United States investors are making a big move into Indian cricket, with two separate billion-dollar deals made on the same day for teams in the country\u2019s most popular sports league.<\/p>\n
No team in the Indian Premier League \u2014 one of Asia\u2019s most-watched sports events \u2014 had ever sold for more than $1bn until a consortium backed by US businessmen Kal Somani and Rob Walton \u2014 the former Walmart chairman \u2014 agreed on Tuesday to buy the Rajasthan Royals in a deal that Indian media valued at $1.63bn.<\/p>\n
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That record only lasted hours, though, as an even bigger deal was announced the same day for reigning champion Royal Challengers Bengaluru. That team was bought for $1.78bn by another consortium that includes US billionaire David Blitzer\u2019s Bolt Ventures and US asset manager Blackstone.<\/p>\n
The two deals highlight the increasing allure of India\u2019s national pastime among international investors looking to be part of the most popular sport in the world\u2019s most populous country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mind-boggling numbers,\u201d Indian cricketing great Sourav Ganguly told local reporters. \u201cBut great news for Indian cricket and the way forward. I think it\u2019s already as big as the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n
The valuations for the two teams mark a huge jump from their original 2008 sales, when liquor baron Vijay Mallya bought RCB for $111.6m, and Rajasthan sold for $67m.<\/p>\n
Sport teams overall have become a major target of global investments, as businesses try to tap into new markets abroad and spending from their fan bases. Deloitte analysts wrote in an outlook published last month that the industry is \u201centering an age of expansion\u201d \u2014 and that private equity deals across sports leagues have jumped in recent years.<\/p>\n
Cricket\u2019s hottest property<\/p>\n
The IPL, which only runs three months a year, features the sport\u2019s shortest format \u2014 called Twenty20 \u2014 and has developed into cricket\u2019s hottest property. In 2022, the broadcast rights for the 2023-27 cycle were bought for $6.4bn by Disney Star and Reliance Viacom18. Disney has since exited its India business, and the two entities together formed JioStar in 2025.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Blitzer described the IPL as \u201cone of the great growth stories in global sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2021, the league was expanded from eight to 10 teams, and the two new franchises, Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, sold for $670m and $940m, respectively.<\/p>\n
In comparison, the London Spirit team of the British cricket league The Hundred was valued in 2025 at $370 million \u2014 the highest for any team in that tournament \u2014 when its partial stake was up for sale last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past two decades, the IPL has morphed to become a global sporting powerhouse that has changed the face of Indian cricket, creating enormous value for India,\u201d said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Aditya Birla Group, which is part of the consortium that includes Blitzer. \u201cRCB, as one of the most compelling franchises in modern sport, offers us a distinctive platform to extend our legacy into the arena of global sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2025 title was RCB\u2019s first, but the celebrations turned tragic when at least 11 people died in a deadly crowd crush at the team\u2019s stadium.<\/p>\n
The new ownership consortium will bring in a reformed management team for RCB. Aditya Birla director Aryaman Vikram Birla will serve as chairman, while Satyan Gajwani of the Times of India Group will take on the role of vice chairman.<\/p>\n
Blitzer already has ownership stakes in the NBA\u2019s Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL\u2019s New Jersey Devils and the Premier League\u2019s Crystal Palace, among a slew of other teams.<\/p>\n
For Rajasthan, Somani was an existing shareholder and moved to take full control of the franchise in a deal that still needs approval from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Indian media reported. The Arizona-based tech entrepreneur is also one of the founders of Motor City Golf Club in the TGL league, co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.<\/p>\n
The 81-year-old Walton is the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton and is an owner of the NFL\u2019s Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n
Room for growth<\/p>\n
While the IPL\u2019s current valuations still fall well shy of the top global sport franchises in other sports, like the NFL\u2019s Dallas Cowboys or football\u2019s Real Madrid, there is still room to grow.<\/p>\n
Cricket made a foray into the US market with the 2024 T20 World Cup \u2014 won by India \u2014 and the sport will return to US shores at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.<\/p>\n
Times Group, another of RCB\u2019s new co-owners, is already heavily invested in the US cricket market. It owns Willow, which primarily broadcasts all major cricket matches \u2014 including the IPL \u2014 in the US.<\/p>\n
Walmart, meanwhile, has key interests in India. It acquired a majority stake in e-commerce giant Flipkart in 2018, and also controls PhonePe, the leading digital payments platform, as well as other business interests.<\/p>\n
There is also a connection between the IPL and Major League Cricket \u2014 a T20 competition that began in 2023 and has six teams: in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas and Washington, DC.<\/p>\n
The MLC is run with the blessings of IPL\u2019s franchises \u2013 Chennai Super Kings owns the Texas franchise, while Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians own the Los Angeles and New York teams, respectively. The league is expected to grow to eight teams in 2027, with Arizona being a prime contender for one of the new franchises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States investors are making a big move into Indian cricket, with two separate billion-dollar deals made on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1487,1721,308,50,217,101,56,54,158,55,3544],"class_list":["post-495457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-asia","tag-cricket","tag-india","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}