India-Pakistan World Cup clash could fetch $4,800 a second in ad spend

Multinationals like Emirates Group, Saudi Aramco, and Coca-Cola are among the firms sponsoring the month-long tournament

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Global firms are splurging on advertising for the upcoming cricket match between India and Pakistan to be held in the US, tapping into the spending power of the South Asian diaspora. The rival countries are set to play each other on June 9 in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in New York’s Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, a venue erected in three months using modular stands from the Formula 1 Grand Prix arena in Las Vegas. The tournament is being held in the US for the first time ever, and games will also be played in Caribbean nations.

The clash has added significance given Pakistan on Thursday fell to a shock defeat to the US, a major boost to the host nation playing in their first ever World Cup and ranked 18th in the world behind Nepal and the UAE.  Ad slots for the game could sell for as much as 4 million rupees ($48,000) for 10 seconds, said Santosh N, managing partner at D&P Advisory, which provides sports valuation services. “The India-Pakistan game always commands a premium.”  A 10-second slot for India games would be fetching about 2 million rupees on average, he added. In comparison, a Super Bowl ad is a reported $6.5 million for 30 seconds, and about £400,000 ($511,000) for 30 seconds during the 2022 football World Cup for UK advertising.

Multinational firms like Emirates Group, Saudi Aramco and Coca-Cola Co. are among the companies sponsoring the month-long tournament. The matches have also been scheduled to coincide with peak viewership hours in South Asian countries. For example, the India-Pakistan match will be played at 10:30 am in New York on Sunday, when it will be evening in India.

During the Cricket World Cup held in India last year, a 10-second slot was estimated to cost 3 million rupees. The higher pricing compared to the T20 World Cup reflects the much greater hype for the sport when held in India, according to Chandrashekar Mantha, partner at Deloitte India. He added that some advertising budget will already have been allocated to the Indian Premier League, which concluded two weeks ago.