It was a wave of yellow at the MA Chidambaram Stadium when Chennai Super Kings (CSK) beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by four wickets in the third match of the 18th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a tournament which is driving sports fan gear sales in India.
Over 50 percent of the merchandise in the IPL business is CSK, said Ravi Kukreja, Co-founder, playR, a sports and lifestyle brand that has partnered with CSK, Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans to provide global merchandise.
Dhoni in demand
"The stadium becomes yellow whenever Dhoni is playing. I have never before seen this kind of connection between a player with the masses. He is like thunder out there. More than 50 percent of IPL merchandise sales are for CSK and the euphoria continues," he said.
Last year, the firm sold about 120,000 jerseys across five IPL teams including Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders. "We tend to break that record this year with three IPL teams," Kukreja added.
About 200 products across categories will be available on playR with jerseys in high demand.
"Dhoni's jerseys are highest in demand. The majority of the personalisation will be '7 Dhoni'. The highest in demand are fan jerseys in the sub-thousand category. And we see 100 percent growth in terms of people wanting to personalise jerseys with their name. Though a jersey is a common commodity among the fans, every person has that innate desire to be different. We have also seen some quirky personalisation," he said.
They are also experimenting with personalisation in regional languages.
Kukreja also pointed out that 60 percent of the CSK jersey sales are in Tamil Nadu, while for Gujarat Titans around 75 percent of the sales are in Gujarat and 25 percent in the western region.
IPL fandom
IPL sales have recorded two-fold year-on-year growth from 2022-23 to 2023-24 at FC Shop, the merchandising platform of the live sports streaming service FanCode, operated by sports technology company Dream Sports.
The platform is eyeing a similar growth trajectory and looking at two-fold growth in jersey sales for Rajasthan Royals (RR). FC Shop has tied up with the RR franchise as the team's official jersey manufacturing partner, under which it will oversee the end-to-end operations of the team’s official merchandise, including designing, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution.
In addition, the platform is selling merchandise of all 10 teams including direct partnerships with 8 teams – Punjab Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, Lucknow SuperGiants, Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans.
The number of stock keeping units (SKUs) has increased to a total of 350 as compared to 250 last year.
"I think we were the first IPL team to launch the jersey. So that's been out since January. There'll be some topical drops as well. I saw Riyan Parag wearing a white oversized T-shirt with a funky design on the back for a shoot, which he refused to give back. We want to be associated with that sort of cool, younger Gen Z (people born between 1996 and 2010) fan who's looking to wear something funky, impress their friends, and show their passion for the Royals while doing so," said Jake Lush McCrum, CEO, Rajasthan Royals.
We are going to have 70 to 75 different Rajasthan Royals related items available this year, including the jerseys, said Yannick Colaco, Co-Founder, FanCode.
For cricket and IPL in particular, the latent demand for clubs and franchise-linked merchandise is significant, given how much cricket is consumed and played in India, said Jiggy George, Founder and CEO, Dream Theatre, a brand licensing agency.
From e-commerce platforms like Amazon to quick commerce apps like Swiggy's Instamart or Zomato's Blinkit, the IPL merchandise is not only available but is mostly sold out on match days.
"We have ensured that we have covered the offline, the big 4 e-commerce platforms and the big four quick-commerce apps. We are also the people behind the stadium sales," Kukreja said.
So, if a playR CSK Dhoni No.7 jersey priced at Rs 1,199 currently remains sold out on Blinkit, it can be purchased on Zepto for the same price.
The Maximum Retail Prices (MRPs) range from Rs 2,000 for replica jerseys and fan jerseys are available for Rs 1,000, the playR co-founder said.
Female following
Colaco noted that while there's increasing disposable income, it's also important to be able to give a range of prices and products so that different people can afford them. "We have seven different variants of jerseys which are available from the lowest price of Rs 899 to a premium product at Rs 3,499."
This year, there are going to be jerseys specially sized for women and kids, he added.
Rajasthan Royals on International Women's Day on March 8 launched an all-pink jersey for their match against Mumbai Indians on May 1, 2025, called the Pink Promise Match.
"We've seen a much deeper affinity from women for our franchise. We do a pink promise match where for every six (runs), we light six homes with solar and the solar engineers are women trained through our foundation to create the solar panels, implement the solar panels, and then power these homes. Due to this deeper connection with the female audience, all pink jerseys sell incredibly well," McCrum said.
A marketing tool
While IPL merchandise sales are growing year on year, they remain more of a marketing tool for the franchises.
"For us, it's as much a marketing tool to get in the hands of more fans than monetisation. I would rather get five million fans with some merchandise than make a ton of money on it, because we want to build our fan base," McCrum added.
Sports merchandise sales are growing in India but the same cannot be said about brand licensing in the sports domain, George noted. "The current licensed merchandise product offering is sparse compared to the valuations linked to IPL. There is a small presence of licensed offerings through franchise-owned stores and some licensing deals that clubs have inked in basic categories. IPL clubs are yet to leverage the full power of licensed merchandise, as a strategy. Licensing in IPL is still nascent and seen as a marketing tool versus a full-fledged strategy which also has massive revenue potential," he added.
Colaco, on the other hand, said that five years ago, it was extremely difficult to even get official products from any IPL team. "There's been a big growth just in terms of products being available," he added.
During IPL 2024, official jerseys were the top selling item under fan merchandise. In terms of accessories, mugs, keychains and water bottles were among the three most popular accessories respectively.
FC Shop sold around 1,100 Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians) and Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) jerseys during IPL 17 last year. The biggest order was for a Gujarat Titans gaming chair worth Rs 34,999, while a customer in Delhi placed an order worth Rs 30,000 for merchandise and accessories of multiple IPL teams.
Merchandise market
Licensing International's 2024 global survey pegs sports licensing in India at a retail value of around $173 million for 2023 and the market size is expanding, not just in cricket but other sports like football as well, according to George, who is betting big on sports licensing through their FIFA World Cups (Brazil, Russia, Doha), U-17 and European football club partnerships.
Globally, sports licensing, valued at around $40 billion at retail, is the third largest genre in licensing after entertainment and corporate licensing. Within sports, football is the most popular and is estimated at roughly $14 billion, George said.
In India, cricket, especially IPL, remains the key driver for merchandise sales.
The three-year-old company playR started its journey with 90 percent of revenue coming from IPL and 10 percent from other products. Kukreja expects to close 2025 with 50 percent sales from IPL.
Colaco also said that IPL remains the biggest sporting event.
"We also see sales spikes during ICC (International Cricket Council) tournaments, especially when India performs well in a tournament. FanCode Shop is the official merchandise partner with ICC."
They also see a similar trend for football clubs like Barcelona, Liverpool, Man City when they are playing well and winning, he added.
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