Women's Premier League sponsorship rights may turn out to be a money spinner for BCCI

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has set the ball rolling for the Women's Premier League (WPL) with media and franchise rights auction that fetched a premium. And now, all eyes are on sale of title sponsorship rights, which is also likely to see a strong valuation.

The cricket board issued a tender for the sale of title sponsorship rights of WPL for seasons from 2023 to 2027 and bid documents are available for purchase till February 9. While no base price has been set for the title sponsorship rights, it is estimated that the base price is likely to be Rs 35 lakh per match.

"Title sponsorship rights of men's IPL (Indian Premier League) are around 5 percent of the league's broadcasting value. WPL's media rights valuation is Rs 7 crore per match and 5 percent of that is Rs 35 lakh per match, which will be the benchmark for title sponsorship rights value," said Santosh N, Managing Partner, D and P Advisory.

He added that the value of the rights will go higher as the base is low. "There is more demand and the base value is low so it will go at a premium and can be in the range of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore," he said.

The valuation

WPL's title sponsorship rights will be 3-5 percent of what Tata is paying for IPL, said Karan Taurani, senior vice-president, Elara Capital. Tata Group replaced Vivo as the title sponsor last year, for which it paid around Rs 670 crore for a two-year sponsorship deal (2022 and 2023), or Rs 335 crore annually. "It will be a fraction of IPL because WPL is a new property," he said.

In the first scenario where the per match value of title sponsorship of WPL is estimated to be Rs 1 crore per match, the annual revenue from the rights will come to about Rs 22 crore, while it will aggregate to Rs 110 crore for the five-year period.

As for the second scenario where title sponsorship is expected to be 5 percent of men's IPL, the value of WPL title sponsorship rights is estimated to be Rs 16.75 crore annually and Rs 83.75 crore for the five-year period.

But Santosh said that WPL's title sponsorship rights may get a better outcome as there is more interest.

Brands queue up

According to a sports analyst, Rs 3.5 crore could be the benchmark for WPL's title sponsorship rights. He pointed out that brands like FanCraze, Boost, and Ceat had come on board as the official partner of the Women's T20 Challenge 2022. My11Circle was the title sponsor of the tournament.

"HUL came back to cricket after a long time. So from an FMCG perspective, WPL is a dream market. FMCG brands will get more active during WPL," the analyst said.

Taurani said that brands that are more women-centric will show more interest in WPL. "For IPL, around 60-65 percent audience is male. So we expect WPL to be 60 percent dominated by a female audience."

The hitch

However, Santosh said that the title sponsorship may not have high value in terms of monetisation. "BCCI has struggled to monetise title sponsorship rights of IPL. In the last 15 years a lot of companies which got the rights pulled out before the tenure ended, including Pepsi and Vivo."

He said that the companies that picked up title sponsorship rights have not seen a strong return on investments. Also, the rights value has not grown in tandem with other data points like media rights.

"Like media rights, I doubt if title sponsorship rights will double from the Rs 440 crore per year Vivo was paying for IPL title sponsorship rights. This is because there are multiple avenues for brands to associate with IPL like franchise sponsorship including kit and jersey sponsorship (which costs Rs 15-25 crore). We have observed over the last 5-6 years that companies are backing multiple teams instead of spending on one team or one rights to get more visibility."

Also, unlike men’s cricket which has a high recall value and has attracted a large audience with an average reach of 500 million viewers, women's cricket is relatively new with an average reach of 20 million in India, noted Taurani.

While title sponsorship rights value may not move the needle much as it is likely to contribute 5-10 percent of central pool revenue, the rights are important for WPL from a brand perspective. "It (title sponsor) is important because we cannot have that space empty. It will give a major boost to brand WPL because IPL had a title sponsor for the last 15 years."

And because the cost is a fraction of IPL, a lot of new companies like startups and digital platforms which cannot afford an IPL association will be interested, he added. "Big firms will also be interested as they will make sure to get space in a cricket league at a fraction of cost."