April 13, 2024
The Indian Premier League Cricket has been a great investment. In 2009, a year after the franchise-owned cricket league launched, Forbes pegged the average franchise value at $67 million. By 2022, the average IPL team had soared to $1.04 billion thanks to the expectations around the next media contract—a $6 billion deal was inked a few months after our valuations were published—and the influx of private equity money from the likes of RedBird Capital and CVC Capital into the league.
Although several Twenty20 leagues have sprung up since the IPL was launched, India’s Premier League remains incredibly popular with a global audience. The sport generates massive viewership numbers, with Reutersreporting in June that more than 120 million unique viewers tuned in to watch the Chennai Super Kings defeat the Gujarat Titans in a dramatic final to win their record-tying fifth IPL title, with a peak concurrency of 32.1 million. Twenty20 cricket, also called T20, is a truncated form of the sport that revolutionized the game when it was introduced in 2003 with rule changes that put a premium on hitting and scoring. Cricket is also returning to the Olympics in 2028, so IPL team values may surge further.
This morning, Bloombergreported that “Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s advisers have spoken to Indian government officials about moving the IPL into a holding company valued at as much as $30 billion.” Forbes has confirmed this interest with an owner of an IPL team. An investor in an IPL team contacted by Forbes thinks a major investment by Saudi Arabia would not happen until after the next national elections are held in India next April.
Saudi Arabia—via its $700 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF)—has been making a huge push into sports recently, including a possible investment into the PGA Tour. The PIF has pumped money into everything from Formula 1 and WWE to European soccer and the new African Football League. Saudi Arabia is also due to host the Spanish, Italian and Turkish Cup finals and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, and it appears in line to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
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