IPL 2020: BCCI Ropes In Unacademy, CRED As Official Partners

A sigh of relief for BCCI as they rope in education technology platform — Unacademy and finance startup CRED as official partners. Unacademy is also likely to bid for the title sponsorship. The BCCI had announced this Thursday that Vivo had withdrawn from the title sponsorship of the IPL 2020.

The move from Vivo came after the rise in anti-China sentiment in the country after clashes in the Ladkah’s Galwan Valley left 20 Indian military personnel dead.

Vivo had a 2199 crore agreement in place with the IPL for the title sponsorship for five years 2018-22. BCCI reportedly earned 440 crores directly from Vivo every year, of this 50 per cent was distributed to the franchises. The Chinese mobile companies’ backout has forced BCCI to find a new title sponsor.

Title Sponsorship Also A possibility for Unacademy

Unacademy and CRED have been named as the official partners of IPL 2020 by the BCCI. Various reports suggest that four years agreement has been met from 2020 to 2023 between the BCCI and Unacademy.

The sources say that the deal can be anywhere around 60 crores per season. The other sponsor CRED which is a is a credit card bill payment platform has a similar deal to Unacademy.

A report from Outlook suggests that Unacademy may be also interested in getting the title sponsorship for the IPL 2020.

Unacademy has a long list of investors of the stature of Facebook, General Atlantic, Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, and Blume Ventures. Unacademy looks to be a good choice also being an Indian company, it’s not in the most precarious positions by any means.

Industry experts suggest very few aspects are against Unacademy going forward. The deadline for submitting the bids is known to be on August 14 evening.

The BCCI will name the title sponsors on 18th of August post a bidding window of 7 days for the interested sponsors. The deal is likely to be in the range of 150-200 crores which is way less than the last contract probably because of the coronavirus pandemic affected market.

IPL to begin from September 19 in the UAE

The IPL 2020 will begin from September 19 till November 10, a total 53-day campaign will see all the 8 teams play in UAE. The venue this time is UAE and matches will be played in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

The tournament was originally scheduled to kick off from March 29 was postponed indefinitely after April 15 due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the nation.