The Indian Premier League is now worth $20.6 billion, according to Houlihan Lokey's 2026 valuation published last week, marking an 11.4% increase from the prior year and cementing the league's position as the world's second-most valuable sporting property after the NFL. Royal Challengers Bengaluru became the first cricket franchise to exceed $300 million in enterprise value, a milestone that arrives as the BCCI prepares to negotiate its next domestic broadcast cycle and eyes U.S. expansion through a proposed East Coast window.
The valuation tracks recent secondary sales in both RCB and Rajasthan Royals, where family offices and sovereign-adjacent buyers paid premiums ranging from 1.2x to 1.4x trailing revenue multiples. RCB's controlling stake, held by Diageo since the league's 2008 inception, attracted inbound interest from three Gulf-based groups in December; the eventual buyer's identity remains undisclosed under BCCI rules, though two people familiar with the process said the winning bid came from a Dubai-registered entity with existing positions in English football. Rajasthan Royals, meanwhile, completed a partial exit for existing investor Emerging Media at a $285 million implied valuation, with the incoming capital earmarked for a U.S. cricket academy in North Carolina and a women's team should the BCCI formalize its long-discussed WIPL expansion.
The 11.4% growth rate is notable because it comes during a year when cricket's largest broadcast deals are in mid-cycle stasis. Star Sports and Viacom18 are two seasons into their five-year, $6.2 billion domestic rights package; international deals with Sky and Willow run through 2027. Revenue growth is being driven instead by in-stadium hospitality, where per-match premium seating yields have risen 22% since 2023, and by jersey sponsorships, which are now priced at $18 million to $24 million annually for top-four teams. Three franchises—Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, and Kolkata Knight Riders—are quietly testing bundled sponsorship structures that would lock in naming rights, kit placements, and digital inventory for seven-year terms at aggregate values near $200 million, a financing approach borrowed from European football but unusual in cricket's historically fragmented rights landscape.
What makes the valuation particularly relevant is its timing relative to the BCCI's 2027 broadcast renewal cycle, which opens for bids in October. League officials have been shopping a dual-window format that would place morning matches in IST on a U.S. primetime-compatible schedule, effectively creating a 10am ET to 1pm ET cricket block targeting the 5.4 million Indian diaspora households Nielsen measures in North America. If the BCCI can extract even $400 million annually from a U.S. rightsholder—a figure two consultants called conservative given the NBA's India deal metrics in reverse—the league's enterprise value would re-rate toward $25 billion using current revenue multiples. The Houlihan Lokey model does not yet reflect that optionality, which suggests the $20.6 billion figure is a floor, not a ceiling.
The comps are increasingly strange. IPL franchises are now valued higher than all but six NHL teams, despite playing 14 regular-season home games versus 41. The revenue-per-game delta is stark: RCB generates roughly $21.4 million per home match when accounting for broadcast allocation and gate; the Arizona Coyotes, before their sale, were under $2 million. The unit economics work because cricket's audience is dense and sponsor-friendly—89% of IPL viewers are in the 18-to-49 demo, and 62% have household incomes above the Indian median, per BARC data. That demo skew is why Vivo, Dream11, and Tata have been willing to pay $50 million-plus annually for title sponsorships with no exclusivity beyond category.
Two franchise sales are expected to close by September: a minority position in Delhi Capitals, where GMR Group is selling down to bring in a co-investor with U.S. sports operating experience, and a majority stake in Punjab Kings, whose owners have been in conversations with three private equity shops since March. Pricing expectations are $260 million to $290 million for Punjab, which would represent a 30% premium to the Royals comp despite weaker on-field performance, entirely because Punjab's Mohali stadium has 18,000 more seats and the state government has indicated it would approve capacity expansion to 42,000.
The BCCI's next franchise auction, likely in 2028 if the league expands to ten teams, is already being reverse-engineered by bankers. The $20.6 billion league valuation implies a tenth team would carry a theoretical value near $2.06 billion, but new franchises historically trade at 60% to 70% of the average, which would put the entry price around $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion. That's twice what the most recent MLS expansion teams paid, for a league with less than half the global reach. The asset class is no longer speculative.
Watch for the BCCI's October broadcast RFP, which will detail the U.S. window structure and clarify whether international rights will be bundled or sold separately. Also worth tracking: RCB's new owner will need to file beneficial ownership disclosures with the BCCI by August 15, and those filings have a way of becoming public. Meanwhile, the women's IPL is quietly operating at $180 million in aggregate franchise value across five teams, a number that moves sharply higher if the BCCI greenlights three expansion slots before next season.