IPL merchandising to boost brand monetisation

Unlike the global sports events, the premier T20 cricket hasn’t been able to monetise at a large scale through merchandising despite its huge popularity, but this could change in the next few years, it said.

“Merchandising, which has not picked up as anticipated, is a huge opportunity for IPL and the franchisees to monetise the brand, and we hope to see IPL replicating the global sporting events’ success in monetising their brands through merchandising,” Duff & Phelps India MD Santosh N said. Globally, merchandising is a $20 billion plus industry, but in India and more specifically in the IPL, it is still at a nascent stage due to competition from the unorganised and counterfeit market in India.

“Most of the global football teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid’s merchandising revenue contribution is in the range of 15 per cent to 20 per cent of their total revenue, whereas in case of IPL, this may be less than 5 per cent at this stage. However, considering the huge market IPL is catering to, we anticipate the IPL merchandising revenue to grow substantially in the next few years and be on par with global sports teams in the long term,” he said.

IPL as a total business was valued at USD 5.3 billion in 2017, Duff & Phelps says. As per its brand valuation report last year, Mumbai Indians with USD 106 million became the first IPL team to cross the USD 100 million mark. Kolkata Knight Riders were valued at USD 99 million and Royal Challengers Bangalore at USD 88 mn. The cash-rich league’s title sponsorship has seen a massive growth of 800 pc from Season 1 to Season 11.