Mar 24, 2025 · 4h 28m · acquired
Indian Premier League Cricket (Audio) · Acquired
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In this episode of Acquired, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal analyze the meteoric rise of the Indian Premier League (IPL), examining how innovative financial architecture, prime-time entertainment, and media rights transformed cricket into a $16 billion global empire.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Ben and David hold 99.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Ben and David as informed peer 7.6 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 1.0 Ben and David pushing back 1.1
speaking balance: gold is Ben and David, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 3:44:15 Disney Star merger monopsony risk pushback
Ben and David sharply challenge the market dynamic after realizing Viacom18 and Disney Star merged, collapsing domestic bidding tension down to a single entity.
Hardest push from Ben and David ▶ 2:17:00 Challenging BCCI's 50% revenue takeBen directly challenges David's framing of IPL governance by questioning why a governing body should skim 50% of top-line revenue unlike the NFL.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 1:30:10 Revealing the Shah Rukh Khan deal architectureDavid educates Ben on how Lalit Modi secretly pre-sold Nokia's jersey sponsorship for $5M to completely de-risk Shah Rukh Khan's franchise purchase.
Ben and David hold their own ▶ 3:16:40 Ben's media revenue per match calculationBen demonstrates rigorous independent financial expertise by recalculating all global sports league broadcast packages to contextualize IPL's per-match value.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Ben and David as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Ben and David pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kolkata Knight Riders Anthem and Pre-Show Banter | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Ben and David set the premise of IPL cricket as a masterclass in sports league engineering and business model acceleration, sharing initial context and pre-show banter. | |
| Rupert Murdoch, Star TV, and the Value of Cricket | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | David details how Rupert Murdoch's Star TV targeted Indian cricket and how BCCI discovered its media rights value after the 1991 South Africa tour. | |
| Modi Infiltrates the BCCI and Skyrockets Sponsorship Rates | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David and Ben discuss Lalit Modi infiltrating BCCI and radically hiking Sahara's jersey sponsorship rate from $100k to $105M. | |
| The Rise of India's Middle Class and the Nike Kit Deal | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The hosts break down India's rising middle class, the $52M Nike kit deal, and Modi tearing up Star's TV contract in front of Rupert Murdoch. | |
| Conceiving the Indian Premier League Business Model | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David explains the origins of T20 cricket in England as a prime-time-friendly 3-hour format designed to revive dying youth interest. | |
| The Rebel Indian Cricket League and BCCI's Harsh Retaliation | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Ben outlines the rebel Indian Cricket League's challenge, BCCI's ruthless retaliation, and the 2007 T20 World Cup catalyst with Yuvraj Singh's six sixes. | |
| Sponsor Break: ServiceNow Workflow Data Fabric | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Following the ServiceNow ad, David analyzes clean-sheet sports league mechanics, contrasting IPL's no-debt stadium model with English soccer's debt traps. | |
| Recruiting Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and Competing with Soap Operas | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David details how Modi recruited Shah Rukh Khan and Bollywood to compete directly with 8 PM soap operas for female viewership, packaging Nokia as a sponsor. | |
| Engineering the $1 Billion Media Deal with Sony and WSG | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The hosts discuss how Modi engineered a $1B 10-year media rights deal with World Sport Group and Sony with minimal first-year downside. | |
| The Inaugural 2008 Franchise Auction and Revenue Distribution | 8 | 3 | 1 | 2 | David explains the inaugural franchise auction and contrasts hard salary caps with MLB's luxury tax dysfunction and player auctions. | |
| Auction Dynamics, Moneyball Analytics, and Rajasthan's 2008 Title | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David breaks down the Sotheby's-style player auction mechanism, standard 3-year contracts, and Rajasthan Royals' Moneyball-driven 2008 championship. | |
| BCCI's 50% Revenue Retention and Global Cricket Stewardship | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Ben questions why BCCI retains 50% of league-wide revenue, exploring governance rationale and player development costs. | |
| Unlocking Non-Traditional Brand Advertisers and Massive Mindshare | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | David highlights how IPL achieved 50-50 gender viewership parity, unlocked non-traditional female sponsors, and renegotiated Sony's deal to $2.4B. | |
