Dream11 wins title sponsorship: Fantasy cricket app Dream11 has won the title sponsorship for Indian Premier League 2020 for Rs 222 crore, according to reports. The sponsorship for IPL 2020 was up for grabs as the erstwhile title sponsor, Vivo, decided to take a break from the tournament this season amid calls for the boycott of Chinese goods in the wake of a standoff between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Ladakh since June.
As reported earlier, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was looking for home-grown entities as the title sponsor for the 2020 edition of IPL.
Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Brijesh Patel confirmed that Dream 11 will pay BCCI Rs 222 crore. Sources told Updatedyou.com that Dream 11 came up with the highest bid followed by Unacademy and Byju’s. The challenge for the BCCI was to find a new sponsor with not much time left for the 13th edition. However, given the popularity of IPL, many brands were keen and showed interest in replacing Vivo as the title sponsor. Since the title sponsorship deal for the 2020 season will be for a period of fewer than 5 months, the BCCI had to seal a deal which was close to 50% of what it received from Vivo.
Tata Group was the leading company to win the sponsorship race according to the sources. However, Dream11 won it eventually according to Economic Times for a whopping amount of Rs 250 crore. Interestingly, the Dream11 is also the official Fantasy partner of the BCCI and the IPL. It also worked as the official partners of the ICC during the World Cup last year.
How BCCI suspended deal with Vivo
The decision was taken soon after the BCCI suspended its title sponsorship deal with Vivo for IPL 2020 following the Indo-China clash in the Galwan valley – where 20 Indian soldiers attained martyrdom. The pressure was on BCCI to let go of Vivo as a title sponsor after the Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps in India.
Soon after the Galwan valley incident took place, BCCI took to social media to confirm that it would review its sponsorship deal.
“Taking note of the border skirmish that resulted in the martyrdom of our brave jawans, the IPL Governing Council has convened a meeting next week to review IPL’s various sponsorship deals,” BCCI said in a tweet posted on June 19.
However, after the recently concluded IPL Governing Council meet, the BCCI had retained Vivo as the title sponsor. It led to public outrage, and given the sentiments against Chinese brands and products in the country, the BCCI had to finally suspend the deal with Vivo. Vivo is expected to make a comeback as the title sponsor for IPL 2021.
Schedule likely to be released soon
Now that the title sponsor is finalized, the BCCI is likely to release the schedule of the IPL 2020 soon. The tournament duration is already decided with the final set to be played on November 10, on a weekday for the first time since 2008. Also, unlike the earlier schedule which was released in February, there will be more doubleheaders to accommodate the travel time of the teams.
The matches will be played in three cities, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah and it will be interesting to see which venue gets more matches to host. As of now, it has been decided that the first half of the extravaganza will be played behind closed doors. The decision to allow the spectators will be taken later depending on the situation of COVID-19 in the country.
