MUMBAI: Education technology company Unacademy, already an official sponsor of the Indian Premier League, has, as per reports, not only extended its partnership for a further four years (2020-2023), but also bought bid papers for title sponsorship of the 2020 edition of the IPL.
Unacademy has reportedly committed upwards of Rs 600 million per season for continuing its association with the IPL as official partner. The company is a part of IPL’s central sponsorship pool, alongside the likes of Dream11 and Paytm.
Meanwhile, on the matter of IPL title sponsorship, a BCCI official confirmed that Unacademy has picked up the bid papers. “I can confirm that Unacademy has shown interest and picked the bid papers. I have heard they will be submitting a bid and are pretty serious,” the senior official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
After Vivo, which annually paid Rs 4.4 billion as title rights fees to the BCCI, has backed off from the partnership due to the anti-China sentiment that has been receiving prominent media play.
The BCCI is reportedly looking at a lesser value – between Rs 3 billion to Rs 3.5 billion – as title rights fees for this year’s tournament.
For the record, the education technology platform boasts social networking giant Facebook, US private equity firm General Atlantic, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital and Blume Ventures as investors, besides Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and Udaan cofounder Sujeet Kumar in their individual capacities.
It is worth noting that thus far the names of brands like Jio (SportzPower does not believe any bid will be forthcoming here), Amazon, the Tata Group, Dream11, Adani Group and online education unicorn BYJU’S have been doing the rounds as potential bidders. Additionally, famed yoga expert ‘Baba’ Ramdev-promoted Patanjali Ayurved’s spokesperson SK Tijarawala has confirmed the firm was “considering” a bid.
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