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Diageo-owned United Spirits is selling Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for a massive ₹16,660 crore in an all-cash deal.
What’s buzzin’: the buyers are a power-packed group, including Aditya Birla Group, Times of India Group, David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures, and Blackstone.
RCB is owned via Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd, which also runs the women’s team in the WPL. Once the deal goes through, this consortium will take full control of both teams.
For United Spirits, the company wants to double down on its core alcohol business and focus on long-term growth and value.
Market mood: shares of Sun TV and RPGS Ventures jumped after the news. This comes just hours after Rajasthan Royals also saw new investors, valuing that franchise at $1.6 billion.
But this isn’t just cricket hype. It signals a bigger shift. IPL teams are now being seen as powerful media and consumer brands, not just sports teams.
Big picture: RCB is now valued at about $1.78 billion (₹16,700 crore), that’s nearly a 15x jump from what it was worth in 2008. Separately, a lot of people believe IPL teams could eventually rival leagues like the NFL, EPL, F1, or NBA.
But here’s the interesting bit, even though IPL teams are still smaller in size, they’re already being valued very aggressively, thanks to huge growth expectations.
