Mumbai Indians may have failed to reach the Indian Premier League playoffs for the 2018 season, but the three-time champions continue to be the most valuable franchise of the tournament, according to global valuation firm Duff & Phelps.
The Mumbai Indians, with a brand value of $ 113 million, continue to top the charts for the third season in a row, according to the fifth edition of Duff & Phelps’s annual IPL Brand Valuation Report.
Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders are in second place with a brand value of $104 million. The two-year ban from 2015-2017 imposed on Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for their involvement in the 2013 spot-fixing and betting scandal has had some bearing on their brand values, the report said.
However, CSK’s title-winning performance in the 2018 season on their return, coupled with the MS Dhoni factor, helped them to neutralise the negative impact of the ban. CSK were valued at $98 million alongside Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore. Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals follow in the brand rankings.
The findings of the report also suggest an increase in the overall value of the IPL’s ecosystem from $5.3 billion in 2017 to $6.3 billion in 2018. This increase was supported by the sale of broadcast rights to Star India for Rs 16,347 crore, or $2.5 billion, over five years, which brought the Indian T20 league on par with the biggest sporting leagues in the world.
Under Star, content delivery expanded to various regional channels with commentary in eight different languages, rather than limiting the transmission to sports channels with just English commentary.
“Our IPL brand values report reflects the evolution of the modern cricket business paradigm with clubs benefiting from not only the enduring popularity of cricket in India but also from strong marketing and globalisation of the game,” said Santosh N, managing director of Duff & Phelps.
“However, for growth trajectories to maintain their momentum, all teams need to continue broadening their footprint, forming relationships and generating revenue opportunities in growth markets. Ultimately, however, much of cricket’s future depends on ensuring the product is of a sufficiently high quality to continue attracting viewers, sponsors and broadcasters, the latter of which have become a vital component for the game’s financial health,” he added.
This season, over-the-top, or OTT, content provider Hotstar also set a world record for the medium’s viewership, with 10.7 million concurrent viewers, beating the 2012 world record of over 8 million concurrent viewers held by YouTube for Felix Baumgartner’s space jump.
This surge in online streaming of IPL and the increasing momentum of OTT as a medium to watch sports online was also one of the key reasons for companies to show willingness to acquire digital rights for streaming IPL, the report said.
Social media continues to be an important driver of brand value, the report added. The number of IPL mentions on social media platforms went up from 642,900 in the first week of the 2017 season to 855,400 in the first week of the 2018 edition and to 1.3 million after two weeks.