Due to anti-china sentiment, Vivo lost its bid for the sponsorship title of the IPL 2020 worth Rs. 440 crore and Dream 11 won the bid and might become new official sponsors of the IPL soon.
Vivo holds the rights of the sponsorship of IPL for five years from 2018 to 2022 for a reported sum of Rs. 2190 crore, approximately Rs. 440 crore per annum; but recently the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) suspended the IPL title sponsorship deal with Vivo, a Chinese mobile phone company; for the event’s upcoming edition amid soaring China-India diplomatic tensions.
The press release stated The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd have decided to suspend their partnership for IPL in 2020 and the company stated that the association is being paused.
According to the company’s official statement, BCCI and Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd have mutually decided to pause their partnership for the 2020 season of the Indian Premier League.
The reason why Vivo is suspended for the title sponsorship is to be believed the anti-China sentiment. The anti-China sentiment in the country peaked after the violent face-off between the Indian and the Chinese military in eastern Ladakh. India lost over 20 soldiers in that clash, while China also acknowledged unspecified causalities.
The stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was caused across India by several calls for the boycott of Chinese companies and products. Because of this rising tension between China and India Vivo lost its sponsorship title for IPL 2020, which was about Rs. 440 crore deal. But according to some sources, it will be a one-year pullout, which will be treated as a moratorium period, and if the relations between India and China improve, BCCI may look at inking a fresh three-year deal with a company from 2021 to 2023 on revised terms.
After the Indian government permitted to hold the IPL the BCCI invited companies to bid for the sponsorship title of the IPL’s 13th edition. The tournament will be held in the United Arab Emirates from September 19 to November 10 in three cities Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai.
Brijesh Patel, IPL chairman, expressed that a lot of companies were interested in becoming the sponsors of IPL. He said: “It is not a setback; there is already a lot of interest. Whether an Indian company or from anywhere else, whoever bids the most gets the rights.” Some significant Indian companies like Jio, Byju’s, Dream 11, Tata Group, Unacademy, and Patanjali Ayurved had also contested in the race for sponsorship.
Recently, the BCCI announced that Dream 11, a fantasy gaming sports platform has replaced Vivo as the title sponsor for the IPL 2020. According to PTI, Dream 11 was already among the many sponsors of the IPL and won the title sponsorship rights with a bid of Rs. 222 crore for a four and half month deal. Unacedemy made a bid of Rs. 210 crore; the Tata group made the bid of Rs. 180 crore and Bayju’s made a bid of Rs. 125 crore.
Dream 11 will now be the main title sponsor of the IPL 2020 edition and the company made a deal by paying the league 50% less than what Vivo paid to one of the wealthiest cricketing leagues. According to Reuters, Brijesh Patel (Chairman of IPL) said that Dream 11 had disclosed a winning bid of 2.22 billion rupees this year, compared with the 4.4 billion that had been paid by Vivo annually to the BCCI.
Although, the reports say that the BCCI is unwilling to get settled for the current offer and BCCI’s confirmation would depend upon how high Dream 11 increases the bid for the next two editions of the IPL as the duration of the Dream 11 sponsorship is until 31st December.
According to the reports, this has been one of the reasons why the BCCI is yet to officially announce Dream 11 as the IPL title sponsor. Dream 11 and the BCCI have been negotiating on the conditional three-year bid and the company needs to pay Rs. 240 crore each in 2021 and 2022 and the Indian cricket board wants the Dream 11 to increase the amounts by citing that the current deal is fine for the current year’s season. If Vivo does not return as title sponsor, this fantasy gaming sports platform will continue to hold the title rights till the 2022 edition.
Brijesh Patel, chairman of IPL said: “A loss is a loss, whichever way you look at it. But given the short time we had to final a new title sponsor and the global economic situation following the pandemic, this is satisfactory. And this is for just one season. So under circumstances, I would say we have got a good deal.”