Royal Challengers Bengaluru attracts $1.8 billion bid as nine parties compete

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won their second Women’s Premier League title, defeating Delhi Capitals on Thursday night, marking the first instance of a franchise holding the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the WPL at the same time. On the field, it triumphed, hunting down a daunting 204-run target courtesy of captain Smriti Mandhana’s heroic 87 (despite a high fever) and Australian batter Georgia Voll’s 79. 

But off it, it received a different kind of validation: nine parties have submitted non-binding bids ranging from $1 billion to $1.8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, while the Rajasthan Royals narrowed its field to five shortlisted parties, including Manchester United’s Glazer family.

The non-binding bids (or R1) indicate serious interest, but carry no obligation to complete a transaction at the stated price. RCB will use them to narrow the field to a shortlist by next week, and then invite binding offers from the remaining parties. In some cases, the consortiums are still forming, with people close to the process summing it up in as many words: “Everyone is talking to everyone.”

The Rajasthan Royals have already moved past this stage and are working towards second-round or “R2” (binding bids) before going into exclusivity with one of its finalists. That process, sources tell The State of Play, could take place in the first week of March.

The Glazer family, through New Orleans-based Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital, is among several bidders pursuing both franchises. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) rules prohibit owning more than one team, so parties that enter into exclusivity talks with one franchise are expected to withdraw from the other.

The Glazers’ bid for RCB is believed to be around $1.8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, positioning them among the highest bidders for the franchise. At that valuation, they sit in the top end of the range, though non-binding bids can shift substantially as parties move to binding offers and complete due diligence.

The dual sales represent the first major test of IPL franchise valuations since the league added two expansion teams in 2021—Lucknow Super Giants for ~$940 million and the Gujarat Titans for ~$750 million. The spread between the highest and the lowest bids—$800 million for RCB alone—suggests that institutional capital is pricing in risk rather than accepting the growth projections that have sustained the IPL’s commercial expansion. 

The question is not whether billion-dollar projections hold, but whether the gap between what bankers are selling and what buyers are willing to pay narrows or becomes permanent as due diligence deepens and contingent structures replace confidence. “Ultimately, the question is, who can deliver the biggest growth on these teams?” a person familiar with the process said.

The battle for Bengaluru

The nine parties circling the Royal Challengers Bengaluru represent a cross-section of how global capital is approaching Indian cricket.

As The State of Play reported in January, Adar Poonawalla, whose family built a vaccine empire worth $25 billion (as of February 2025), is backed by TPG, the American private equity firm that manages $303 billion in assets. 

Dr Ranjan Pai, founder of Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), was reportedly in advanced talks with private equity giant KKR to form a consortium, with Temasek Holdings potentially joining if needed, according to Moneycontrol. Temasek, the Singapore sovereign fund with a net portfolio value of $434 billion, already partners with Pai through Manipal Hospitals. Pai is considered among the frontrunners, along with the Glazers.

Premji Invest has entered the race. The investment arm of Wipro founder Azim Premji manages approximately $15 billion and has historically stayed within technology and healthcare. Its presence in a cricket sale indicates a departure, though perhaps not a surprising one, given how Indian sport has begun attracting the kind of patient, institutional capital that Premji Invest represents.

EQT, the Stockholm-based private equity giant with €267 billion ($258.17 billion) in assets, has been building a sports investment portfolio across markets, having acquired the IMG Academy in 2023. RCB would be among its first major entries into Indian sport, even as it has a presence in the country through investments in sectors such as technology services, financial services, and healthcare.

Moneycontrol was the first to report on Ranjan Pai, Poonawalla, EQT and Premji Invest’s non-binding bids.

Sources told The State of Play that Capri Global, the non-banking financial company that already owns WPL franchise UP Warriorz and the ILT20 franchise Sharjah Warriorz, is also in the running. 

The company manages over $3.6 billion in assets and has been assembling a sports portfolio through Capri Sports, which includes the Pro Kabaddi League franchise Bengal Warriors and the Ultimate Kho-Kho team Rajasthan Warriorz. “Capri could have an advantage going into the process, given that their existing presence in the BCCI ecosystem through their WPL franchise,” said a person familiar with the matter.

Capri Global, Sanjay Govil, and representatives for the Glazer family did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication. 

The State of Play first reported on media conglomerate The Times of India Group’s interest in both franchises. The company has tabled an R1 (non-binding) bid for RCB, with sources saying that it has backing from some US-based family offices. 

Its digital arm, Times Internet Limited, owns the cricket media platform Cricbuzz and North American cricket broadcaster Willow TV. Times Internet vice-chairman Satyan Gajwani cofounded Major League Cricket in the US and led a consortium that acquired a 49% stake in The Hundred’s London Spirit for £145 million ($194.6 million), making it the most valuable team in the competition. 

Interestingly, the London Spirit share the same backroom staff as RCB, including Mo Bobat (Director of Cricket), Andy Flower (Head Coach), and the recently appointed Dinesh Karthik as mentor and batting coach.

Sanjay Govil, who owns Major League Cricket’s Washington Freedom and previously founded Maryland-based software services firm Infinite Computer Solutions, is pursuing both franchises as he aims to enter the Indian market. Govil, who also leads a healthtech company, Zyter TruCare, acquired a 50% stake in the Hundred franchise Welsh Fire for £33 million in early 2025.

Avram Glazer, the executive co-chairman of Premier League club Manchester United and owner of the ILT20’s Desert Vipers via Lancer Capital, unsuccessfully bid for both IPL expansion franchises in 2021. “The Glazers have been eyeing the IPL for a long time. They even held talks with one of the original eight franchises to acquire them after the 2021 auctions,” according to a person aware of their interest. The Glazer family also owns the National Football League (NFL) franchise Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

The ninth bidder could not be confirmed, even as the Moneycontrol report added that Blackstone was mulling a bid for RCB.

The race for Rajasthan

The Rajasthan Royals process has progressed further.

It has shortlisted five bidders, including the Times of India Group, a consortium led by existing shareholder Kal Somani, Govil, Capri Global, and the Glazer family, multiple people confirmed to The State of Play.

The Glazers, people familiar with developments said, were exploring a local partner for the Royals bid. “The BCCI is cautious about standalone foreign ownership since CVC’s acquisition of Gujarat Titans and would prefer a local partner,” the person added.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based Somani, who already holds a stake through the franchise’s general partner-limited partner ownership structure and sits on Emerging Media Ventures’ board, has submitted an offer valued at $1.3 billion, Bloomberg reported. That bid, the report added, was contingent on future media rights outcomes. 

The conditional offer reflects a concern that potential bidders have been grappling with: bankers, as The State of Play reported, have been marketing a 60-90% growth in the next media rights cycle, based on a rise in the overall match count, or even a proposed second “September window” for IPL franchises. Industry executives, however, have a more sober view, pegging the actual figure at 10-20%, citing broadcaster consolidation and other factors. As we reported, the Rajasthan Royal’s own internal projections sit at 10-15%.

The sale of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru is working towards a March 31 deadline set by parent Diageo in its November exchange filing, which sources say should be complete by then, even if the transaction closes later in the year.