From Bollywood to Blackstone: How the IPL Became a $2 Billion Asset Class
Quick Answer: Global private equity firms are piling into India’s cricket market after CVC Capital sold its majority stake in the Gujarat Titans for a return exceeding 350% in four years. KKR, Blackstone, Carlyle and Partners Group are now circling stakes in Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals, with franchise valuations approaching $2 billion. The Indian Premier League’s centralised revenue-sharing model, $6.2 billion broadcast deal and 1.19 billion viewers make it an increasingly attractive alternative asset class.
For decades, the ownership structure of India’s biggest cricket league looked more like a Bollywood cast list than an institutional investor pitch deck. Franchise backers included film stars Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta, industrial dynasties and the Indian arm of drinks giant Diageo. That is changing fast.
A wave of global private equity capital is now flowing into the Indian Premier League, drawn by a combination of surging broadcast economics, predictable revenue structures and a scarcity of franchises that has turned team ownership into a trophy asset with serious returns.
The catalyst was a single deal. European buyout firm CVC Capital Partners sold its majority stake in the Gujarat Titans to India’s Torrent Group, generating a return of more than 350 per cent in dollar terms — just four years after acquiring the franchise. The deal valued the team at approximately $900 million.
That exit lit up the market. According to banking sources reported by Reuters, KKR and Blackstone are now both pursuing stakes in Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the reigning IPL champions. KKR is also exploring a potential investment in Rajasthan Royals, while Swiss-based Partners Group is evaluating at least one franchise. Carlyle, too, has been linked to expressions of interest. Avram Glazer — whose family co-owns Manchester United and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — has reportedly submitted a bid of around $1.8 billion for RCB.
These are not speculative plays. The economics behind IPL franchises have matured significantly since the league’s founding in 2008, when eight teams were auctioned for a combined $724 million. Today, individual franchises are commanding valuations between $900 million and $2 billion, a trajectory that mirrors — and in some cases outpaces — early-stage franchise economics in major American sports leagues.
Why the Numbers Work
The IPL’s financial architecture is unusually investor-friendly. The Board of Control for Cricket in India pools all media rights and league-level sponsorship revenue, retains half, and distributes the rest equally among the ten franchises. This centralised model guarantees each team approximately $55 million per year from the board’s pool alone, before ticket sales, team-level sponsorships or merchandise are factored in. This structure, more centralised than even the models used in Europe’s private credit markets, provides the kind of predictable economics that institutional investors value.
The broadcast rights underpin everything. In 2022, the BCCI sold IPL media rights for the 2023–2027 cycle to Viacom18 and Star Sports — now part of the merged Reliance-Disney India entity — for $6.2 billion, more than doubling the previous deal. On a per-match basis, that makes the IPL the second-most valuable sports league in the world after the NFL.
Viewership supports the premium. The 2025 season attracted a record 1.19 billion viewers across digital and television — a figure that dwarfs the NFL’s audience and positions IPL as perhaps the single most-watched annual sports competition globally.
Mohit Burman, co-owner of Punjab Kings and an Indian industrialist, told Reuters that franchise sponsorship revenue has been growing at roughly 30 per cent annually. He described the IPL as an asset class that has “clearly come of age” and one capable of rivalling or outperforming US league returns, even if the absolute scale remains smaller.
The Risks
There are headwinds. The Reliance-Disney merger, which consolidated IPL’s streaming and television rights under a single entity, has raised concern that reduced competition could suppress the value of the next broadcast auction in 2027 — the single most important revenue driver for franchise owners. Competing T20 leagues in South Africa, the UAE and Australia are also fragmenting player availability and could dilute the IPL’s talent monopoly over time.
Regulatory risk is another consideration for foreign investors. BCCI rules restrict dual franchise ownership and impose governance requirements that could complicate multi-team portfolio strategies of the kind common in global private equity co-investment structures.
The Bigger Picture
The rush into IPL franchises is part of a broader institutional pivot away from traditional Western asset classes. As global investors rotate out of US-dominated portfolios and into emerging markets and alternative assets, India’s combination of structural economic growth, a young consumer base and an increasingly professionalised sports economy presents a compelling long-term thesis.
Private equity’s entry also signals a maturation of the IPL itself. What began as a celebrity-driven entertainment venture is evolving into an institutional-grade asset class, with governance, revenue transparency and exit liquidity that increasingly resembles the kind of disciplined capital deployment reshaping European equities.
The next IPL season begins on 26 March. By the time it does, several of the world’s largest private equity firms may already be franchise owners — and the league’s transformation from a cricket tournament into a global financial asset will be all but complete.
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