BCCI gets ₹4,670 crore from auction of five women’s IPL teams

Franchises are auctioned off forever; BCCI will get this amount in 10 years. Five bidders snatched the rights for Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Lucknow respectively. In all, 16 companies bid for five franchises from a pool of 10 cities.

Adani Sportsline, which lost out to CVC Capital to own the Ahmedabad franchise in the men’s IPL (Indian Premier League), was the highest bidder. 1,289 crores to grab the rights of the women’s team.

IndiaWin Sports, a firm owned by Reliance Industries and owner of the Mumbai Indians franchise, spent 912.99 crores on the Mumbai team. In dollar terms, the bid was equal to its initial bid for the IPL team – $111.9 million.

Diageo India-owned Royal Challengers Sports picks up Bengaluru team 901 crores, while JSW GMR Cricket, the same joint venture that owns the Delhi Capitals, won the rights for the Delhi team. 810 crores. Capri Global Holdings, another firm that lost out in the 2021 auction to pick the men’s IPL team, paid 757 crore to the Lucknow team.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah said, “I am confident that with the valuation of record media rights earlier and now with these high bids, the league will be a commercially independent and self-sustaining asset.” Addressing the media after announcing the winners, he said that now it is the responsibility of the BCCI to work hard and deliver results as the bidders have shown so much faith in the league.

BCCI auctioned eight IPL teams for the first time in January 2008 for $723.59 million (approx). 2,900 crore), while the combined base value was $400 million ( 1600 crores).

Shah tweeted, “Today is a historic day in cricket as the teams bidding for the first women’s premier league broke the records of the first men’s IPL in 2008.”

Tuhin Mishra, managing director and co-founder of the sports marketing company, said, “That’s a huge number – I’m sure the teams must have done the math because most of these are existing teams, and they’ve been profitable for the past few years.” Baseline Ventures.

Initially, losses may not matter for these big companies, he added. “It’s also a big deal for women cricketers as they will make the game more popular and a lot of female talent will become household names,” Mishra said. Number of women cricketers like Smriti Mandhana.

The companies that failed to win any franchise included the bid from Knight Riders Sports (owner of Kolkata Knight Riders) 666 crores for Kolkata; With the bid of KPH Dream Cricket (Owner of Punjab Kings) 412 crore for Dharamshala; Om Industries (of Haldiram) bid 240 crores for some cities; Lowest bidder Rajasthan Royals owner- 180 crore – for Indore, Guwahati and Dharamshala, BCCI officials told on condition of anonymity. Yadu International (JK Cement), Sun TV Network, Torrent Investments, Shriram Value Services, APL Sports (APL Apollo Group), Amrit Leela Enterprises (Kotak Group) and 369 Slingshot Sports Ventures also submitted bids for the franchises.

For the first time, the BCCI auctioned the media rights of the first league so that potential team owners could explore a business model based on projected revenue from the central pool.

After winning the Mumbai franchise, Nita M. Ambani, chairperson of Reliance Foundation, a part of Reliance Industries, said, ‘It is a historic moment for Indian cricket. This new women’s league will once again shine a global spotlight on the talent, strength and potential of our girls. I am sure our women’s MI team will take the Mumbai Indians brand of fearless and entertaining cricket to a whole new level.”

This is the fourth team in the company’s kitty under its Mi brand. It also owns teams in South Africa T20 and International League T20 UAE.

Earlier this month, Viacom18 acquired the total media rights of WPL 951 crore by 2027, leaving behind its only competitor, Disney Star. Reliance Industries controlled broadcaster will spend as per match fee 7.09 crores for a period of five years for the rights of the Women’s T20 Cricket League. expected to get lost somewhere between the network 600-650 crore over a period of five years, according to Mint estimates.

While winners have bid aggressively, it will be hard to make money, and no team is going to make any money for at least 10 years, said a senior sports marketing executive—who did not want to be named— Has been “Women’s cricket sponsorship is a loss-making deal for the networks and the teams. But they all had to bid, a classic case of FOMO (fear of missing out). Overall, and in cricket in general, the market is very bad in the sponsorship space. Look at Byju’s, Paytm and Mobile Premier League, all these new-age companies have cut spending and pulled back on sponsorships. How do these teams get sponsors or make any money?” the person asked.

GroupM head for sports, esports and entertainment in South Asia Vineet Karnik said the winning bids were encouraging. “It certainly marks the beginning of a new era in women’s cricket. This will encourage many girls to take up cricket as a professional sport and increase the bench strength for women cricketers. WPL will also create a strong ecosystem around women’s cricket and provide multiple career opportunities across rural and urban India. The WIPL will unlock even further value for franchise-based cricket and inspire other sports to consider ideas that will bring diversity, equality and inclusion to the world of sports in India.”

But the M&A head of one company pointed out that this exercise was never done for the P&L story. This is because all these teams that win the IPL are benefiting Now 350-400 crores in a year. “So even if they lose 150 crore per year for the women’s team (a token loss, if so, over the next 10 years), they are still building up the cumulative value of the men’s and women’s teams. It has always been a story of an extension and a value,” he said. According to peppermint analysis, on a 1,000 crore bid, one franchise is sure to lose 400-500 crores in the first five years.