The Indian Premier League has grown into a decacorn within 13 years of its launch with sponsors and advertisers playing a big role in this journey.

Such is the craze for this sports property that even the live telecast of the players’ auction, slated to be held in Kochi this Friday, is set to make huge money for the broadcasters. IPL’s official broadcaster, Star Sports, and digital streaming partner, JioCinema, are selling ad inventory at premium rates. They have even onboarded a few sponsors for the live telecast. The list of sponsors even has an international bank, sources privy to the development have told e4m.

Officials further said, “The broadcaster is also offering different packages for the auction day, ranging between Rs 12-18 lakh.”

JioCinema is reportedly seeking Rs 20 lakh for a co-presenting sponsor, another source informed.

Queries sent to Star Sports remained unanswered till the time of filing this story. 

IPL media partners had been reigning in as sponsors in the past auctions as well, but their rates were not in this range, experts said.

In a historic auction held early this year, Disney Star acquired the rights to broadcast men’s IPL in the Indian subcontinent for Rs 23,575 crore ($3.02 Bn) for 2023-27, and Viacom18 grabbed the digital rights for the league with a bid of Rs 20,500 Cr ($2.57 Bn).

With $12 million per match, IPL is only behind the NFL as the world's 2nd most lucrative sports league.

Action at Auction

The IPL 2023 auction shortlist has 405 cricketers, including 273 from India. A maximum of 87 slots are up for grabs, with 30 to be filled by overseas players, BCCI has said.

Rs 2 crore has been set as the highest reserve price. While 19 overseas players have chosen to be slotted in the highest bracket, 11 players are with a base price of Rs 1.5 crore. Manish Pandey and Mayank Agarwal are the two Indian players on the list of 20 cricketers with a base price of Rs 1 crore.

The auction is set to start at 14:30 IST. Fans can watch the live streaming on JioCinema and the live telecast on Star Sports.