On the back of the its media rights values tripling in 2023, cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL)  has become a hotbed for brand sponsorship. IPL teams now have 10 assets across their kits for brand logos – placements available on teams’ arms, trousers, helmets, and either side of their shirts – the highest amount of real estate on sports kits tracked by Ampere. 

Further to this, the “leading arm” partner patch is situated on a batter’s lead arm, whether left or right, ensuring optimum visibility for IPL fans – a unique characteristic that set the precedent for baseball’s more recent Jersey Patch asset. 

Since 2022, the value of all these kit assets across the IPL has seen a 27% increase – growing from a league wide total of $53m, to $67m. Of this total value, only 21% comes from international brands such as DHL, Puma, Red Bull, DP World, and airlines Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways. Therefore over three-quarters of the IPL’s asset deals are domestic, the highest proportion of any league outside of the US. 

For domestic brands, there is a clear strategy for the largest market players such as BKT Tires, Jio, Dream11, and Astral Pipes. In 2024 each brand partnered to be the  sponsor of a specific asset across a majority of IPL teams, offering high-visibility placement across a large portion of the games in an IPL season. This is a distinctive strategy, partnering with several teams on an individual basis to gain a monopoly of an asset across a domestic market, instead of a typical centralised deal such as Apple’s sleeve sponsorship across the MLS. For example, BKT Tyres and Jio partnered with over half the league teams for the Back of Shirt and Leading Arm asset respectively.

However, outside of these brands, only eight other brands have deals with multiple IPL teams. This leaves 47 unique brands – 64% of which are domestic – that sponsor only one kit asset. The scale and diversity of the increased investment demonstrates the willingness of a multitude of brands to tap into the IPL’s huge fanbase. Notably, sponsorship spend from the Renewable Energy sector has grown, with Rayzon Solar, INA Solar, Goldi Solar, and Waree Solar partnering with five teams in 2024. 

With IPL teams offering the widest diversity of kit assets of any sports league, brands have an opportunity to pen a kit deal which provides significant awareness. For domestic brands specifically, sponsorship can unlock brand recognition, increased consumer sales and/or B2B hospitality experiences.  

Currently, though sponsorship revenue overall is growing, sectors such as Technology, Food, and Drink are under-indexing or declining, suggesting there are gaps in the market for emerging domestic, or marquee international brands to become sponsors. With the increase in media rights values largely being from local deals, Ampere certainly expects a continuing trend of Indian brands looking to engage with their large domestic audience.