The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has roped in Unacademy as one of the central sponsors for 3 years in Rs 120-130 crores which will be around Rs 40 crores per year. This comes after the Future Group pulls out as the central sponsor earlier this week.
Uncademy was the second-highest bidder with Rs 210 crores for the IPL2020 title sponsorship which was finally won by Dream11 for Rs 222 crore.
While there remain a few other sponsorship slots that the BCCI is hopeful of filling in the coming days, the board has also signed Educational platform Unacademy as one of the central sponsors for the league for three years in a reported fee of Rs 120-130 crore. An official announcement for the same is expected to be made by the board soon.
“The deal with Unacademy is completed for 3 years. We will make the official announcement soon,” a BCCI official told InsideSport.
The exit of VIVO as title sponsor of the season left a huge hole in the board’s pockets which was partially filled with the arrival of fantasy sports platform Dream11.
“We are extremely pleased that we have filled 2 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,” declared the BCCI official to InsideSport.
According to the reports, BCCI is in also talks with the credit card payment company, CRED, as one of the central sponsors. But CRED is yet to get the approvals as there is a debate within the IPL GC that the line of the business company operates in conflicts with the existing sponsorship partner PayTM.
As far as the comparisons with IPL 2019 go, this edition of the IPL seems to be generating half the money it did for the BCCI last year. In 2019 BCCI got Rs 618 crore from the sponsorship while in IPL 2020 BCCi has signed the deal of Rs 360 crore only.
IPL 2020 Sponsorships total: Rs 360 crore
- Title Sponsor – Dream11: Rs 222 Crore
- Official Partners – Tata Motors (Altroz), Unacademy: Rs 80 Crore
- Umpire Partner – PayTM: Rs 28 Crore
- Strategic Timeout partner – CEAT: Rs 30 Crore
IPL 2019 Sponsorships total: Rs 618 crore
- Title Sponsor – VIVO: Rs 440 Crore
- Official Partners – Tata Motors (Altroz), Future Group (FBB) and Dream11: Rs 120 Crore
- Umpire Partner – PayTM: Rs 28 Crore
- Strategic Timeout partner – CEAT: Rs 30 Crore