Rajasthan Royals auction heats up with $1.3bn offer on the table

RAJASTHAN: The sale of Rajasthan Royals is gathering speed—and the price tag is rising fast.

The Indian Premier League franchise has entered the next stage of its sale process after four bidder groups were invited to advance, Bloomberg reported, sharpening attention on how much buyers are now willing to pay for a stake in India’s most powerful sporting property.

Among the interested parties is a consortium led by Times Internet chairman Satyan Gajwani, along with a group backed by US-based entrepreneur Kal Somani. Gajwani brings deep cricket exposure. He owns a 49 per cent stake in The Hundred’s London Spirit as part of a consortium led by Palo Alto chief executive Nikesh Arora and is also a co-founder of Major League Cricket in the US.

Bloomberg said a preliminary offer of $1.3 billion has been submitted by a consortium led by Somani Group, which is already an investor in the Royals. The bid is reportedly linked to the future performance of IPL media rights, underlining how closely franchise valuations now depend on broadcast revenues.

Those revenues remain formidable. The IPL’s media deals for the 2023–27 cycle are valued at Rs 48,390 crore ($6.2 billion). Rajasthan Royals is majority owned by Emerging Media Ventures, controlled by venture capitalist Manoj Badale, with minority stakes held by RedBird Capital Partners and Lachlan Murdoch.

RedBird was linked last year to a possible sale of its 15 per cent stake, which it bought in 2021 when the franchise was valued at around $250 million—a figure that looks distant in today’s market.

The sale is being managed by Raine Group, with a valuation floor of roughly $1.1 billion. Blackstone and The Carlyle Group have both explored buying into the Royals, as well as fellow IPL side Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Bloomberg reported in June that RCB owner Diageo was considering strategic options, including a sale valuing the team at up to $2 billion, highlighting how sharply IPL expectations have climbed.

The broader numbers explain the appetite. The IPL’s business value rose 12.9 per cent year-on-year to $18.5 billion in 2025, according to Houlihan Lokey. Last season’s final drew 169 million television viewers, the highest-ever for a cricket match in India, while JioStar said the 2025 season reached one billion viewers across television and digital platforms.

The most recent benchmark deal came last February, when Torrent Group agreed to buy 67 per cent of Gujarat Titans from CVC Capital Partners for Rs 5,000 crore ($544 million). CVC had originally won the Ahmedabad franchise in 2021 with a bid of Rs 5,625 crore ($612 million).

As the bidding tightens, Rajasthan Royals is shaping up as a reality check—testing just how high IPL valuations can climb, and whether media money can keep carrying them higher.