RISE Worldwide facilitates sponsorship deals worth Rs 300 Cr for IPL 2022

RISE Worldwide, the sports and lifestyle arm of Reliance Industries, has facilitated over 50 marketing, licensing and sponsorship deals for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), racking up transactions of more than Rs 300 crore, a 40% jump over the previous year.

RISE has worked across all the 10 franchises and the central IPL team as well as the advertisers including Ather Energy, Cars24, Upstox, Reliance Jio, BKT Tyres, Boat, DHL, Dream11, Fan Code, 1 finance, and Bombay Shaving Company amongst others.

“We have closed 50+ partnerships this year and are focused on building long term value for the IPL ecosystem - IPL Franchises, BCCI and Brands’” Nikhil Bardia, head of Sponsorship Sales & Talent, RISE Worldwide, told ET.


CVC Capital, owner of the Ahmedabad franchise, which is set to make its debut in IPL 2022, had earlier appointed RISE as its exclusive agency to manage the commercial programme for the Gujarat Titans.

"All our deals, we told our clients to go for the long term to build brand value. It’s not about just brokering the deal, but about the brands leveraging their partnership via fan activations. I think that is becoming more and more relevant now,” Bardia added.

For instance, in developed markets, if a brand puts $100 in a team or sporting league in sponsorship, they usually spend another $100-120 on leveraging the deal, on marketing and activations.

In India, a lot of sponsorships are seen just as branding exercise, which Bardia said is not sustainable in the long term.

He said that RISE is about getting the right fit, for both brands and franchises.

“Everyone knows the market benchmarks. So, with Gujarat Titans, we asked the brands to make an offer; tell us how much there were ready to invest in marketing, and how were they planning to leverage the partnership. That became the base for decision making. The Idea was to get the right matrix of brands which are credible,” said Bardia.

RISE has facilitated deals of Dream11 and Upstox for the central sponsorship of the IPL, while for franchises, it has got Reliance Jio (all 10 franchises), BKT Tyres and Dream11 (7 teams each), Boat and Fancode (4 teams each).

The two biggest deals included front of jersey (principal sponsorships) for Gujarat Titans with Ather Energy for two years, and Sunrisers Hyderabad with CARS24.

Sectors or categories, which RISE engaged with this time, included electric vehicles, auto-tech, fintech, telecom, auto ancillaries, fantasy gaming, consumer tech, logistics and personal care.