Ahead of the 14th edition of the Indian premier League (IPL), online gaming firm Mobile Premier League (MPL) has renewed its sponsorship deal with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
The gaming platform will be RCB’s principal sponsor for the 2021 and 2022 editions of the T20 league.
The partnership will see MPL continue to be featured on the RCB kit for the upcoming edition of the T20 tournament this year, as well as the 2022 edition. MPL first had associated with RCB last year.
Last week MPL had also announced title sponsorship deal with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). While announcing the deal, Sai Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO, MPL had said that he expects to reach 10 crore user base in India by end of IPL 14. Currently, the platform has 70 million users in India and 3.5 million in Indonesia.
To get more users on board, MPL has plans to spend more during the upcoming IPL season as compared to last year in terms of marketing. In addition, MPL this year during IPL, will not only launch new games but will also launch subscription pass.
Like MPL, many startups are betting big on IPL's popularity. And when it comes to team sponsorships, the popularity of the franchises helps brands become more recognisable amid viewers.
If we look at RCB, the team last year in September made a new record. RCB had recorded 84.9 million impressions on its social media handle on Instagram and had not only surpassed other IPL teams in terms of impressions but had also gone ahead of football giants like Arsenal, Chelsea and Real Madrid.
RCB also has the highest subscriber base on YouTube among IPL teams with more than two million subscribers.
So, it doesn't come as a surprise when Abhishek Madhavan, Senior Vice President, Growth and Marketing, MPL said that last year’s partnership was fruitful for both RCB and MPL.