MUMBAI: Even as the exit of VIVO as title sponsor of the Indian Premier League has left a Rs 2.18 billion hole in the Indian cricket board’s coffers that cannot be filled, there still remains a few other sponsorship slots that the BCCI is hopeful of filling in the coming days.
For the uninitiated, fantasy sports platform Dream11 is the title partner for IPL 2020 having won the rights with a Rs 2.22 billion bid, just under 50% of the Rs 4.4 billion that Chinese smartphone major Vivo had been paying the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Looking beyond the title sponsorship, there was also the requirement to find a replacement for the Future Group, which chose not to continue its sponsor association with the IPL. On that front, the BCCI has reportedly scored twice over.
First off, the board has signed on education technology platform Unacademy as a Central sponsor for a duration of three years, with an official announcement expected to be made soon.
“The deal with Unacademy is completed for three years. We will make the official announcement soon,” a BCCI official told InsideSport.
“We are extremely pleased that we have filled two official partnership slots. This clearly shows the inherent strength of brand IPL. Our only deficit this year will be on account of title sponsorship which we lost out due to unfortunate and unprecedented circumstances,” the BCCI official declared to the sports website.
As per reports, the BCCI is also close to signing up with another official partner for the IPL – CRED. It is a members-only credit card bill payment platform.
IPL 2020 Sponsorships:
Title Sponsor – Dream11 (Rs 2.22bn)
Official Partners – Tata Motors, Unacademy, CRED (Rs 600m+ each)
Umpire Partner – Paytm (Rs 280m)
Strategic Timeout partner – CEAT (Rs 300m)
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