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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has invited expression of interest in acquiring the title sponsorship rights for this year’s Indian Premier League starting on September 19. The EOI has to be submitted by August 14 and the final bids by August 18.
Annual turnover
Only those entities with an annual turnover of over ₹300 crore will qualify. The sponsorship rights are available for the period from August 18to December 31. BCCI said that the sponsor will not be determined only on the basis of the highest bid received.
“BCCI shall not be obliged to award the rights to the third party, which indicates willingness to pay the highest fees in the course of discussions/ negotiations with BCCI after submitting an EOI. BCCI’s decision in this regard will also depend on a number of other relevant factors, including but not limited to, the manner in which the third party intends to exploit the rights, and the potential impact of the same on brand IPL as also the fan/ viewer experience, which will be examined/ evaluated by BCCI in the course of discussions/ negotiations with interested third parties who submit an EOI,” BCCI said in a statement after receiving all approvals from the Centre on Monday to hold the tournament in the UAE
Brands such asAmazon, Dream11, Adani Group, Patanjali Ayurved and Byjus may bid for the title sponsorship for the IPL to be held in the UAE from September 19 to November 10. While Patanjali confirmed that it was exploring the option of bidding for IPL title sponsorship, others have not disclosed their plans officially.
“We are considering bidding for the title sponsorship of IPL. This can be the right platform for a local brand to reach out to the global market,” said a spokesperson for Patanjali ,adding that a final decision on the company’s strategy will be taken on Tuesday.
Suspends partnership
Last week, BCCI and Vivo decided to suspend their partnership for the IPL 2020. The title sponsorship is a big part of IPL’s commercial revenue. Half of this is shared equally by the franchises. Vivo won the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years from 2018 to 2022 for ₹2,190 crore, which works out to about ₹440 crore per annum. Analysts said that BCCI is unlikely to get any where close to that amount from the new sponsor.
“Given that BCCI is opening the IPL title sponsorship for just a year – and the fact that the limited time available for a sponsor to milk the opportunity – I believe that the sponsorship price will drop considerably,” Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist, who was closely involved with cricket sponsorship during his stint as EVP, Marketing, PepsiCo India, told BusinessLine.
“Of course, Patanjali may bring in the element of ‘national pride’ much like Sahara did when they had their logo on the Indian Cricket team shirts through the late nineties and early 2000s, so may go the extra length to win the bid, but the price will still be well below the Vivo annual pay-out,” said Mathias.
Harish Bijoor, Brand Guru and Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, said: “The bid for IPL title sponsorship will certainly be lower for two reasons. The first is the fact that this is a fire-sale of the title sponsorship at the last moment. The second is the fact that the next edition of IPL will happen all too soon in the next several months after the closure of this edition.”
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