IPL's enterprise valuation rises 80% to hit $15.4 billion in 2023

The league takes the top spot among Indian start-up valuations

The business enterprise value of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on a standalone basis has hit $15.4 billion in 2023, an increase of 80 per cent over last year’s value, says Houlihan Lokey Inc, a global investment bank based in New York. This is close to the valuation of Formula One, which is pegged at $ 17.1 billion.

The business value has been calculated by using a variant of the income approach popularly known as discounted cash flow, which is the present value of all future cash flows of the IPL business.  

IPL’s enterprise value, when compared to Indian start-up valuations which have not gone for an IPO, puts it clearly on top. This is according to CB Insights June 2023, which has reduced the valuation of Byju’s to $11.5 billion (its earlier valuation was $22 billion), followed by OYO ($9 billion), Swiggy and Dream XI ($8 billion).

Looked at from another perspective, the 15-year-old IPL is 16th in the global pecking order of start-up valuations. And in terms of market cap, it is 43rd among top-listed companies, higher than the market cap of Britannia Industries as on Monday.    

Houlihan Lokey says that the sharp increase in the enterprise value of the IPL is because its media rights for 2023-28 have been grabbed by Jio Cinema and Disney-Star at a price which is three times higher than the previous five-year deal with Disney Star. With the increasing popularity of OTT platforms and the global reach of IPL, its valuation could go up even further, the investment bank says. 

Harsh Talikoti, senior vice president, Houlihan Lokey, says: “The enterprise value of IPL has mirrored the growth of the Indian economy. While considering the valuation, we have also made future benchmarks of its revenues with the National Football League (NFL) and the English Premier League (EPL) to come to an overall picture.”  

The broadcasting fee paid by the companies to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) per IPL match puts it in the second slot amongst global sports entities, just behind NFL. While the broadcasting fee for NFL per match is $ 35.1 million, it is $14.4 million for the IPL, followed by Major League Baseball in the US ($10.8 million), the English Premier League ($9.2 million), BCCI’s India international games ( $7.3 million), Germany’s football association Bundesliga ($3.8 million) and the National Basketball Association in the US ($2.1 million).

The investment bank has also detailed IPL’s brand valuation, and has pegged it at $3.2 billion, up from $1.8 billion last year. The good news is that brand valuations of all the teams (the Gujarat and Lucknow teams have been valued for the first time this year) have gone up. The sharpest rise was by Rajasthan Royals, which is up by 103 per cent. Royal Challengers has grown by 52 per cent, Kolkata Knight Riders by 48 per cent, Chennai Super Kings by 45 per cent, and Mumbai Indians by 34 per cent.