‘Gujarat Titans could make profits the next rights cycle’

CVC Capital bought Gujarat Titans, IPL’s Ahmedabad franchisee, for Rs 5,625 crore in 2021 for 10 years. Ahmedabad is the second-most expensive IPL franchisee after Lucknow, which was acquired by the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group for Rs 7,090 crore.

“We will become profitable in the next media rights cycle. Even the original ten franchisees took four-five years before they turned profitable,” said Arvinder Singh, COO, Gujarat Titans.

“We are confident that not only will we turn profitable, but our brand value will also increase exponentially,” he added.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had sold the IPL media rights for Rs 48,390 crore to Disney Star and Viacom18 for the 2023–27 cycle. The next media rights circle will begin in the 2028 season.

The media rights income, along with sponsorship revenue from the central revenue pool, is shared equally between the BCCI and the franchisees.Of the franchisee share, 45% is divided equally among the IPL teams, while the remaining 5% is distributed based on their rankings during a season.The media rights deal has dramatically improved the profitability of the original IPL franchise holders. However, the two new teams, Ahmedabad and Lucknow, will have to wait a few more years to become profitable because of their high acquisition cost.

Singh said the Gujarat Titans’ sponsorship revenue is expected to increase 24% from last year to touch Rs 90 crore this season from the 27 sponsors and partners.

“In 2023, we had a 38% increase in sponsorship revenue. This year, we are looking at a 24% increase. We are well into the Rs 90 crore range,” he added.

The team has two new sponsors, Dream11 and Lubi Pumps. Dream11 has replaced Ather Energy as the title sponsor, while Lubi Pumps has replaced Timex. “Most of our existing sponsors continue their deals this year at an enhanced value,” Singh said.

Gujarat Titans has 8 million fans across various platforms and two million direct fans who have shared credentials with the franchisee. “We are engaging our core fans through the Gujarat Titans app with user-generated content and live-streaming,” he added.

Gujarat Titans looks at merchandising as an engagement tool rather than a revenue stream, Singh said. “Merchandising is a difficult revenue stream to build in India due to counterfeiting,” he said.

CVC Capital Partners has no plans to buy teams in other T20 cricket leagues since the focus is to grow the Gujarat Titans franchisee and make it profitable. “We had discussed a couple of options. However, our focus is entirely on the Gujarat Titans,” Singh said.