When Royal Challengers Bengaluru host Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on 28th March, the match will mark the start of the biggest Indian Premier League (IPL) season in the tournament’s history.
The 2026 edition features ten teams competing across 84 matches, up from 74 last season, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the tournament’s organisers, considering further expansion to 94 matches from 2028 onwards.
That structural growth signals institutional confidence inside one of modern sport’s greatest success stories, but off-field commercial dynamics and evolving market conditions paint a more complicated picture.
A valuation reset – but not a crisis
Table of Contents
For the first time since the IPL’s inception in 2008, the league has recorded back-to-back years of valuation decline. According to a report published last October by consulting firm D&P Advisory, the IPL’s valuation dropped to roughly US$8.8 billion in 2025, down from around US$9.9 billion in 2024 and a peak of approximately US$11.2 billion in 2023.
Two structural forces, as noted by D&P Advisory, drove the decline. The first was the consolidation of the league’s broadcast distribution.
The IPL’s current 2023 to 2027 media rights cycle delivers approximately US$6.2 billion in total broadcast income, with a per-match value of around US$13.4 million. But when Disney Star and Reliance Industries-owned Viacom18 merged to form JioStar in 2024TV and digital rights to the tournament were consolidated within a single entity, effectively ending the competitive bidding dynamic that had driven exponential value increases.
The second blow was regulatory. India’s 2025 ban on real-money gaming removed the IPL’s most spendthrift category from the sponsorship ecosystem. Fantasy platforms Dream11 and My11Circle, two of the most prominent buyers of IPL kit branding and advertising inventory, were forced to exit the gamewiping well over US$200 million from the ecosystem annually.
Dream11 had front-of-shirt deals with four teams in 2025, while My11Circle outbid its rival to become the IPL’s associate partner in the fantasy sports category with an offer worth US$14.7 million per year. That made it the league’s most valuable central sponsorship deal behind Tata’s title partnership, which itself provides some stability having been renewed for five years until 2028 at approximately US$300 million.
Since both companies’ departure, FMCG and automotive brands have stepped in to fill the void, but they do not replicate the premium per-slot spend of the online gaming platforms. Still, earlier this year the IPL was able to strike a three-year deal with Google-owned AI platform Gemini reportedly worth US$9.9 million per year, bringing the total number of confirmed league partners to six.
Fantasy sports platform Dream11 sponsored four IPL teams in 2025 (Image credit: Getty Images)
The media rights horizon
With the current rights cycle expiring in 2027, the post-season conversation will quickly turn to what comes next.
The IPL’s per-match media rights value – which is the second highest in global sport behind only the National Football League (NFL) – remains significant. But with Netflix and Amazon having yet to make a play for Indian cricket rights, and with a reduced bidder pool, the BCCI faces an uphill task to recreate the level of competitive tension seen in previous cycles.
As such, D&P Advisory has revised growth forecasts for the next media rights cycle to 15 to 20 per cent, down sharply from earlier projections, with analysts suggesting that competition may return if global tech firms enter the bidding.
Meanwhile JioStar’s financial position adds further complexity: the broadcaster is reported to be under significant strain having committed over US$6 billion to IPL rights for the current cycle alone, on top of a separate inherited deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC) worth US$3 billion.
The advertising market holds firm
Despite the market headwinds, IPL viewership numbers remain strong.
The 2025 season reached a combined audience of one billion viewers across JioStar’s linear television and digital platforms, while last year’s final was the most-watched cricket match ever on television in India, drawing 169 million TV viewers. Notably, digital audiences exceeded TV for the first time.
Commercial demand for IPL 2026 inventory is robust as a result – and brands are spending early.
Media industry executives are projecting a 30 per cent increase in advertising expenditure this seasondriven by a rare convergence of the IPL window, peak Indian summer temperatures and favourable macroeconomic conditions, with categories including cooling appliances, beverages, FMCG and personal care all front-loading budgets.
Meanwhile JioHotstar, where IPL 2026 will be streamed to over 650 million digital viewers, has transitioned to a subscription-only model, making its audience a more defined, premium demographic with a certain degree of spending power.
According to The Media Ant’s advertiser buying guideIPL 2026 promises to be ‘the most sophisticated advertising opportunity the tournament has ever offered’ by virtue of having that subscription-only premium digital audience, as well as more matches, a unified media rights structure that will aid planning for advertisers, and Nielsen’s independent measurement for the first time.
The IPL’s per-match media rights value is the second highest in global sport behind only the NFL (Image credit: Getty Images)
Investors are circling team assets
Off the pitch, franchise-level turbulence has added intrigue to the new season.
Both Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the reigning IPL champions, and Rajasthan Royals are up for sale, with bids for the former expected to land around US$2 billion, and the Royals attracting interest in the range of US$1.1 billion and US$1.4 billion.
Those figures represent a significant premium over these clubs’ brand valuationsreflecting the scarcity value of holding one of just ten IPL licences and the continued strength of investor interest in what is India’s leading sports property by far.
Major private equity firms including KKR, Blackstone and EQT were said to have been aggressively pursuing ownership stakes, alongside prominent international sports investors like David Blitzer and Avram Glazer. Several parties have since dropped out of the running but deals are understood to be imminent, with Reuters reporting a March deadline for final bids.
Since then, the Indian Express has reported that EQT and a consortium led by Manipal Group’s Ranjan Pai are the two final contenders to buy RCB.
The last IPL franchise to change hands was the Gujarat Titanswhen Indian multinational conglomerate Torrent Group agreed last February to acquire 67 per cent of the team from CVC Capital Partners for a reported US$575 million.
Investors are drawn to the IPL for a number of reasons, not least its rising commercial value, centralised revenue-sharing model, lack of restrictions on private equity ownership, and predictable returns – CVCfor example, was said to have achieved a return of over 350 per cent on its Titans sale in just four years. Yet there are concerns over whether the current valuation multiples, which far exceed the teams’ brand values, could signal a bubble.
What the future holds
The IPL enters 2026 in a state of managed transition.
An expanded 84-match format will add commercial inventory and matchday revenue, but the league’s next chapter depends on solving a structural puzzle, not least how to restore bidding competition in a consolidated media landscape and rebuild a sponsorship category that lost its highest-yield buyers.
The cricket, as ever, will be spectacular and watched by hundreds of millions. The business, for the first time in years, will require smart thinking and more diversified, strategic monetisation if it is to maintain its much-vaunted momentum.
AI promises transformation, but most sports organisations struggle with implementation. This April, SportsPro London will reveal what’s actually delivering ROI today – from fan personalisation to ticketing revenue – as well as case studies from those making it work. Learn more here.