| The 2009 South Africa Relocation and Failed Franchise Expansion | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The narrative covers the 2009 South Africa relocation, bankruptcies of Pune and Kochi, and Modi's dramatic suspension and London exile amid corruption allegations. | |
| The 2013 Spot-Fixing Scandal and Supreme Court Governance Reform | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David explains the 2013 spot-fixing scandal involving Royals and CSK, leading to India's Supreme Court taking over BCCI governance to restore institutional credibility. | |
| Star Media Rights Deal and the Reliance Jio Streaming Boom | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | David and Ben discuss the 2017 $2.5B Star media deal, Reliance Jio's mobile data revolution expanding handsets to 800M, and Disney's Hotstar strategy. | |
| Franchise Expansion and Institutional Private Equity Inflow | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The hosts detail the 2021 franchise expansion to CVC and domestic groups near $1B valuations, plus the split $6.2B media rights deal between Star and Viacom18. | |
| League Economics, Unit Economics, and Financial Modeling | 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Ben and David calculate IPL team unit economics, showing $80M top line, $17M salary cap, and 60-65% EBITDA margins ranking second per match only to the NFL. | |
| The Bull Case: Demographics, Schedule Expansion, and Stadium Real Estate | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David presents the Bull Case: middle-class expansion, schedule lengthening, real estate modernizations, and Saudi sovereign wealth investment interest. | |
| The Bear Case: Monopsony Risk and Streaming Monetization Uncertainty | 8 | 3 | 1 | 2 | David and Ben analyze the Bear Case: the Viacom18-Disney merger eliminating domestic bidding competition and streaming monetization lag. | |
| The Mega Bull Case: Olympic Inclusion, MLB Stagnation, and Global IP | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | David outlines the Mega Bull Case: 2028 LA Olympics inclusion, baseball's generational stagnation, Dream11 fantasy/betting legalizations, and global IP expansion. | |
| Power Analysis: Cornered Resource of Global Cricketing Talent | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Applying 7 Powers, Ben and David identify BCCI's cornered resource over premier cricket talent and scale economies in broadcast production. | |
| Playbook Lessons: Disruption, Ownership Multipliers, and Path Dependency | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The hosts extract playbook lessons on ownership multipliers (Shah Rukh Khan), sports team asset class returns, and path dependency on Lalit Modi. | |
| Quintessence: The Ultimate Modern Sports Entertainment Product | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | David and Ben conclude with quintessence: IPL as the ultimate modern sports entertainment product, perfectly architected from scratch for prime-time media. |
Statements from this episode (101)
Ben Gilbert: American Sports Should Adopt IPL-Style Team Anthems
“This is something that American sports definitely need to adopt.”
Rosenthal: 20 Million Hardcore Cricket Fans Exist in the US Today
“Hey, there are twenty million hardcore cricket fans in the US today.”
Gilbert: IPL Grew 20x Since 2008 to Exceed $16B Valuation
“So successful, in fact, that it is the fastest-growing major sports league in the world, growing twenty-x in value since 2008 to be worth more than sixteen billion dollars today.”
Gilbert: IPL Per-Match Media Rights Rank Second Only to the NFL
“Insanely, the media rights to each match are so valuable that they're second only to the NFL. The TV broadcast rights, let me just say this again, for each match are worth more than an English Premier League soccer match.”
Rosenthal: India's corporate structure resembles conglomerates in Japan and South Korea
“The industrial structure in India, at least to date, seems to be more like South Korea or Japan, the big conglomerates.”
Rosenthal: K.K. Modi Group partnered with Philip Morris in Indian tobacco
“Modi's conglomerate primarily is based around the tobacco industry, and they have a JV partnership with Philip Morris and are One of India's leading tobacco and cigarette companies.”
Rosenthal: Lalit Modi used tobacco sales reps to distribute Disney in India
“While it uses the sales force that the Modi company has for their tobacco products, they have 80,000, a 100,000 sales reps that are going to convenience stores, corner stores, you know, in every part of the country in India, this vast, vast country where the m…”
Rosenthal: Sports and NFL Sunday established Fox's broadcast network
“Rupert, of course, really built the television side of News Corp, put Fox on the back of two things. It was news at first, but then it was really sports that helped Fox Totally take off. I mean, the NFL Sunday deal here in the U.S. Is what put them on the map.”
