US investors bet big on Indian cricket with record billion-dollar IPL deals

twitterwhatsappcopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoRoyal Challengers Bangalore's Virat Kohli plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match [Aijaz Rahi/AP]By The Associated PressPublished On 25 Mar 202625 Mar 2026United States investors are making a big move into Indian cricket, with two separate billion-dollar deals made on the same day for teams in the country’s most popular sports league.

No team in the Indian Premier League — one of Asia’s most-watched sports events — had ever sold for more than $1bn until a consortium backed by US businessmen Kal Somani and Rob Walton — the former Walmart chairman — agreed on Tuesday to buy the Rajasthan Royals in a deal that Indian media valued at $1.63bn.

That record only lasted hours, though, as an even bigger deal was announced the same day for reigning champion Royal Challengers Bengaluru. That team was bought for $1.78bn by another consortium that includes US billionaire David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures and US asset manager Blackstone.

The two deals highlight the increasing allure of India’s national pastime among international investors looking to be part of the most popular sport in the world’s most populous country.

“It’s mind-boggling numbers,” Indian cricketing great Sourav Ganguly told local reporters. “But great news for Indian cricket and the way forward. I think it’s already as big as the NBA.”

The valuations for the two teams mark a huge jump from their original 2008 sales, when liquor baron Vijay Mallya bought RCB for $111.6m, and Rajasthan sold for $67m.

Sport teams overall have become a major target of global investments, as businesses try to tap into new markets abroad and spending from their fan bases. Deloitte analysts wrote in an outlook published last month that the industry is “entering an age of expansion” — and that private equity deals across sports leagues have jumped in recent years.

The IPL, which only runs three months a year, features the sport’s shortest format — called Twenty20 — and has developed into cricket’s hottest property. In 2022, the broadcast rights for the 2023-27 cycle were bought for $6.4bn by Disney Star and Reliance Viacom18. Disney has since exited its India business, and the two entities together formed JioStar in 2025.

In a statement, Blitzer described the IPL as “one of the great growth stories in global sport.”

In 2021, the league was expanded from eight to 10 teams, and the two new franchises, Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, sold for $670m and $940m, respectively.

In comparison, the London Spirit team of the British cricket league The Hundred was valued in 2025 at $370 million — the highest for any team in that tournament — when its partial stake was up for sale last year.

“Over the past two decades, the IPL has morphed to become a global sporting powerhouse that has changed the face of Indian cricket, creating enormous value for India,” said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Aditya Birla Group, which is part of the consortium that includes Blitzer. “RCB, as one of the most compelling franchises in modern sport, offers us a distinctive platform to extend our legacy into the arena of global sport.”

The 2025 title was RCB’s first, but the celebrations turned tragic when at least 11 people died in a deadly crowd crush at the team’s stadium.

The new ownership consortium will bring in a reformed management team for RCB. Aditya Birla director Aryaman Vikram Birla will serve as chairman, while Satyan Gajwani of the Times of India Group will take on the role of vice chairman.

Blitzer already has ownership stakes in the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the Premier League’s Crystal Palace, among a slew of other teams.

For Rajasthan, Somani was an existing shareholder and moved to take full control of the franchise in a deal that still needs approval from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Indian media reported. The Arizona-based tech entrepreneur is also one of the founders of Motor City Golf Club in the TGL league, co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

The 81-year-old Walton is the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton and is an owner of the NFL’s Denver Broncos.

While the IPL’s current valuations still fall well shy of the top global sport franchises in other sports, like the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys or football’s Real Madrid, there is still room to grow.

Cricket made a foray into the US market with the 2024 T20 World Cup — won by India — and the sport will return to US shores at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

Times Group, another of RCB’s new co-owners, is already heavily invested in the US cricket market. It owns Willow, which primarily broadcasts all major cricket matches — including the IPL — in the US.

Walmart, meanwhile, has key interests in India. It acquired a majority stake in e-commerce giant Flipkart in 2018, and also controls PhonePe, the leading digital payments platform, as well as other business interests.

There is also a connection between the IPL and Major League Cricket — a T20 competition that began in 2023 and has six teams: in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas and Washington, DC.

The MLC is run with the blessings of IPL’s franchises – Chennai Super Kings owns the Texas franchise, while Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians own the Los Angeles and New York teams, respectively. The league is expected to grow to eight teams in 2027, with Arizona being a prime contender for one of the new franchises.