CHENNAI: A loss of almost 50 per cent. That's what Dream 11's IPL title sponsorship deal means to the BCCI. Instead of Rs 440 crore for a year from Vivo, the tournament will receive Rs 222 crore from the fantasy gaming company for the 2020 edition. Dream 11 was the highest bidder.
Each franchise will get around Rs 13.87 crore, another 50 per cent drop from the Rs 27.5 crore they used to get from the Vivo deal.
Even though revenue getting reduced by half sounds bad, the BCCI and franchises are not too disturbed, given that the arrangement is for this year only.
According to statements made earlier, Vivo will be back in 2021 for two or three more years, with the old purse of Rs 440 crore per year, to fulfil its five-year commitment of Rs 2199 crore. And as long as the Star broadcast deal is in place, BCCI and the franchises are insured from major losses.
"A loss is a loss, whichever way you look at it. But given the short time we had to find a new title sponsor and the global economic situation following the pandemic, this is satisfactory. And this is for just one season. So under the circumstances, I would say we have got a good deal," IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel said on Tuesday.
Much of this 'not that bad' feeling comes from the money assured from Star. Following the five-year media rights deal worth Rs 16,347.5 crore, the IPL is assured of Rs 3269 crore per year. The BCCI gets half of it and each franchise gets nearly Rs 204 crore from the other half. This helps them take the loss from title sponsorship in their stride.
"We would have liked this figure to be on a higher side. But considering the current environment and situation, this is the best that could have been done in the time that we had in our hands. For everybody, there was very little time to plan. But then, this is for one year. Given that IPL is a popular event, we expect this amount to rise in the coming years," felt BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal.
This is along the lines predicted by market experts, who after Vivo's announcement to pull out for this year had said that finding a new sponsor would not be difficult, but matching their amount would be. The economic situation was one reason cited by them and also the fact that for the companies interested, this investment would be for just one year.