon Sanjeev Goenka’s RPSG group, who paid BCCI $930 million to form the Lucknow Super Giants.
The second new franchise, Gujarat Titans’ global venture fund CVC Capital, costs $690 million.
The amount is interesting for teams that play only two months a year, but Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports economy at France’s Emilian business school, told AFP it was well worth the investment.
“IPL is already a huge business opportunity, but given India’s economic growth, expanding middle class and vast potential as a digital market, it will potentially become even more attractive,” Chadwick said.
Broadcast rights are the biggest money-spinners of BCCI.
Disney-owned Star India paid $2.55 billion for a five-year television and digital rights deal that expires at the end of this season.
Analysts expect the next package for 2023-2027 to reach $6.6 billion. Reports say that the league will earn BCCI around $130 million from sponsorship this year alone.
Title sponsor Tata, the Indian steel-to-broadcast conglomerate, is the largest contributor along with finance apps, an online education firm and a fantasy gaming site, among others.
The BCCI earned $533 million from the IPL in 2020, treasurer Arun Dhumal told Indian media, but its finances are kept in secrecy.
The final annual report on its website is for 2016-17, but reports say subsequent filings put its net worth at $2 billion.
IPL teams get their share of television rights and sponsorship money, and about 10 to 15 percent of ticket sales.
They can also generate their own revenue through flashy shirts or other sponsorships.
“I’ve always said ‘cricket is recession proof’,” Delhi Capitals chief executive Dheeraj Malhotra told AFP.
Even last season, in which the league was suspended and later moved to the United Arab Emirates due to the pandemic, he said: “We have done really well.”
Business executive Neelima Bura has been involved in several IPL sponsorship deals with Kargil Foods, sewing-machine maker Usha and Hewlett-Packard.
“It’s been a great symbiotic relationship between the brands and the IPL as a franchise and the two have really helped each other grow,” she told AFP.
“What the IPL did was that it made cricket more interesting, more interactive, more festive and more fun by connecting with celebrities and cricketers. That’s why I’m a big fan of IPL.”
Teams spent around $75 million in February’s player auction, with Mumbai Indians paying wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan for $2 million and Punjab Kings paying England’s Liam Livingstone $1.52 million for his services.
In contrast, the average player contract in England’s six-month-long County Championship is $66,000.
The league was the brainchild of cricket administrator Lalit Modi, who fled India to London after being sacked in 2010 on corruption and money laundering charges.
IPL is surrounded by scam.
The 2013 spot-fixing and betting investigation resulted in the suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two seasons.
Entrepreneur Subrata Roy’s Sahara Group pulled its Pune Warriors team from the 2013 IPL after it alleged that it had duped a large number of India’s poorest families of millions of dollars.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore team is owned by the Indian arm of British drinks giant Diageo, United Spirits, whose chairman Vijay Mallya stepped down in 2016 over allegations of financial mismanagement and is now fighting extradition to the UK.
But for veteran cricket journalist Pradeep Magazine, the biggest drawback of IPL is the threat to traditional cricket, especially in five-day Test matches.
“They (BCCI) will have a lot of money but it is also going to destroy the traditional format,” he told AFP.
“People who are going to pay big bucks also want the game to be bigger and bigger and consume more hours.”
The World’s Most Valuable Cricket Tournament, Now In Its 15th Round And Loves Such Games Virat Kohli, Pat Cummins And joss butlerHe was a pioneer in Twenty20 league cricket.
Its success and popularity has given rise to copycat competitions in other countries and has generated a fortune for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI,
The high-octane, big-hitting Carnival provides a must-have product, drives broadcast subscriptions by the millions and draws in huge advertising revenue.
Few businesses are willing to spend around $1 billion for a chance to field a team on the golden wicket of the IPL.
When the tournament expanded from the original eight to 10 teams this year, the auction of the rights to own the new franchise attracted international bidders, including the Glazer family, who own Manchester United.
They were eventually defeated by Indian tycoon Sanjeev Goenka’s RPSG group, who paid BCCI $930 million to form the Lucknow Super Giants.
The second new franchise, Gujarat Titans’ global venture fund CVC Capital, costs $690 million.
The amount is interesting for teams that play only two months a year, but Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports economy at France’s Emilian business school, told AFP it was well worth the investment.
“IPL is already a huge business opportunity, but given India’s economic growth, expanding middle class and vast potential as a digital market, it will potentially become even more attractive,” Chadwick said.
Broadcast rights are the biggest money-spinners of BCCI.
Disney-owned Star India paid $2.55 billion for a five-year television and digital rights deal that expires at the end of this season.
Analysts expect the next package for 2023-2027 to reach $6.6 billion. Reports say that the league will earn BCCI around $130 million from sponsorship this year alone.
Title sponsor Tata, the Indian steel-to-broadcast conglomerate, is the largest contributor along with finance apps, an online education firm and a fantasy gaming site, among others.
The BCCI earned $533 million from the IPL in 2020, treasurer Arun Dhumal told Indian media, but its finances are kept in secrecy.
The final annual report on its website is for 2016-17, but reports say subsequent filings put its net worth at $2 billion.
IPL teams get their share of television rights and sponsorship money, and about 10 to 15 percent of ticket sales.
They can also generate their own revenue through flashy shirts or other sponsorships.
“I’ve always said ‘cricket is recession proof’,” Delhi Capitals chief executive Dheeraj Malhotra told AFP.
Even last season, in which the league was suspended and later moved to the United Arab Emirates due to the pandemic, he said: “We have done really well.”
Business executive Neelima Bura has been involved in several IPL sponsorship deals with Kargil Foods, sewing-machine maker Usha and Hewlett-Packard.
“It’s been a great symbiotic relationship between the brands and the IPL as a franchise and the two have really helped each other grow,” she told AFP.
“What the IPL did was that it made cricket more interesting, more interactive, more festive and more fun by connecting with celebrities and cricketers. That’s why I’m a big fan of IPL.”
Teams spent around $75 million in February’s player auction, with Mumbai Indians paying wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan for $2 million and Punjab Kings paying England’s Liam Livingstone $1.52 million for his services.
In contrast, the average player contract in England’s six-month-long County Championship is $66,000.
The league was the brainchild of cricket administrator Lalit Modi, who fled India to London after being sacked in 2010 on corruption and money laundering charges.
IPL is surrounded by scam.
The 2013 spot-fixing and betting investigation resulted in the suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two seasons.
Entrepreneur Subrata Roy’s Sahara Group pulled its Pune Warriors team from the 2013 IPL after it alleged that it had duped a large number of India’s poorest families of millions of dollars.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore team is owned by the Indian arm of British drinks giant Diageo, United Spirits, whose chairman Vijay Mallya stepped down in 2016 over allegations of financial mismanagement and is now fighting extradition to the UK.
But for veteran cricket journalist Pradeep Magazine, the biggest drawback of IPL is the threat to traditional cricket, especially in five-day Test matches.
“They (BCCI) will have a lot of money but it is also going to destroy the traditional format,” he told AFP.
“People who are going to pay big bucks also want the game to be bigger and bigger and consume more hours.”