Chinese Company Vivo Likely To Lose IPL Title Rights, Dream 11, Unacademy The Frontrunners

Dream11 had been the IPL title sponsors for the 2020 edition after Vivo was suspended for a year. They had won the rights for ₹222 crore, which was nearly half ( ₹440 crore) of what Vivo was paying yearly. Vivo to back out due to the current Sino-Indian political relations.

Chinese mobile-manufacturing company, Vivo who was the title sponsor of IPL had been suspended of title sponsorship rights for the year 2020. The company is eyeing to exit from the deal permanently as the current China-India relations are not conducive. The interested bidders now for the sponsorship of the Indian Premier League are the fantasy-gaming platform Dream11 and education-tech start up Unacademy.

Dream11 got the rights for the 2020 edition as Vivo was suspended for a day. They got the rights for almost half of what Vivo payed for a year. Dream11 paid 222 crore while Vivo had paid 440 crore rupees. It is said that due to the prevailing sensitive China-India geo-political relations, Vivo has decided to not be part of the IPL title sponsorship.

"It's almost final that Vivo will exit the IPL title sponsorship deal by mutual consent with the board. It was suspended for the 2020 edition. However there is a clause which allows them to transfer their pending liabilities as one-time title sponsors on the new winner. If board agrees on principle, it can happen," a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

“Dream11 and Unacademy will place their offers to Vivo. Unacademy in any case is an associate sponsor and they are ready to offer a higher amount in order to acquire the rights from Vivo," an industry insider tracking developments said. BCCI sources are expecting that they will have a clear picture once Vivo makes an offer over the weekend.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🚨ALERT🚨: IPL 2021 Player Auction on 18th February🗓️<br><br>Venue 📍: Chennai <br><br>How excited are you for this year&#39;s Player Auction? 😎👍<br><br>Set your reminder folks 🕰️ <a >pic.twitter.com/xCnUDdGJCa</a></p>&mdash; IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) <a >January 27, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The IPL auction for 2021 is scheduled to take place on 18 February with 61 spots up for grabs. The source also said that Vivo’s logo would be used during the auction as nothing would be final by then.