IPL 2020: Delhi Capitals CEO says team managed higher value for sponsorships despite brand partner’s exit

Despite losing its principal IPL sponsor Daikin, Delhi Capitals, previously known as Delhi Daredevils, said it has made up for the loss.

When it comes to sponsorship revenues, Dhiraj Malhotra, CEO of Delhi Capitals, said that the franchise has already matched its 2019 sponsorship revenue, which according to industry estimates, was around Rs 40 crore.

Malhotra is confident about sponsorship for the team despite managing only 16 brand partners against last year’s 18.

“We have got higher value for sponsorship, including many of our jersey assets. We have also secured more official partnerships, including BKT, Dream11, BOAT, Kotak, livinguard and Fancode,” Malhotra told Moneycontrol.

While Malhotra did not share numbers regarding the cost at which the brands are partnering with the franchise during IPL 2020, experts note that the cost of sponsoring the front of the Delhi Capitals team jersey is around Rs 12-15 crore.

As for the back of the jersey, it costs a brand around Rs 7 to Rs 8 crore.

However, this year there have been re-negotiations due to the coronavirus impact on the businesses of many brands. In fact, it is estimated that sponsorship deals saw a 50 percent drop this year.

Delhi Capitals lost long-term principal sponsor Daikin, which used to take up the front jersey spot for branding and paid around Rs 16 to Rs 17 crore annually. Daikin pulled out due to the change in schedule of the IPL 2020, which started in September instead of March. The IPL was delayed by six months due to the coronavirus scare.

Daikin had said that as an air conditioning manufacturing company (its peak business is during the summer), the new IPL schedule did not make sense for it in terms of advertising.

With Daikin gone, JSW Group took over the principal sponsorship. In an interview with a newspaper, Parth Jindal, Chairman and co-owner of Delhi Capitals, said JSW had received a slight discount. Jindal is the MD of JSW Cement, MD of JSW Paints and Director of JSW Sports.

“When the tournament was scheduled for March, all our sponsors were sealed. But everything changed once the pandemic broke. While some brands like Daikin had to step away this year, others renegotiated their value. In a regular year, the sponsors are entitled to match tickets, meet-and-greet sessions etc, but none of those was going to be possible this year,” said Malhotra.

Yet, Malhotra said that Delhi Capitals got a better deal this year in terms of sponsorship. He, however, declined to share numbers.

The overall IPL’s brand value is estimated to see a 5-15 percent decline this year due to the coronavirus impact. Last year, the IPL was valued at Rs 47,500 crore.

The major dent in revenues is due to Vivo pulling out of the IPL as title sponsor. The title sponsorship revenue has come down from the Rs 440 crore that Vivo was paying annually to Rs 222 crore, which the league got from new title sponsor Dream11.

In addition, Chinese brands are lying low this year due to the anti-China sentiment. This alone will cost Star India, official broadcaster of the IPL, around Rs 500 crore.

While a lot of activities got restricted due to the coronavirus scare, Delhi Capitals is trying to keep the franchise’s fans entertained.

“DC Toli, our official Fan Army, is now on social media, and our ‘Har Ghar Qila Kotla’ campaign is ensuring they have various ways to enjoy the IPL from the safety of their homes as DC fans,” said Malhotra. “On match days, we have a regular interactive online watch party that gets a select group of fans together to enjoy the game and talk about it.”

He added that various cyclist groups will also be pedalling across the city in support of the team on each match day.

The franchise has also launched ‘DC Reporters’, which enables fans to be given special content sections before the start of each Delhi Capitals match.