Dream11 was announced as the title sponsors for the IPL 2020 edition on Tuesday, August 18, 2020. They beat the likes of Tata sons, Unacademy, and Byju’s with an INR 222 crore bid. However, a day after bagging the rights, it has come to light that the process of their sponsorship is not straight forward.
Dream11's bid, it has come to light, is a conditional bid for 3 years, starting from 2020 and running until 2022. However, if reports are to be believed, the BCCI is unwilling to settle for the current offer.
Also, this is the reason why BCCI hasn’t officially announced Dream11 as IPL sponsors, despite IPL chairman Brijesh Patel confirming it.
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The company replaced Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Vivo, which had to pull out for this season because of the China-India border stand-off. VIVO was paying the BCCI Rs 440 crore annually for the 5-year deal which they bagged in 2017 by bidding Rs 2,199 crores in 2017.
Sources said BCCI and Dream11 are still negotiating on the conditional three-year bid under which the company is supposed to pay Rs 240 crore each in 2021 and 2022 if Vivo doesn't make a comeback with its yearly Rs 440 crore deal.
The BCCI had made it clear when it called for Expressions of Interest (EOI) on August 10 that it may not award the title rights to the highest bidder but the decision will depend on a lot of factors which will be evaluated and examined by the board after the bidding process.
"It was always clear that the highest bidder may not get the title rights (it was specified by the BCCI before accepting the Expression of Interest from bidders). Having said that, Dream11 has bid the highest and are still favorites to get it, a few issues are still being ironed out before an official announcement comes," a veteran BCCI official, privy to the development, told PTI.
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BCCI is in discussion with Dream11 to revise its deals for the second and third-year bids and wants them to increase the amount of the bid.
"If it's for only the year 2020, then Rs 222 crore works fine. But it was a conditional bid for three years. We still have our deal with Vivo on. We haven't closed it as it's a pause. If we are getting Rs 440 crore, why will we settle for Rs 240 crore?" the official asked.
The BCCI is unwilling to offer the title sponsorship rights to Dream11 at this price for 3 years. However, Dream11 feels that unless it can secure a deal for 3 years, things are not going to be easy for the company.
This scenario gives Dream11 two options – either to accept a one-year or rather four months 13 days deal of Rs 222 crore or increase the conditional amount for 2021 and 2022, which is their discretion.
On the other hand, if Dream11 doesn't agree to BCCI's terms, the board can reject the bid and go with some other company that is willing to come forward for IPL title sponsorship rights.
(PTI inputs)