Gilbert: BCCI functions as cricket regulator, not profit-maximizing firm
“The BCCI's responsibility is not really a profit maximizing organization. It's kind of a regulatory body. It's not the government, but they're tasked with developing the sport of cricket and in particular cricket in India, ensuring that the sport has longevity…”
Gilbert: Landmark legal battle established BCCI's exclusive ownership of cricket broadcast rights
“There's a legal battle between the BCCI and this legendary leader of the BCCI, Dalmaya,
And he goes to war against the national state broadcaster, Dardarshan, and the outcome of this legal battle is, yes, even the Indian government, the state broadcaster, has …”
Rosenthal: Lalit Modi Was Ousted From ESPN Joint Venture With Nothing
“There's a big lawsuit about it, goes on for a couple of years, and at the end of it, Lalit gets booted out of the business, and despite his family's 50% ownership in that original ESPN Disney joint venture, he gets nothing.”
Rosenthal: IPL Originated as Lalit Modi's Revenge Play Against Rupert Murdoch
“And thus begins a 10 to 15 year journey that is not just the ultimate revenge play by Lalit on Rupert, but accidentally along the way starts the biggest sports entrepreneurial story phenomenon that has ever existed.”
Rosenthal: Cricket commands 93% of sports mindshare in India
“Cricket is the biggest sport in India, nothing else matters, it borders on religion, it has 93% mind share of sports in India.”
Rosenthal: Indian national cricket team plays 105 televised days annually
“No, they're playing a 105 days of competition. Per year. All nationally televised.”
Rosenthal: Sahara Paid $100K Annually for Indian National Cricket Team Sponsorship
“The Indian national team is playing a 105 days per year, and the Sahara group is getting their logo on their white cable knit vests for a 100,000 dollars a year.”
Rosenthal: India's 2005 Sahara jersey sponsorship was highest-paid in global sports
“So, when this massive escalation happens in 2005, I believe this is correct, overnight, this becomes the highest paid jersey logo deal of any sport on the entire planet.”
Gilbert: Indian government lifted 250M people from poverty since 2015
“The Indian government says that two hundred and fifty million people have been lifted out of poverty between 2015 and today.”
Rosenthal: Nike secured Indian cricket team kit sponsorship for $52M/year
“So Nike comes in and wins at fifty-two million
Dollars a year.”
Nimbus won BCCI broadcast rights with a $620M bid over four years
“Nimbus ends up winning the auction with a six hundred and twenty million dollar bid for four years.”
BCCI became the largest revenue pool in global cricket by late 2005
“He's created the single biggest pool of money anywhere around the globe in cricket as a sport. I mean, this is Way more money that we're talking about here than England or Australia or the West Indies or Sri Lanka, New Zealand, you know, the other cricket play…”
Rosenthal: The IPL is the most brilliant sports business plan ever
“So thus sparks, unquestionably, truly unquestionably, this is in zero way a controversial statement, the most brilliant, most successful sports entrepreneurial business plan Of all time. The Indian Premier League, a domestic, city-based cricket league in India…”
Rosenthal: The IPL is structurally superior to the NFL
“To me, this is not a controversial statement. The IPL is better set up structurally than the NFL. It is the Most perfect sports league that exists.”
Rosenthal: England introduced professional T20 cricket in 2003
“So in 2003, the English cricket board finally realizes like, Hey, we're desperate. We gotta do something. So there was another form of cricket that was mostly played recreationally and by school teams that was 20 over cricket.”
Gilbert: Indian law mandated sharing ad-free live feeds with state TV
“One year into the deal, there's something that passes called the sports broadcasting bill, and this requires broadcasters to share feeds in real time, like live feeds, without ads, Directly back to the state-owned broadcast channel.”
