Tata Sons to BYJU’S: Here are the top IPL 2020 title sponsorship contenders

The new title sponsor will be declared on Tuesday.
Tata Sons Chairman and Byju's CEO
Tata Sons Chairman and Byju's CEO
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The Indian Premier League (IPL) will be held in the UAE this year and is scheduled to start from September 19. The title sponsorship race for the prestigious tournament is gaining steam with Tata Sons being the latest frontrunner to bag the rights. 

As part of the selection process, the company with the highest bid will not get automatically picked but it will depend on the impact the winning company has on the league’s brand value. 

The new title sponsor will be declared on Tuesday. 

Here is the list of companies in the fray: 

Tata Sons

Holding company of the Tata Group of companies, it reportedly has the best brand image among all the companies in the fray. 

Harish Bijoor, brand strategy specialist and founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc told Livemint that with companies willing to pay upwards of Rs 200 crore, the best among equals would be Tata Sons, as it is a non-controversial brand. It has heritage, a squeaky-clean image and size to its advantage, he added. 

Reliance Jio

Reliance Jio is part of the country’s largest business conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd led by Mukesh Ambani. The world’s fifth richest man and his family’s interest in cricket isn’t new. They already own the IPL team Mumbai Indians and are always seen at every match cheering for the Mumbai Indians. Mukesh Ambani is also reportedly the world’s second richest sports team owner behind former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who owns the Los Angeles Clippers.

However, a possible conflict of interest with the Ambanis already owning Mumbai Indians will have to be keenly watched. 

Patanjali

Reports say Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali is one of the few brands that have formally declared its interest in the bid. “We are considering the IPL title sponsorship for this year since we want to give the Patanjali brand a global marketing platform,” a Patanjali spokesperson said last week. The firm had recently stirred controversy by using the trademark ‘Coronil’ for selling immunity-boosting tablets. A single judge bench had restrained Patanjali from using the trademark ‘Coronil’ and also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh for commercially exploiting people. However, the Madras High Court recently stayed the single bench order and adjourned the matter for 2 weeks. 

BYJU’S

Edtech unicorn BYJU’S is already the official jersey sponsor of the Indian national cricket team. The company is currently the largest Edtech player in the country and also recently acquired WhiteHat Jr, a Mumbai-based edtech startup, in a deal reportedly valued at $300 million.

Unacademy

Bengaluru-based Unacademy is another edtech firm in the running. Founded in 2015, Unacademy currently has over 10,000 educators, more than 30 million learners and caters to over 35 exam categories.

Amazon

Amazon is one of the leading e-commerce players in the country competing with homegrown e-commerce marketplace Flipkart. In the Prime Day sales held last week, Amazon revealed that it had garnered at least 1 million subscribers for its Prime loyalty program in India. However, it is the only non-Indian company that seems to be in the fray.

Dream11

The fantasy sports platform founded in 2012, offers fantasy cricket, football, kabaddi and NBA. It is already part of the official sponsor panel at IPL. Its user base has grown to over 30 million and it has over 90% market share in the fantasy sports market in India. 

Paytm

Paytm is already an on-ground sponsor with it being the Official Umpire Partner from 2018 to 2022. Paytm is also the title sponsor for all home matches of the Indian cricket team.

All these companies have submitted expression of interest (EoI) to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

However, companies such as Paytm, Byju’s and Dream11 have been facing flak over being funded by Chinese companies and there have been calls to drop these companies from IPL’s sponsorship.​

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