BCCI likely deal with Dream11 for IPL title rights

After the announcement by the chairman of IPL, BCCI is likely to make the official announcement of Dream11 as the title sponsor of the tournament.

According to BCCI sources, the potential reason why the board has not officially announced Dream11 as IPL title rights holder despite league chairman Brijesh Patel confirmed this on Tuesday i.e. 18th August. The company replaced Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Vivo, who had to pull out for this season because the Sino-India border stand-off.

A veteran BCCI official, privy to the development, told PTI on conditions of anonymity, “It was always clear that the highest bidder may not get the title rights (it was specified by the BCCI before accepting the Expression of Interest from bidders).” He also added, “Having said that, Dream11 has bid the highest and are still favorites to get it, a few issues are still being ironed out before an official announcement comes”. It is known that BCCI is in discussions, with Dream11, to revisit their second and third year bids and wants them to increase the amounts.

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He said, “If it’s for only year 2020, then Rs 222 crore works fine. But it was a conditional bid for three years. We still have our deal with Vivo on.”

The official asked, “We haven’t closed it as it’s a pause. If we are getting Rs 440 crore, why will we settle for Rs 240 crore?” In this scenario, Dream11 has two options, either to accept a one-year or rather four months 13 days deal of Rs. 222 crore or else increase the conditional amount accordingly for 2021 and 2022, which is their discretion.