The Indian cricket board and the International Cricket Council have signed new deals with Apollo Tyres, Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Google and Bisleri, reinforcing cricket’s status as India’s most scalable marketing platform. Traditional brands, once priced out by tech-fuelled bidding wars, now see renewed opportunity as funding constraints force new-age players to pull back. The ban on real money gaming (RMG) also left a revenue gap for boards, broadcasters and franchises, as gaming companies were top advertisers until recently.
Asian Paints has signed a three-year deal worth about ₹45 crore per year with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, while Apollo Tyres has become Team India’s lead sponsor with a ₹579 crore contract through March 2028. The Indian cricket board additionally secured ₹48 crore in deals from Bisleri, Kingfisher and ChatGPT, while tyre maker Ceat has renewed its contract for the Women’s Premier League. Gujarat Titans, meanwhile, replaced gaming company Dream11 with real estate developer Birla Estates as its front-of-jersey sponsor.
Asian Paints managing director and chief executive Amit Syngle said his company uses a “a scientific ROI (return on investment) framework” to assess media efficiency. “We will continue to evaluate future sponsorships based on returns and effectiveness,” he said.
The shift underscores the resilience of cricket as a mass-market platform, Vinit Karnik of advertising and marketing group WPP said. “The return of India’s strongest legacy brands to premium cricket sponsorship shows that even in a rapidly evolving media ecosystem, cricket remains the country’s most trusted and efficient pathway to cultural scale.”
JSW Sports chief executive Divyanshu Singh said the market is stabilising after years of inflated spending by fantasy gaming and consumer tech firms.“In the previous cycle, the cricket sponsorship market saw a significant boost from fantasy gaming and venture-funded consumer tech brands, which led some traditional advertisers to reassess as pricing moved upward. What we’re seeing now is a healthy correction,” he said.”As those categories pull back, legacy brands are stepping in again; and that brings stability, long-term thinking and credibility back into the ecosystem. For rights holders, this shift is actually positive, because sustainable partners are better than volatile ones,” he added.
Nikhil Bardia, head of sponsorship consulting and talent management company Rise Worldwide, said this shift represents a significant shift of the sponsor base and partnerships like these continue to validate cricket’s universal appeal across diverse corporate categories. “With premium brands competing for cricket partnerships, the sponsorship ecosystem continues to evolve and also build strong brand equity for the partners that will invest in Indian cricket and for those who have continued to stay invested in Indian cricket,” he said.
The return of large domestic advertisers signals deeper confidence in cricket’s ability to deliver impact despite audience fragmentation, said Karnik. “When long-standing Indian brands commit top-tier budgets to cricket, it speaks to one thing: enduring confidence.”
Singh said even in the IPL, despite all the noise around fantasy, the real impact was always limited to a single-digit percentage of team revenues. “The bigger story is that footwear, tyres, paints, real estate and other conventional sectors are back in meaningful ways. That tells you the market is normalising, valuations are becoming rational, and sponsors are choosing properties that deliver enduring brand value rather than short-term spikes,” he said.
