The $3.41 billion week that redrew the IPL
Two exits worth $3.41 billion have reset what an IPL franchise is worth, ushered in a new class of owners, and raised fresh questions about media rights and risk
On January 24 2008, eight ownership groups bid for the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) first franchises in Mumbai. The bids were higher than the Board of Control for Cricket in India expected.
Vijay Mallya paid $111.6 million for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, née Bangalore (RCB). Manoj Badale’s Emerging Media paid $67 million for Rajasthan Royals (RR), the cheapest lot in the room. The total spent on the Indian Premier League’s (IPL’s) founding eight was $723.59 million.
Eighteen years later, in the same week of March 2026, two of those franchises changed hands for a combined $3.41 billion. A Birla–Times–Blackstone–Blitzer consortium paid $1.78 billion for RCB. A group led by Kal Somani, backed by Rob Walton (heir to the Walmart fortune) and the Hamp family, paid $1.63 billion for RR.
The two franchises originally cost a combined $178.6 million. In nominal dollar terms, that is a 19x return on the combined entry over eighteen years.
