Gaming firm wins IPL title rights, China link remains

New Delhi, August 18

Dream11, a gaming platform, has won the title sponsorship rights for IPL 2020 with the highest bid, Rs 222 crore, among three prospective sponsors.

Dream11 beat bids from educational platforms Byju’s (Rs 201 crore) and Unacademy (Rs 170 crore) to win the IPL’s title rights for roughly four-and-a-half months, from August 18 to December 31, 2020. The tournament, originally scheduled to be played in India in March-May, had to be postponed due to the pandemic and will be played in three UAE cities between September 19 and November 10.

The IPL had to look for a new title sponsor after severing its ties with Vivo, a Chinese smartphone maker, due to adverse public opinion after the recent Galwan valley clash.

The IPL’s deal with Dream11 is worth around half of that with Vivo — the latter’s five-year sponsorship was worth Rs 2,199 crore, around Rs 440 crore annually.

Interestingly, while the deal with Vivo had to be called off after strong protests due to its Chinese origin, Dream11 too has a Chinese connection — two years ago, Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent reportedly bought a majority stake in Dream11. However, currently Tencent’s stake in Dream11 is less than 10%. An Indian cricket board (BCCI) official confirmed this. “Only a single-digit percentage minority stake is held by Tencent,” the official said.

However, another controversy hovers over Dream11 — last month, BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit sought an inquiry against it over its alleged links with a fake T20 league played at a village near Mohali. — TNS