THE INDIAN PREMIER League, long regarded as “recession-proof”, is encountering headwinds. For the first time in its history, the IPL’s valuation has fallen for two years running, dropping to Rs 76,100 crore ($8.8 billion) in 2025 from Rs 82,700 crore ($9.9bn) in 2024 and Rs 92,500 crore ($11.2bn) in 2023.
According to D&P Advisory’s 2025 IPL–WPL Valuation Report, titled “Beyond 22 Yards: The Power of Platforms, The Price of Regulation”, this decline of cumulative erosion of Rs 16,400 crore signals a deeper structural shift within India’s cricket economy. A mix of media consolidation and the government’s ban on real-money gaming (RMG) sponsorships has curbed the league’s previously unstoppable growth trajectory.
The report highlights two key forces behind the contraction. First, the merger of Disney Star and Viacom18 into JioStar unified television and digital rights under one network, ending the fierce bidding wars that had historically inflated media-rights valuations. Second, the government’s prohibition of RMG advertising and sponsorships has removed an estimated Rs 1,500–2,000 crore in annual spending from the IPL ecosystem alone.
Industry-wide, the total advertising loss across Indian sports and media is pegged at nearly Rs 7,000 crore, with cricket taking the largest hit.
D&P Advisory managing partner Santosh N says that “in 2023, when we pegged the IPL’s valuation at $11.2 billion, we had projected a 40-50% appreciation in media rights by 2027. That assumption was based on the presence of two formidable bidders and the possible entry of global tech companies into sports streaming. The subsequent ban on real-money gaming (RMG) further constrained the monetisation outlook.”
While the IPL adjusts to this correction, the Women’s Premier League (WPL) has remained comparatively stable. Its 2025 valuation stands at Rs 1,275 crore ($148 million) slightly lower than Rs 1,350 crore ($160m) in 2024, a phase D&P terms as “consolidation, not contraction.” Television viewership rose by 150 per cent year-on-year, with digital engagement up 70 per cent during the opening match.
However, Santosh cautioned that the WPL remains more exposed to market and regulatory shifts, “The WPL is still in a formative stage of its commercial evolution. That makes it more susceptible to macro and regulatory shocks compared to the IPL, which has already achieved a degree of maturity and pricing resilience.”
The report concludes that Indian cricket is entering a new commercial era, where growth will rely less on inflated media-rights battles and more on sustainable monetisation models. Future expansion, it adds, will depend on digital engagement, stable sponsorship categories, and a diversified revenue structure resilient to regulatory changes.