Gilbert: BCCI banned players for life for joining the ICL
“The BCCI immediately says any players who sign up for the Indian Cricket League are banned for life from playing for India nationally or any other domestic tournaments. This includes if you are a young player who had never even played for the Indian national t…”
Rosenthal: 400M in India Watched 2007 T20 World Cup Final
“The television audience back home in India for this was four hundred million people.”
Rosenthal: 2007 T20 Final Was 10th Most-Watched Global TV Event
“That game, that match, was the 10th most watched TV event of the year, period. Around the whole globe.”
Rosenthal: Competitive parity is the key driver of the NFL's valuation
“This is the Any Given Sunday element of the NFL that has been The key critical ingredient to making the NFL the most valuable sports property in the world.”
Rosenthal: BCCI controls world cricket talent via wealth and veto rights
“The BCCI has cornered resource access to the best talent in the world. Because they have all the money, and they have the Indian fans who care about watching the best Indian players, and they have essentially veto right over the best Indian players playing any…”
Gilbert: MLB's lack of a salary cap drives large-market World Series dominance
“They've never successfully implemented a salary cap in baseball, and so, guess who's in the World Series? The New York team and the L.A. Team.”
IPL Rules Banned Franchises From Carrying Debt or Owning Stadiums
“No debt. No team is allowed to have debt and de facto, no team will own their stadiums.”
Gilbert: India's Total 2008 Ad Market Was Only $2B–$3B
“So the entire total addressable market for advertising, not digital advertising, not mobile advertising, in 2008 in India was two to three billion dollars.”
Rosenthal: Large Centralized Media Revenue Is Essential for Sports Parity
“It is super important that your central revenue stream of your TV rights, deals, and your central sponsorships, that that be very, very large, and that that be the most important revenue stream for your teams, because that's what keeps competitive parity.”
Rosenthal: IPL viewership has reached 50-50 gender parity between men and women
“No other sports league in the world has done what IPL has done here. Today, IPL viewership is entirely fifty-fifty gender parity between men and women.”
Rosenthal: Shah Rukh Khan signed a $5M Nokia IPL jersey deal hours after auction
“The auction happened. Shah Rukh won the team at 12 o'clock at three o'clock. He had a signed agreement with Nokia to pay the five million for the front of the shirt for that year.”
Rosenthal: Bollywood star Preity Zinta became an IPL franchise principal owner
“One of the top AAA list actresses, an actress named Preeti Zinta, she ends up becoming the principal owner to buy another one of the teams.”
Rosenthal: IPL has no sports comparison except the Super Bowl
“There really is no comp for this in sports except for the single game of the Super Bowl.”
David Rosenthal: No domestic cricket league had proven valuable before IPL
“No domestic cricket league has ever proven valuable anywhere in the world. You know, there are domestic leagues in Australia, in England, in New Zealand, etc., but they're peanuts. You know, they're minor leagues. They're fine. They're not going to justify a h…”
Rosenthal: IPL Shared 80% of Central Revenue With Teams in Year 1
“Of the central media rights revenue, the broadcast deals like they've just done with WSG and Sony, and also the central sponsorship deals, 50%, one half of that, will get distributed out to the collective eight franchises to be distributed equally. But, here's…”
Gilbert: Many IPL Teams Spend Only 75% to 90% of the Salary Cap
“In most leagues, what's the salary cap is the same as asking, on my P&L, what is the expense line for players? Interestingly, in the IPL, they don't pay the full salary cap. Plenty of teams are running around there with 7580, 90% of salary cap.”
Rosenthal: Superior analytics is the only competitive edge in player auctions
“The only way for a team to gain an advantage over any other team in the auction is to have superior market intelligence, which has come to mean have superior analytics and superior player evaluation.”
Rosenthal: Rajasthan Royals missed the 2008 IPL minimum salary cap and were fined
“So in the first year of the league, The Rajasthan Royals who have the lowest salary, they actually don't hit the minimum salary and they get fined by Lalit. So the maximum salary that he sets for year one is five million dollars or maximum purse for the auctio…”
Gilbert: All IPL player contracts are standardized three-year contracts
“All contracts are three-year contracts, which really reduces the gaming.”
