With corporate sponsorship deals drying up due to COVID-19 related stress, the fantasy sports platforms are taking this opportunity to ramp up their visibility.
COVID-19 has caused worldwide disruptions and its effect has been no less for IPL franchises. Corporate houses, that earlier used to court them with sponsorship deals, have been forced to stay away due to losses.
But the franchises have been handed a lifeline by a booming segment — fantasy sports platforms.
The Indian Premier League is finally set to be held this year in UAE from September 19 to November 10, 2020, thereby putting an end to speculations over its brand sustainability.
Saurabh Jha, Founder of Playing11 app, a Delhi-based fantasy sports platform said he is close to finalising a deal with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
"In a day or two, we will finalise a deal with KKR and their team in CPL - Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR). For KKR, the branding will be seen on trousers and for TKR, it will be on shirts," he told Moneycontrol.
An engineering dropout who is extremely passionate about cricket, Saurabh said there is an immense demand for live sports and even non-India cricket broadcasts are drawing eyeballs.
"All this while, as there were no live sports, people even lapped up the England-West Indies series. Fantasy sports lovers wanted a live sporting action and thus were even drawn to events such as the European Cricket League. IPL will help provide fans with the entertainment value they have been missing all this while," he said.
Saurabh has signed Yuzvendra Chahal as the brand ambassador and is closing in on a deal with Harbhajan Singh. He is also exploring options to boost his platform's popularity by buying airtime during IPL broadcast.
"The KKR deal is around Rs 4 crore. I will spend another Rs 1 crore on digital marketing activities and also try to see if some airtime can be bought but I'll have to check as IPL has a tie-up with Dream11," he said.
According to sources, another big player Mobile Premier League (MPL) is also in talks with four IPL teams.
Moneycontrol reached out to MPL seeking comments on their plans but there was no response till the time of filing this article.
Avik Das Kanungo, Director, Brand and Marketing Strategy, Games24x7, owner of fantasy cricket league platform My11Circle, feels that not only fantasy sports, the gaming segment has also taken a flight during the last few months.
"In terms of sports sponsorship, we don't have an association with BCCI or IPL. We have a brand endorsement deal with Sourav Ganguly but that is a different engagement. With IPL happening and India-Australia matches slated after that, the trend of fantasy sports platforms and gaming companies picking up sports sponsorship deals is likely to stay," he said.
My11Circle, which has roped in Ganguly, Australian cricketer Shane Watson and Afghanistan cricketer Rashid Khan as brand ambassadors, is also looking to allocate its marketing budget during the duration of the IPL tournament.
"We will be evaluating options and if something exciting comes up, we will be evaluating it," Kanungo said, adding that they will also be looking at football rights across the globe.
Kanungo, however, refused to divulge the amount his company has allocated for marketing spend during IPL 2020.
Dream11, the first gaming unicorn in the country, last year signed a four-year deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as the official partner for IPL.
It is also one of the top buyers of airtime of IPL broadcast and is expected to opt for the same strategy this year also.
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