BCCI reportedly ropes in Unacademy, Cred as official partners of IPL 2020

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), reportedly, has named Unacademy and Cred as the official partners for the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL). Ahead of the T20 tournament, the world’s richest cricket board has been going through a tricky time as VIVO backed out as the IPL’s title sponsor following tensions between India and China over the last few weeks or so.

If reports are to be believed, Unacademy, the education technology platform, has been roped in for a four-year period from 2020 to 2023. It’s also been learned that the deal could be around 60 crores per season, but nothing concrete has come to the fore thus far. Cred, on the other hand, is a credit card bill payment platform and its deal is pretty much similar to that of Unacademy.

Unacademy could also be IPL title sponsors

As per Outlook, Unacademy can also end up as the title sponsors of the T20 mega event as well. As per sources, renowned companies like Byju’s, Coca Cola India, Paytm, Patanjali Ayurveda and Amazon have thrown in their hat to become the title sponsors.

Unacademy has the backing of investors of the stature of Facebook, General Atlantic, Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, and Blume Ventures. Being an Indian company, it’s not in the most precarious positions by any means. As per industry watchers, very few aspects are against Unacademy going forward.

The IPL title sponsorship valuation could be between 150-200 crores and the BCCI is likely to give a discount of 20 to 30 per cent, keeping in mind the tough situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 18, the Indian board is likely to announce the title sponsors after a seven-day window for the companies, interested to drop in with bids.

On Monday, August 10, BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly, said the VIVO stepping out was a “blip”. VIVO signed a deal with the BCCI at a whopping 440 crores per season. In the next few days, the former Indian captain has a massive task at hand to zero in on the sponsorship deal. The deadline for submitting the bids is known to be on August 14 evening.