The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has shot down Dream11’s conditional bid for a three-year period and restricted their title sponsorship to only the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League.
The Telegraph reported on Wednesday that fantasy gaming platform Dream11 had won the title sponsorship rights with a bid, according to BCCI sources, worth Rs 222 crore for this year’s IPL in the UAE. The rights are available till December 31.
Dream11 will replace Chinese mobile phone maker Vivo, which paid Rs 440 crore annually but pulled out of this year’s tournament amid a backlash against Chinese firms following the border skirmish and subsequent diplomatic row.
Following hectic parleys, the governing council announced on Wednesday that Dream11 will be the title sponsors for IPL 2020, but did not specify the financial aspects of the deal.
Dream11 had outbid online education platforms Byju’s (Rs 201 crore) and Unacademy (Rs 170 crore).
However, the deal wasn’t inked and made official by the BCCI till Wednesday as Dream11 remained adamant on the three-year conditional bid in case Vivo decided to discontinue next year. Dream11 offered to pay around Rs 240 crore in each of the next two years, marginally above the highest bid that fetched them the deal this season.
The BCCI, it was learnt, was not agreeable to the terms since they felt they would be able to attract more money in 2021 and 2022. BCCI mandarins hope the threat of Covid-19 would have diminished by then and the economy would bounce back.
Sources told The Telegraph that after a lot of negotiations, the BCCI at one point even threatened to cancel Dream11’s bid if they didn’t agree to the ‘expression of interest’ (EOI) clause which specifically stated the deal was restricted to this year.
The BCCI had made it clear when it floated the EOI on August 10 that it may not award the rights to the highest bidder and the decision would depend on a lot of factors, including its “impact” on brand IPL.
“BCCI gave Dream11 two options. Either agree to what BCCI has been saying or increase your money to at least Rs 400 crore for the second and third years. If they didn’t agree, BCCI would have been forced to reject their bid and go with some other company,” sources said.
The BCCI wanted to keep its options open since there’s still a possibility of Vivo serving out their contract for the next two years. In case Vivo decides to terminate the agreement, the Board would always have the choice of calling fresh bids for the title rights for a renewed period.
