IPL brand value rises by 7.5% to $5.7 bn from last year's $5.3 bn

CSK, which made a come back in 2018 after two years of ban is the number one IPL franchise brand with a valuation of $75.3 mn, growing 16.4% from last year's valuation of $64.7 mn

Brand value of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has gone up to an all-time high of $5.7 billion with a growth of 7.5 per cent from last year's $5.3 billion.

Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which made a come back in 2018 after two years of ban is the number one IPL franchise brand with a valuation of $75.3 mn, growing 16.4 per cent from last year's valuation of $64.7 million, says the latest report from Brand Finance, an independent brand valuation and strategy consultancy agency. Kolkata Knight Riders stand second with $66.5 mn valuation, growing 7.7 per cent from $6.1 million last year. However, the highest growth during the year compared to last year was showed by Delhi Capitals, which grew 24.5 per cent to $54.2 million from $43.5 million last year and Mumbai Indians, which grew 24.1 per cent to $65.7 million from $52.9 million last year.

"This year’s tournament ran up over 330 billion minutes of broadcasting time and logged 300 million viewers into the streaming service over a span of 44 days. The IPL continues to exceed expectations for its players, franchisees, team sponsors, and give a boost to the Indian economy," said Savio D’Souza, Director of Brand Finance. "Its popularity has prompted a strong desire from other cricketing boards to replicate the success such as the England and Wales Cricket Board’s newly announced The Hundred," added D'Souza.

Chinese, American and Indian mega brands, representing sectors ranging from IT services, telecom, online payments, gaming, FMCG have been promoting their brands through the event and the related activities. D'Souza said that IPL was doing what La Liga and the English Premiere League accomplished in the football space as it sees the best players from the cricketing world putting their best foot forward to be a part of this extravaganza.

However, the tournament has a long way to go, considering the top 5 teams of IPL have a combined brand value of $321 million as compared to top 5 teams in the English Premier League ($6.5 bn) and La Liga ($4.2 billion). Formula 1, the premier racing event started in 1950, was recently taken over by Liberty Media Corporation for a business value at $8 billion. The fact that IPL has grown 11 per cent every year since 2009, indicates there is a high likelihood that it can overtake Formula 1 in a matter of years.