Popular fantasy gaming platform Dream11 is all set to become the new jersey sponsor of the Indian cricket team. The BCCI had floated a tender for the same on June 14 and News18 CricketNext has reliably learnt that Dream11 has come on board.
Byju’s had an optional deal in place with the BCCI until November but decided to exit the contract in March. Team India has been without a jersey sponsor since and played the recent World Test Championship final at the London Oval without one.
The Rohit Sharma-led unit sported new training and match jerseys by Adidas, a deal first reported by CricketNext back in February.
In the previous deal with Byju’s, BCCI was earning around Rs 5.5 crore for every bilateral fixture and the value dropped to Rs 1.7 crore for an ICC game because of the positioning of the logo. The numbers of the deal with Dream11 are likely to be lesser than what the Indian cricket board was earning from Byju’s.
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Industry experts tracking developments from close quarters have revealed that there was a lack of interest even after the lowered base price. BCCI’s June 14 release had prohibited certain brand categories from participating in the process and even though “Real Money Gaming” was in the list, an exception was made for “Fantasy Sports Gaming”.
From Wills and ITC to Dream11
Wills and ITC were the sponsors of the jerseys for close to a decade in the 90s before Sahara came on board and remained for the longest time. The group led by Subrata Roy sponsored the jerseys between 2002 and 2013 before monetisation of cricket entered a very competitive space and saw Star India on the team jerseys between 2014 and 2017.
Next, OPPO and Vivo, the two Chinese phone manufacturing companies, were up against each other for the next cycle and OPPO outbid Vivo for the 2017-2022 cycle. Next was ed-tech start-up Byju’s which took over midway through OPPO’s five-year cycle and a signed a contract which ran until November 2022.
The market conditions prompted Byju’s to not continue with the deal and since then Team India has been without a jersey sponsor. The wait will now end with Dream 11 coming on board. The fantasy gaming platform, which is growing at a rapid pace, was the title sponsor of IPL 2020 in the past and continues to have many active cricketers on board as promoters of the platform.
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