A consortium led by Indian billionaire Kumar Mangalam’s Aditya Birla Group, The Times of India Group, David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures and Blackstone has bought the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, in a major deal for the sport.
The Indian Premier League franchise is valued at about $1.8 billion, according to a statement Tuesday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report. The deal follows a strategic review by United Spirits Ltd., the Indian unit of Diageo Plc, which owns the franchise through Royal Challengers Sports Pvt.
A sale has been closely watched as a benchmark for valuations in the Indian Premier League, where team stakes are increasingly viewed as trophy assets drawing global capital. The league has grown into a global entertainment powerhouse, rivaling the commercial scale of competitions such as the National Football League and the English Premier League.
“RCB is the reigning champion and the most popular brand in the IPL,” Satyan Gajwani, Chairman of Times Internet Limited said in a statement. “As The Times of India Group, together with our partners, we will build RCB into a global sporting institution.”
The transaction is the first sports team investment for Blackstone. The firm is investing through its Private Equity Strategies fund, its fund for wealthy individuals, Bloomberg previously reported.
Times Internet has been expanding its global cricket media and intellectual property footprint, including investments in US-based Major League Cricket and England’s The Hundred tournament.
Unlike the original team sales orchestrated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which permitted buyers to stagger payments over a decade, secondary sales now mandate new buyers to pay the full amount upfront, the people added. The high cost of these stake sales, estimated to be between $1.3 billion and $2 billion, has necessitated partnerships, including billionaires, private equity firms, and other interested parties, to finance the deals, the people familiar with the matter added.
The IPL is the planet’s most profitable and widely followed cricket competition. It blends high-stakes cricket with Bollywood’s glamour and US-style marketing to capitalize on India’s deep-rooted passion for the sport. This highly lucrative league, which involves 10 teams competing for the top spot, runs for just eight weeks each spring and has billions of dollars riding on it. High-profile owners of IPL teams include figures such as Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani and Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan.
Owning a stake in an Indian Premier League team offers significant visibility to consumers within one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies for wealth. According to UBS Group, India boasts an estimated 917,000 millionaires and 188 billionaires.
Since its inception in 2008, the IPL has successfully attracted large crowds to stadiums nationwide. The league demonstrated its commercial appeal in 2023, when broadcasting rights through 2027 were sold for a total of $6.2 billion. However, the IPL’s overall valuation has declined for two consecutive years. After peaking at $11.2 billion in 2023, the valuation fell to $9.9 billion in 2024 and subsequently dropped nearly 11% to $8.8 billion last year. A report by consulting firm D&P Advisory attributes this decline to the ban on online gaming apps in India and the consolidation of media rights.
Early investors have increasingly sought to monetize their stakes. Last year, CVC Capital Partners Plc sold its majority holding in the Gujarat Titans, valuing the franchise at about $800 million.
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–With assistance from David Hellier and Baiju Kalesh.
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.