IPL franchises set to score big with 80 per cent revenue growth

Despite a tricky pitch in terms of a challenging economic climate, the Indian Premier League (IPL), which kicks off on Friday, seems to be batting strongly with strong sponsorship support in this edition. IPL franchises are projecting a high double-digit growth in revenues over last year riding on both sponsorships as well as share of the central pool.

Slew of new sponsors
Satish Menon, CEO, Punjab Kings, said the team has seen a growth of 20-25 per cent in sponsorship revenues over last season. It has signed several new sponsors this season, which includes P&G (Tide), ITC’s B Natural, confectionery brand Orion, Campa-Cola among others. “IPL bucks all trends as no other sporting property can offer this kind of entertainment value or viewership, giving brands bang for their buck,” Menon added.

Similarly, Gujarat Titans said it has signed a slew of new sponsors including Bisleri, Havmor ice-cream, Croma, Nestle Munch and Rario. Arvinder Singh,COO, Gujarat Titans, in a statement said the team has got as many 15 new partners on board while 11 partners have continued their association.

Media rights
With the new cycle of media rights kicking in, IPL franchises have much to cheer about as the central pool kitty has grown.

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Santosh N, Managing Partner, D&P Advisory, said, “The central pool is now pegged at about ₹9,000 crore-10,000 crore which includes media broadcast rights fees and central sponsorships. Almost 50 per cent of this will be distributed to the teams, which works out to be ₹450-500 crore for each team. Add to that team sponsorships that franchises have bagged which is estimated to be in the range of ₹75-100 crore per team. So, each of the IPL franchises will be looking at total revenue in the range of ₹500-600 crore this season.This will be 80-100 per cent growth in revenues over last year.”

Media eyeballs
At the same time, with two media rights holders – Disney Star and Viacom18 – slugging it out to grab a higher number of eyeballs, brands are padding up to ride on this battle.

Star Sports has roped in 13 official sponsors which include Dream11, Asian Paints, Charged by Thums Up, Airtel, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Mountain Dew, Parle Biscuits, Kamala Pasand, Rupay, Britannia, Tata Neu besides Jindal Panther and LIC.

Meanwhile, JioCinema has roped in 21 official sponsors including Dream11, JioMart, PhonePe, Tiago EV, Appy Fizz, ET Money, Castrol, TVS, Oreo, Bingo, Sting, AJIO, Haier, RuPay, Louis Philippe Jeans, Amazon, Rapido, Ultra Tech Cement, Puma, Kamla Pasand and Kingfisher Power Soda. The Hindu BusinessLine