Gilbert: EPL players receive 60%+ of revenue versus 50% in other major leagues
“In fact, almost every sports league now, it's on average players get 50%, except on English Premier League Soccer, it's something like players get 60 plus percent”
Rosenthal: IPL players receive only 12% to 15% of league revenue
“In IPL, even today, I think players are getting 12 to 15% of the revenue of the league.”
Rosenthal: The IPL auction and contract structure is the optimal model for sports leagues
“Every other sports league in the world should adopt this. They won't because the existing systems that they all have are too entrenched, but this is the new optimal system for running a sports league.”
Gilbert: BCCI retains 50% of IPL central pool revenue
“The BCCI retains 50% of the central pool revenue, which eventually gets huge.”
Rosenthal: IPL franchises rely on BCCI for talent development
“Right now, none of the individual teams, franchises themselves in the IPL are doing that. They are starting, but mostly that work falls on the BCCI.”
IPL's inaugural eight franchises sold collectively for $724 million
“So, minimum reserve auction price for the franchise auction is fifty million dollars per franchise, which would be paid over 10 years, four hundred million dollars for the collective eight franchises. They end up selling for seven hundred and twenty-four milli…”
Rosenthal: Mukesh Ambani bought Mumbai Indians for $112M
“The most expensive franchise is the Mumbai franchise, unsurprisingly, being the biggest city, you know, where Bollywood is located, etc. Gosh, really, you couldn't script this any better. Duh. Is bought by Mukesh Ambani, the wealthiest person in India and the …”
Rosenthal: BCCI board member N. Srinivasan bought Chennai Super Kings for $91M
“Anyway, this I think is known at the time, one of the other board members of the BCCI who would soon become the chairman of the BCCI, a gentleman named N. Srinivasan, who also is an industrialist who owns the Indian Cements Company, He buys the Chennai Super K…”
Rosenthal: 7 of 10 IPL teams won titles over 17 seasons
“Today, there are 10 teams in the league, and seven of the 10 teams have won the championship in the, what does it call it, 17 seasons that have been played so far. And every single team has at least been runner-up, I don't know, second place lost in the champi…”
Rosenthal: Inaugural IPL season averaged a 4.9% TV viewership share in India
“The average TV share viewership for the entire season is 4.9% of all active televisions in India are watching IPL, like on average.”
Rosenthal: Winning the Super Bowl is a net-negative fiscal event for an NFL team
“Winning the Super Bowl is actually like a net negative economic event for an NFL team.”
Rosenthal: Lotus Herbals SPF moisturizer sales jumped 20% after sponsoring Kings XI
“Sales of Lotus Herbal's SPF moisturizer were up 20% the year that they decided to sponsor the team.”
Sony agreed to a 10-year, $2.4 billion renegotiated IPL broadcast deal
“Sony is now going to directly do a ten-year deal with the IPL for 2.4 billion dollars. So two hundred and forty million dollars a year. Quite a bit more than the sixty million dollars that they had paid for year one.”
Gilbert: IPL teams make ~$66M from central broadcast pool vs ~$4M from tickets
“We're looking at something today, like sixty six million coming from a central pool and only like four ish million coming from tickets. This is a TV product.”
Rosenthal: IPL expansion franchises Pune and Kochi sold for $333M and $370M
“The two franchises that they auction off are Pune and Kochi, and those go for three hundred and thirty three million dollars and three hundred and seventy million dollars.”
Rosenthal: Expansion IPL franchises Kochi and Pune folded after one and two seasons
“The Kochi franchise goes bankrupt after their first season in the league, withdraws from the league. The Pune franchise makes it two seasons, and then also withdraws from the league, citing financial difficulties.”
Rosenthal: Trackable foreign bets on IPL matches reach ~$750M per match
“The statistic is that just trackable bets placed through, Ben, like you said, foreign bookmakers in countries where gambling is legal,
On IPL matches, I believe, is something on the order of, like, seven hundred and fifty million dollars per match.”
Rosenthal: Lalit Modi has not returned to India since 2010
“As this is all going down, Modi ends up leaving India and relocating to London, where he still lives to this day, and he has not set foot back in India since 2010 when this all goes down.”
