The average Indian Premier League team is now worth more than $1 billion. That number would rise from a major Saudi investment.
The Indian Premier League Cricket has been a great investment. In 2009, a year after the franchise-owned cricket league launched, Forbes pegged the average franchise value at $67 million. By 2022, the average IPL team had soared to $1.04 billion thanks to the expectations around the next media contract—a $6 billion deal was inked a few months after our valuations were published—and the influx of private equity money from the likes of RedBird Capital and CVC Capital into the league.
Although several Twenty20 leagues have sprung up since the IPL was launched, India’s Premier League remains incredibly popular with a global audience. The sport generates massive viewership numbers, with Reutersreporting in June that more than 120 million unique viewers tuned in to watch the Chennai Super Kings defeat the Gujarat Titans in a dramatic final to win their record-tying fifth IPL title, with a peak concurrency of 32.1 million. Twenty20 cricket, also called T20, is a truncated form of the sport that revolutionized the game when it was introduced in 2003 with rule changes that put a premium on hitting and scoring. Cricket is also returning to the Olympics in 2028, so IPL team values may surge further.
This morning, Bloombergreported that “Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s advisers have spoken to Indian government officials about moving the IPL into a holding company valued at as much as $30 billion.” Forbes has confirmed this interest with an owner of an IPL team. An investor in an IPL team contacted by Forbes thinks a major investment by Saudi Arabia would not happen until after the next national elections are held in India next April.
Saudi Arabia—via its $700 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF)—has been making a huge push into sports recently, including a possible investment into the PGA Tour. The PIF has pumped money into everything from Formula 1 and WWE to European soccer and the new African Football League. Saudi Arabia is also due to host the Spanish, Italian and Turkish Cup finals and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, and it appears in line to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
As reported by BBC Sport, a study published by Play the Game—run by the Danish Institute for Sport Studies, which is funded by the country's government—found that Saudi Arabia currently has 312 sponsorship deals across 21 sports, as well as multi-sport events. The research details how soccer is the main focus, with 83 of the 312 deals; motorsports (34) and golf (33) are the two sports with the greatest number of agreements after that.
True, the Saudi investment in the IPL would go to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the custodian of the IPL. But the IPL teams would benefit from marketing, sponsorships and investment in cricket stadiums. Last year, the founder of the IPL said the BCCI should demolish its old stadiums and build state-of-the-art stadiums, as is done with U.S. sports, to generate a lot more revenue.
One private equity investor in the IPL told Forbes he believes the Saudi investment could mean extending the IPL season, which is currently 14 matches per team, held between March and May.
In 2021, the IPL sold two expansion teams, increasing the size of the league to ten teams, from eight: CVC Capital paid around $750 million for the Gujarat Titans, and Sanjiv Goenka purchased the Lucknow Super Giants for about $950 million. (The expansion fees will be paid over ten years and redistributed in equal amounts to the other eight teams.)
Those entry prices are looking pretty cheap today.
IPL 2024 Latest News: Saudi Arabia has expressed its desire to establish itself as a prominent global cricketing hub, with this investment initiative being just one facet of its broader efforts to promote cricket. IPL is second only to the American Football League NFL when it comes to broadcast value.
In FY23, Delhi Capitals had the highest revenue at Rs 367 crore. Gujarat Titans took the second spot at Rs 360 crore and was followed by Mumbai Indians (Rs 359 crore). Their figures are lower compared to the top three revenue-generating teams in FY19.
Talks purportedly took place in September when bin Salman visited India, with the Gulf state proposing to invest as much as US$5 billion into the IPL and help lead the league's expansion into other countries.
In brand valuation terms, the IPL is now a decacorn. Valued at $10.7 billion in 2023, the league has grown a whopping 433% since its inaugural edition in 2008, according to Brand Finance, a global brand valuation consultancy.
However they lost to the Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023 finals. Gujarat Titans was up for auction in 2021 along with another franchise. Many companies bidded in order to buy the team , however the CVC Capital partners emerged victorious and won the ownership of Gujarat Titans with a bid of ₹5,625 crores.
What explains a tripling of the IPL's last valuation? It's played for just over two months of the year, attracts top cricketers from across the globe, and broadcasters pay around $15.1mn to telecast each game.
Saudi Arabia's big financial bets in the sports world are part of its broader Vision 2030 plan to diversify the economy away from oil, create more private sector jobs for Saudi people (not just expats), and ensure a sustainable future for the Kingdom when the oil eventually runs out.
Policies Towards Foreign Direct Investment. The SAG seeks to attract $3 trillion in foreign investment to promote economic development, transfer foreign expertise and technology to Saudi Arabia, create jobs for Saudi nationals, and increase Saudi Arabia's non-oil exports.
The Saudi Arabian Investment Authority issued 41 project licenses to Indian investors in Saudi Arabia in the first quarter of 2020; while Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Authority announced recently investment of $1.3 Bn in Reliance Retail and $1.5 Bn in Reliance Jio, amongst other investments.
The Public Investment Fund (PIF; Arabic: صندوق الاستثمارات العامة) is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. It is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of US$925 billion (£726.3 billion).
All IPL club owners make money from ticket sales, with the home team receiving a set percentage of the total revenue. The revenue from gate tickets and passes is then entirely owned by the franchises. The IPL team franchise rely heavily on their fan base for money, just like any other major sporting event.
The IPL's valuation jumped about 28% to reach a whopping $10.7 billion in 2023 against $8.4 billion in 2022. The total brand value of the IPL system has surged by 433% since its 2008 launch, the world's leading brand valuation consultancy, Brand Finance said in a release.
The IPL's success in India comes from its blend of sports and entertainment, star-studded lineups, high competition level, short and exciting format, strong marketing, cultural integration, and opportunities for young talent.
The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as the TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's Twenty20 (T20) cricket league held annually in India. Founded by the BCCI (the Board of Control for Cricket in India) in 2007, the league features ten state or city-based franchise teams.
1. Royal Challengers Bangalore – 738 Crore. Surprisingly, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), tops the charts in terms of spending money on the players in the auction in their 13-year history in the league with INR 738 crore.
“[Saudi Arabia] is investing in gaming and esports not just because it's a growing sector but because they see an opportunity to lead and potentially dominate a significant part of the entertainment industry,” Jason Chung, the director of the Esports and Gaming Initiative at New York University's Preston Robert Tisch ...
Aramco held one of the IPL's prime sponsorship assets as 'Official Orange Cap Partner' and 'Official Purple Cap Partner', a designation covering the caps which are awarded to the leading run scorer and wicket taker in the competition, respectively.
Higher productivity, innovation, and competitiveness are benefits of education and skill, and these factors improve a country's economic performance. Saudi Arabia wants to create a knowledge-based economy that can flourish in the international market by investing in human resources.
Introduction: My name is Tyson Zemlak, I am a excited, light, sparkling, super, open, fair, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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