'Mumbai Indians sees up to 22% jump in sponsor revenues'

Mumbai Indians have recorded a 20-22% increase in sponsorship revenue for the 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League, a spokesperson at the Reliance Industries-owned franchise said.

Mumbai Indians have 11 new sponsors, taking the total sponsor count to 25 for the season that starts Friday. The brands that have associated with the team for the first time are Mahindra & Mahindra, Garnier Men, Reliance Digital, Bisleri, Viacom18, Max Life Insurance, Bira91, Bella Vita and Ultratech.

"We have seen 20-22% growth in sponsorship revenue over the last year. This growth has been recorded on a higher base," the spokesperson told ET. While he did not say how much revenue the franchise has generated from the deals that have already been closed, people familiar with the matter said they were on course to top the Rs 100 crore mark.

The franchise usually signs long-term deals, the spokesperson said.

"We usually sign long-term deals, preferably three-year deals as it takes three to five years to live the full cycle of sponsorship. Only in exceptional cases we do one-year deals," he stated, adding that long-term deals help sponsors to derive more value.

Team sponsorships have emerged as an ideal option for many brands who can't afford to buy sponsorship on TV or digitally during the IPL, he said.

Mumbai Indians have identified digital and licensing & merchandising as the next big drivers of revenue growth.

“With the increase in matches, the sponsorship pie remains the same, so we are always looking for newer opportunities to monetise. Mumbai Indians were the first to commercialise its digital inventory and that has grown over the years, and we keep bringing in newer content pieces, both live and non-live such as MI TV and MI Live," the spokesperson said.

"We have become a global brand and now the focus is to build a merchandise portfolio across price points from affordable to high-end merchandise, to cater to a wide range of fans," he added.

The spokesperson said new revenue streams like blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFT) were opening up for IPL franchises. In January, the franchise floated a request for proposal seeking NFT solutions to monetise its digital assets.

The RFP was picked up by 19 parties with seven of them submitting a bid. "We are in conversation with four of them, with two of them international companies. The focus is also to build this into a long-term revenue generator," he said.

An area of focus for the franchise is collection of data of the fans. The data collection will happen through a ticketing partner since most of the match tickets are sold online. Other avenues of data collection include merchandise partners.

"For us, the collection and monetisation of data is the next phase to deliver more tailored content and offerings to our fans," the spokesperson stated.