IPL turns into decacorn as its valuation jumps to $10.9 billion: Report

According to “Beyond 22 Yards” – IPL Valuation Report 2022 by D and P Advisory,as the IPL moves into a more mature and stable phase, franchise owners and investors are likely to focus more acutely on return on investment. The increased revenue allocation from the central pool will definitely help, coupled with the teams’ ability to generate higher team sponsorship revenues.

IPL 2022 was also a season of surprises. It saw the rise of two new teams – Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, the latter also making it to the playoffs in their debut season even as two of the league’s most successful and popular franchises, Mumbai and Chennai, finished at the bottom.

For the first time in IPL history, media rights have been spread across broadcasters, breaking the monopoly of one company. Although the reported fall in viewership numbers and Amazon’s last-minute withdrawal were expected to take the sheen off the media rights auction, the event succeeded. At $6.2 bn, IPL has recorded a three-fold jump from what Walt DisneyStar had paid for the previous 5-year cycle in 2017.

Since the auction, there has been a lot of buzz in the media about IPL being the “second most valuable league” or “second biggest league” in the world and how it compared with the likes of EPL, NFL, NBA, etc.

The report further stated that the renewed media rights deal was the major contributor towards this substantial jump in value. Apart from media rights, the increase in the number of matches going forward from 74 to 94 over the next cycle, newly signed sponsorship deals at the league level, higher ticket sales and in-stadia revenue were the other contributors to the increase in the IPL ecosystem value. Due to the addition of two new teams in IPL 2022 and given their limited playing history, for the current edition, we have only done valuation ofthe IPL ecosystem.

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The report also stated that while broadcasting is the significant source of revenues for IPL and other leagues, the contribution of it in case of IPL is significantly higher. To put things into perspective, IPL franchises are expected to earn as much as 70.0 percent of their total revenue from the central rights (pool money from media rights sale and central sponsorships).