Gilbert: The BCCI banned IPL creator Lalit Modi for life in 2013
“And in 2013, the BCCI bars him from India cricket for life. I mean, this thing that he, like, willed into existence, that he created billions of dollars of value for all these other people, he has been barred from.”
Indian Police Bust Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings for 2013 Spot-Fixing
“Well, that very same season in 2013, the Indian police run a sting operation and bust members of two teams in the IPL, the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings owned by N. Srinivasan for spot fixing matches.”
Supreme Court Restructures BCCI and Suspends Two IPL Teams for Two Seasons
“They spend two years investigating and restructuring everything, and then in 2015, they announce all their verdicts. They force N. Srinivasan to step down for the BCCI. They restructure the BCCI. They suspend the two teams that had been spot fixing, the Royals…”
Gilbert: IPL Risked Losing $4B to $5B in Enterprise Value During 2013 Scandal
“You had something on the order of, at the time, four or five billion dollars of enterprise value across all the teams that almost went to zero.”
Star buys five-year IPL media rights for $2.5B in 2017
“Rupert finally, finally, after, what are we now? 1011 years in, 12 years in, comes back to Indian cricket and does a two and a half billion dollar five year deal. So twice the value of the renegotiated Sony deal.”
Rosenthal: Facebook invested $5.7B for 10% of Reliance Jio
“Facebook invested 5.7 billion dollars for a 10% stake in this new subsidiary of Reliance.”
Rosenthal: India's smartphone install base grew from 30M to 800M
“Reliance Geo comes in, thirty million handsets when they launched in 2016. Fast forward six years to 2022, Eight hundred million install base of handsets.”
Rosenthal: 2019 IPL final drew 300M to 400M unique viewers
“The final viewership numbers, best estimates are in three to four hundred million unique viewers that are watching the 2019 IPL final.”
Gilbert: IPL unique viewership hit 620M on streaming alone in 2024
“In 2022, the IPL regular season uniques across the season were three hundred and sixty one million. 2023, that would grow to five hundred and five million. And then last year it was reported that on streaming alone, six hundred and twenty million people watche…”
Rosenthal: CVC Acquired Gujarat Titans for $750M in 2021
“The Gujarat Titans, which are acquired by the big British private equity firm CVC, for seven hundred and fifty million dollars.”
Rosenthal: Lucknow Super Giants Sold for $950M in 2021
“The other team, the Lucknow Supergiants, are bought by a domestic investor group for nine hundred and fifty million.”
Rosenthal: RedBird Capital Invested in Rajasthan Royals in 2021
“Also in twenty-twenty-one, Redbird, which is a U.S.-New York City-based sports-focused private equity firm, they invest in the Rajasthan Royals.”
Gilbert: Losing IPL rights caused Disney+ Hotstar subscriber contraction
“The Disney plus core actually does keep growing, but Disney plus hot star takes this huge hit and starts contracting.”
Gilbert: Five-year US IPL rights sold for just $33 million
“The current five year rights to watch cricket in the USA are only worth thirty three million dollars out of a 6.2 billion dollar package.”
Tata secured a 5-year IPL sponsorship for $300 million
“Tata, the, of course, big Indian conglomerate, bought it for sixty million a year for five years, so a three hundred million dollar deal.”
NFL generates $14B annually, averaging $45M-$49M per game in media rights
“The NFL does a total of fourteen billion dollars a year in media rights revenue. Across not that many games, 285 total games. So the NFL does somewhere between 45 and forty-nine million dollars per game in media rights revenue.”
Gilbert: IPL franchises operate at 60% to 65% EBITDA margins
“So I think the team net income right now is about fifty million dollars On a pre-tax basis. But there's no depreciation in other, I mean, they're not material anyway. So you got a business that is doing eighty million dollars top line and fifty-ish million on …”
Gilbert: IPL media rights grew at an 18% CAGR from 2008 to 2023
“Since 2008 to 20 23, the media writes have grown at an 18% compound annual growth rate from that hundred million dollar a year mark, going with the hundred million, not the sixty million.”
Rosenthal: American football's global TAM is at most 500 million people
“The total addressable market of people who care about American football Is at most five hundred million people.”
