The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has issued an advisory to the five Women’s Premier League (WPL) franchises stating that while it has no problems with commercial associations with fantasy sports platforms, any partnerships with cryptocurrencies, betting, gambling, real money, and tobacco sectors are a strict “no-no”.
“No Franchisee shall undertake a partnership or any kind of association with an entity that is in any way connected/related to an entity that is involved/operates, directly or indirectly, in the betting/gambling/real money gaming/tobacco sector,” the 68-page advisory, accessed by Cricbuzz, states. “The Franchisees may engage in partnerships with entities in the fantasy sports sector.”
The BCCI advisory further reads: “No Franchisee shall undertake a partnership or any kind of association with an entity that is in any way connected/related to an entity that is involved/operates, directly or indirectly, in the cryptocurrency sector.
“No franchisee shall engage with any entity that may utilize its association with a Franchise (and consequently the WPL) to propagate surrogate advertisements (i.e., an advertisement that duplicates the brand image of one product to promote another product of the same brand) to promote any entity having any kind of association or operating/functioning in the non-permissible categories mentioned above,”
The advisory additionally makes clear: “These guidelines form part of the WPL regulations and any breaches of these guidelines will be dealt with as per the provisions of section 6 of the Operational Rules. Any breaches of the Clothing & Equipment Regulations will be dealt with as per the provisions of the Disciplinary process. The franchisees should provide full details of the rights and benefits that will be utilized by their sponsors, not less than 10 days before the start of the season, as per the franchise commercial deliverables sheet, which will be shared by the BCCI.”
