The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) remains busy in getting new sponsorship deals for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 season. A lot has changed due to the Coronavirus pandemic that saw the season being postponed from March to September this year. 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.
While there still 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 a duration of three years in a reported fee of INR 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 deal came into place after the Future Group opted out while Dream11 became the title sponsor of the 13th edition of the league. As per a report in Inside Sport, the BCCI is also said to be in talks with credit card payment company, CRED, as one of the central sponsors. 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.
IPL 2020 Sponsorships:
- Title Sponsor – Dream11 – INR 222 Cr
- Official Partners – Tata Motors, Unacademy – INR 80 Cr
- Umpire Partner – INR 28Cr
- Strategic Timeout partner – INR 30 Cr
While BCCI seems to have accumulated sponsorships of Rs 360 crore this year, last season, the board allegedly made Rs 618 crore from IPL sponsorships. Before the new season begins, the BCCI is likely to sign one more central sponsor but the revenues are certain to take a big hit this year.