Rosenthal: IPL will add at least two more expansion teams
“At least two more teams are gonna get added in the next x period of time here.”
Rosenthal: IPL teams earn 15% of revenue locally and 85% centrally
“Like right now, IPL teams are making 15% of their revenue locally and 85% essential revenue.”
Rosenthal: The most recent IPL super auction was held in Saudi Arabia
“The most recent IPL super auction that just happened was held in Saudi Arabia.”
Rosenthal: Saudi Arabia wants to invest in IPL's entire physical infrastructure
“The Saudis don't just want to invest in the league. They want to invest in the whole ecosystem. They want to invest in the infrastructure projects. They want to invest in the stadiums. They want to invest in the buildings. They want to invest in the retail goi…”
Rosenthal: IPL could rival the NFL in size by age 30
“And in theory, by the time it is, call it 30 years old, could be as big as the NFL.”
Rosenthal: Reliance/Viacom18 and Disney Star merged in an $8.5B deal in November 2024
“In November, twenty-twenty-four, Viacom-eighteen slash Reliance and Star Disney merged in an eight and a half billion dollar deal.”
Gilbert: YouTube signed a media rights deal with IPL in 2010
“In 2010, YouTube did a media rights deal with the IPL.”
Rosenthal: Facebook bid on IPL digital rights in 2017 and lost
“And in 2017, Facebook bid on the digital rights and lost.”
Rosenthal: India is YouTube's largest country by user base
“India is YouTube's largest country by user base.”
Rosenthal: India has the largest population of Instagram users
“India is the largest populations of users on Instagram.”
Gilbert: Viacom18 paid $3.1B for IPL digital streaming rights
“Viacom-eighteen paid 3.1 billion dollars for the digital rights.”
Gilbert: Americans will not care about IPL without domestic US cricket first
“And, frankly, Americans are just not gonna start caring about IPL cricket. They need to start caring about US-based cricket.”
Rosenthal: A 'Drive to Survive' style IPL docuseries would crush globally
“But I think if you were to, and I'm sure people are in development on this, if you were to produce a drive to survive, full league narrative, full production value, Netflix, ongoing annual season special about the IPL, it would crush globally, like absolutely …”
Gilbert: Virat Kohli has 270M Instagram followers, tying Taylor Swift
“Virat Kohli, the top cricketer in the world, has two hundred and seventy million, and he's approximately tied with Taylor Swift.”
Rosenthal: Dream11 has 200M users and is valued at $8B
“Dream 11 has two hundred million users and is valued at eight billion dollars, and Redbird, the big sports private equity firm in New York that's an investor in the Rajasthan Royals, they're also a big investor in Dream 11.”
Rosenthal: Cricket is the world's second-biggest sport with 2.5 billion fans
“Cricket is actually the second biggest sport in the world with two and a half billion fans behind soccer.”
US Sports Franchises Returned 13% Annualized from 1961 to 2024
“The big four sports leagues in the US, the MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL, have outperformed the stock market meaningfully, and over a period of 1961 to twenty-twenty-four, it's 13% annualized versus 10% annualized. And I know it doesn't sound like a lot when I bill i…”
Rosenthal: IPL franchise demand will outstrip supply due to India's billionaire count
“There are a lot of billionaires in India, so there are a lot of potential buyers of sports franchises in India. And there are only 10 viable major sports franchises, the 10 IPL teams, and let's say they expand to 12 or 14 or 16, you know, whatever. There's gon…”
Gilbert: IPL could not have existed without Lalit Modi
“You couldn't have the IPL without Lalit Modi, period.”
Gilbert: India Added 230M People and Tripled Internet Penetration During IPL Era
“The TV penetration went from 40% to 74% during the IPL's run. Internet usage went from under five percent to over 60% today. The population, the literal number of people, increased by two hundred and thirty million. That is the adult population of the US stack…”
Gilbert: Bollywood Avoids Releasing Blockbusters During the Two-Month IPL Season
“Bollywood studios are now very, very, very reticent to release movies during the IPL season because they don't want to go head to head. And this two month period Is effectively their summer. It's when kids are out of school. And so Bollywood is no longer relea…”