Sports
RCB sold! Meet the new owners of the franchise
Birla-led consortium, with TOI Group, Bolt Ventures and Blackstone, seals $1.78 billion all-cash deal for IPL and WPL champions
Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bengaluru has found new deep-pocketed backers. A consortium led by Aditya Birla Group and the Times of India Group has snapped up full ownership of the IPL and WPL franchise for a staggering $1.78 billion, marking one of the richest deals in cricket’s franchise era.
United Spirits Limited, the current owner, said its board has approved the all-cash sale to a consortium that also includes Bolt Ventures and Blackstone’s perpetual private equity strategy, BXPE. Both the men’s and women’s teams, previously run by Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited, will now be owned and operated by the new investors.
The price tag underlines the frenzy. At roughly Rs 16,660 crore, it eclipses the combined Rs 12,715 crore that the BCCI fetched from selling the Lucknow and Ahmedabad IPL teams in 2021. The deal comes after a competitive process that saw at least eight suitors shortlisted earlier this year, before the final consortium took shape.
The sale traces back to Diageo’s strategic rethink. The global alcohol giant, which controls USL, had flagged cricket as a non-core business in filings to Sebi last November, setting a March 31 deadline to exit the asset.
The transaction now awaits clearances from the BCCI and the Competition Commission of India before the consortium formally takes control.
RCB’s journey mirrors the league’s explosive rise. One of the original eight IPL teams, it was bought in 2008 for $111.6 million by Vijay Mallya’s United Breweries Group. In 2023, the owners doubled down, paying Rs 901 crore, about $110 million, to secure the Bengaluru franchise in the WPL, the third-most expensive among the five teams.
The new owners are wasting no time in setting the tone. Aryaman Birla will serve as chairman, with Satyan Gajwani as vice-chairman. The consortium called itself “proud to become custodians” of the franchise, adding: “RCB’s championship-winning culture, its deep connection to Bengaluru, and one of the most passionate fanbases in world sport make this an extraordinary opportunity. We are committed to taking RCB to new heights, on the pitch and beyond.”
For USL, the exit is both financial and strategic. “RCB has grown into the most prominent and commercially successful franchise in the IPL and the WPL,” said Praveen Someshwar, managing director and chief executive. “Guided by its ‘Play Bold’ philosophy and a strong competitive spirit, it has built a globally recognised brand and a passionate fan base. We are excited for the future of RCB under the stewardship of the new owner. As sports enters a new phase of growth in India and globally, we believe this is in the best interest of the franchise and our stakeholders.”
The buyer group blends heft and sporting ambition. Aditya Birla Group brings conglomerate muscle; Times of India Group adds media clout and existing stakes in global cricket properties; Bolt Ventures, backed by David Blitzer, carries a sprawling sports portfolio from the Premier League to the NBA; and Blackstone offers financial firepower as the world’s largest alternative asset manager.
With capital, credibility and global sporting expertise now in the mix, RCB is no longer just a franchise. It is a billion-dollar bet on cricket’s next frontier, and the stakes have never been higher.
Sports
Cricket eyes global takeover as ICC’s Sanjog Gupta maps next growth frontier
Record-breaking viewership, new markets and women’s surge power the sport’s global push
DUBAI: Cricket is no longer just a subcontinental obsession; it is pitching for global dominance. And the numbers are doing the talking.
As the clock struck 9 PM on March 8, 2026, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final triggered a historic surge, clocking 72.5 million concurrent digital viewers on JioHotstar in India—a new world record. The figure eclipsed the previous global benchmark set just days earlier during the second semi-final. Three of the four most-watched streaming events globally now belong to ICC tournaments, underlining the sport’s swelling digital muscle.
Sanjog Gupta, chief executive at the International Cricket Council, calls it unmatched scale and engagement. “No other experience, whether individual or collective, user-generated or curated, real or virtual, comes close to delivering this breadth of consumer attention and depth of fan affiliation,” Gupta writes in WPP Media’s Sporting Nation report.
The digital boom is matched by physical turnout. Nearly 1.3 million fans filled stadiums across India and Sri Lanka during the tournament, with strong attendance even for matches not involving host nations. Emerging teams such as Nepal, Italy and Scotland drew record crowds, signalling both deep-rooted passion and untapped headroom.
The global footprint is widening fast. The tournament delivered over 100 per cent viewership growth in markets such as Nepal, Germany and Japan on ICC.tv, while tailored content strategies drove engagement in Italy, Brazil, Indonesia and China. On social media, the ICC generated more than 15 billion views, amplified by over 300 content creators who collectively added another three billion views, offering fans a decentralised, creator-led lens into the game.
At the heart of this push lies a clear ambition: make cricket the world’s sport of choice. That requires more than marquee events. It demands grassroots participation, digital-first fan engagement and robust commercial scaffolding.
Traditional powerhouses such as India, Australia, England and South Africa continue to anchor the sport. But Gupta is clear that the future lies beyond them. The ICC is targeting expansion across the United States, Europe and emerging Asian markets, backed by development programmes and direct-to-fan digital ecosystems.
“The globalisation of the game is not simply about geography,” Gupta notes. “It is about ensuring that wherever the game travels, it retains its spirit while adapting to social contexts and localising when it enters new markets.”
The shift is already visible on the pitch. Associate nations are no longer fringe players. Nepal, Italy and the USA have begun to command global attention, while sides such as Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe have reasserted their pedigree. These performances, Gupta argues, are not anomalies but evidence of a broadening competitive base.
Parallelly, women’s cricket is emerging as a central growth engine. The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 in England and Wales is expected to accelerate momentum built over the past decade. India’s triumph in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 has further amplified interest, with ripple effects across markets. The ICC’s strategy is unequivocal: scale investment, expand visibility and create a pipeline of new stars.
Even as formats evolve, tradition holds firm. Test cricket, buoyed by the ICC World Test Championship, continues to anchor the sport’s legacy, while ODIs and T20Is drive accessibility and market expansion. The coexistence of formats, Gupta argues, is cricket’s unique strength, offering everything from endurance to instant spectacle.
None of this growth comes cheap. Global brands including DP World, Emirates, Aramco, Hyundai, Coca-Cola and Google are underwriting cricket’s expansion, turning sponsorship into a symbiotic engine of scale, visibility and development.
For Gupta, the direction is clear. Cricket’s future will not be defined by a handful of dominant markets but by a widening global community of players, fans and partners.
From packed stadiums in India to new builds in the United States and emerging hubs across Europe and Asia, the game is stretching its boundaries.
And if recent records are any indication, cricket is not just growing. It is accelerating towards a future where its reach is broader, its engagement deeper and its ambition unmistakably global.
