Cricket sponsorships worth at least Rs 3,600 crore up for grabs this year

It’s raining money for the world’s richest cricket governing body in 2023. 

While the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already pocketed ₹951 crore from selling media rights for women IPL’s first season and eyes much more from its title sponsorship, four more sponsorship avenues currently valued at ₹3,600 crore will be opened this year. 

Tata’s sponsorship for the men's IPL will come to an end after this season. In 2018, vivo agreed to a five-year partnership worth Rs 440 crore each year (Rs 2,200 Cr in five years). After a tumultuous journey for three years, Tata Group took over as the IPL 2022 sponsor till the end of the 2023 edition. 

BCCI title sponsorship will also be open in April. Mastercard acquired the title sponsorship rights last September from Paytm for the remaining seven months. In August 2019, Paytm signed the deal with BCCI for four years with a winning bid of Rs 326 crore. 

Major deals of BCCI  

(*Jersey sponsorship was extended till 2023 later)

EdTech major Byju’s seeks to exit jersey sponsorship by March. It had acquired the sponsorship from OPPO. OPPO’s original five-year (2017-22) deal with BCCI was worth ₹1,079 crore.

Team kit and merchandise contract is also valid until December this year. Current partner MPL wants to offload the burden to KKCL. The board may also have to find two associate sponsors for IPL as both Unacademy and UpStox may exit prematurely.

All these sponsorships will be auctioned in the coming months. As momentum for cricket marketing has scaled up, BCCI hopes for an appreciation in the deals.

However, funding winters for start-ups may play a spoilsport, some experts feel. 

“For the last few seasons, most of the sponsors were start-ups. Many of them have scaled down their marketing spends due to headwinds. New start-ups may not be able to join the bandwagon for title sponsorships that require deep pockets. It would be interesting to see who all will turn up to grab these hefty deals,” says a senior media expert.

“Traditional brands may surprise us this time,” a senior ad executive quips. 

A media head speculates that it is quite possible that Tata and Mastercard may continue their partnerships with IPL and BCCI, respectively.