BCCI raises India cricket title-rights reserve price 17% to ₹4.9 crore a match
BCCI has raised reserve prices for India cricket’s title and associate sponsorship rights through March 2028, testing brand appetite for bilateral cricket as consumer categories step up after gaming advertisers’ retreat.
What happened
BCCI raised reserve prices for India cricket title and associate sponsorship rights through March 2028. The move tests advertiser appetite for bilateral cricket
Key facts
- Title sponsorship reserve price: ₹4.9 crore per match, up from ₹4.2 crore
- Associate partner reserve price: ₹95 lakh per match, up from ₹82 lakh
- Estimated 35 international matches
- Title rights base value: ₹169.8 crore
- Previous title cycle: 56 matches worth ₹235.2 crore
- Associate partner slot base price: ₹33.3 crore
- Apollo Tyres front-of-jersey deal: ₹579 crore
- India sports sponsorship spending in 2025: ₹7,942 crore, up 7% year-on-year
- Cricket share of sponsorship market: 89%, up from 85%
Why this matters
Companies seeking scale in India should assess title or associate rights as a multi-year customer-acquisition asset, while weighing the rising entry cost against partnerships with teams, players and cricket-adjacent commerce platforms.
What to watch
- Final title-rights and associate-sponsorship winning bid versus the ₹4.9 crore-per-match reserve.
- Identity and category mix of winning sponsors, especially whether FMCG, fintech, telecom and auto replace gaming spend.
- Number of matches and quality of the 2025-28 home bilateral calendar, including Pakistan-free scheduling, marquee opponents and tournament overlap.
- Broadcaster and streaming reach, ad-load policy, audience fragmentation and availability of commerce-linked ad formats.
- Whether rights packages include digital, social, on-ground, athlete and retail-activation inventory.
- Competitor sponsorship announcements and corresponding increases in promotional intensity at retail and quick-commerce channels.
- Model bilateral-cricket sponsorship as a full-funnel media buy, pairing title rights with quick-commerce, marketplace, modern-trade and distributor activation.
- Secure category exclusivity early for high-frequency purchase categories such as beverages, snacks, personal care, payments and consumer electronics.
- Build regional-language creative, retailer promotions and match-day bundles around home-series calendars rather than relying on national brand visibility alone.
- Negotiate digital clips, social integrations, creator rights, hospitality and customer-data measurement as offsets to the higher base rights fee.
- Prepare contingency media plans using IPL, ICC events, regional leagues and sports creators if bilateral-cricket pricing exceeds return thresholds.