Saudi authorities are ready to invest $5 billion in cricket

Saudi Arabian authorities have expressed interest in acquiring a large stake in the largest cricket championship – the Indian Premier League (IPL). According to Bloomberg, the Saudis are ready to invest in the tournament, the potential full cost of which they have estimated at an impressive $30 billion, $5 billion. Despite the fact that cricket is not popular all over the world, in terms of finance it can give a head start to many much more popular sports . In terms of revenue generated, the IPL is already the second largest in the world and second only to the National Football League (NFL, American football).

The Saudi Arabian authorities continue their policy of sports expansion in all available areas. Let us remind you that this week the International Football Federation, FIFA, announcedthat the 2034 World Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia. Previously, the activity of Saudi football clubs in the transfer market caused a lot of noise. Saudi teams spent more than $800 million on the purchase of stars in the summer of 2023 alone, showing the third result in the world. If we take another step back, we can remember that the Saudi state investment fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) actually took control of the largest golf structure in the world – the Professional Golfers’ Association, PGA. You can also remember that PIF owns the English Premier League club Newcastle, or that Saudi Arabia has been the host of the world’s largest rally raid, the Dakar, for several years. Note that, according to calculations by The Guardian, over the last two years alone, Saudi Arabia has spent more than $6 billion on expansion in sports.

Now it looks like the authorities in this country are ready to take on cricket. According to Bloomberg, back in September, during the visit of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, to India, his advisers held negotiations with representatives of the government of this country. They discussed the possibility of transforming the Indian Premier League into a holding company (currently the IPL is under the jurisdiction of the Indian Board of Control for Cricket) with the subsequent purchase by the Saudi side of a significant stake in the enterprise.

Bloomberg sources say the Saudis intend to invest $5 billion at the first stage. They estimate the cost of the entire IPL after the transformations at $30 billion.

At the same time, there are plans to ensure the league’s international expansion, which will naturally lead to an increase in its value.

Let us note that cricket cannot boast the same geographical popularity as, say, football or basketball, but at the same time it generates very serious income. In this regard, the IPL is second only to the NFL. The American League annually receives about $18 billion in revenue, and the IPL – almost $12 billion, ahead of both the Major League Baseball, MLB, which collects $10.3 billion, and the National Basketball Association, NBA, with $10 billion. The IPL is second in the world and in the amounts that television companies pay the league for the rights to broadcast one match. The average cost of a single IPL game for broadcasters exceeds $15 million, just $2 million shy of the NFL’s record high.

Arnold Kabanov