US investors are making big moves in Indian cricket, with two separate $1 billion deals made on the same day with teams in India’s most popular sports league.
No team in the Indian Premier League, one of Asia’s most-watched sporting events, had been sold for more than $1 billion (Indian media valued it at $1.63 billion) until a consortium backed by American businessman Kal Somani and former Walmart chairman Rob Walton agreed on Tuesday to buy the Rajasthan Royals.
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However, that streak lasted only a few hours as an even bigger deal with reigning champions Royal Challengers Bangalore was announced on the same day. The team was acquired for $1.78 billion by another consortium, including US billionaire David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures and US asset management firm Blackstone.
The two deals highlight the growing appeal of India’s national pastime among international investors looking to get involved in some of the most popular sports in the world’s most populous country.
“It’s a mind-boggling number,” Indian cricket great Sourav Ganguly told local reporters. “But it’s great news for Indian cricket and where it’s going. I think cricket is already as big as the NBA.”
The valuations of both teams have increased significantly from their original sales figures in 2008, when liquor baron Vijay Mallya bought RCB for $111.6 million and Rajasthan sold it for $67 million.
Sports teams as a whole have become a prime target for global investment as companies seek to tap into new markets overseas and capitalize on their fan bases. Analysts at Deloitte said in an outlook released last month that the industry is “entering an era of expansion” and that private equity deals across sports leagues have proliferated in recent years.
Cricket’s Most Popular Asset
Held for just three months a year, the IPL features the sport’s shortest format, called Twenty20, and has evolved into cricket’s most popular event. In 2022, broadcast rights from 2023 to 2027 were purchased by Disney Star and Reliance Viacom for $6.4 billion18. After that, Disney withdrew from India business, and the two companies jointly established Geostar in 2025.
In a statement, Blitzer described the IPL as “one of the great growth stories in global sports.”
In 2021, the league expanded from eight teams to 10 teams and two new franchises, Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, were sold for $670 million and $940 million, respectively.
By comparison, the London Spirit team of the English cricket league The Hundred was valued at $370 million in 2025 when a portion of its shares went up for sale last year, making it the most expensive team in the tournament.
Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, part of the consortium that includes Blitzer, said: “Over the past two decades, the IPL has changed the face of cricket in India and transformed into a global sporting powerhouse that has brought tremendous value to India.” “As one of the most attractive franchises in modern sports, RCB provides us with a unique platform to extend our heritage onto the global sporting stage.”
The 2025 title was RCB’s first, but the celebrations turned tragic as crowd clashes at the team’s stadium left at least 11 people dead.
The new ownership consortium will reform RCB’s management team. Mr. Aryaman Vikram Birla, director of Aditya Birla, will serve as chairman, and Mr. Sathyan Gajwani of Times of India Group will assume the role of vice chairman.
Blitzer already owns a number of teams, including the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, and the Premier League’s Crystal Palace.
For Rajasthan, Somani is an existing shareholder and has moved to take full control of the franchise in a deal that still needs approval from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Indian media reported. The Arizona-based technology entrepreneur is also one of the founders of TGL League’s Motor City Golf Club, co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Walton, 81, is the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton and owner of the NFL’s Denver Broncos.
room for growth
While the IPL’s current valuation still falls short of the world’s top sports franchises in other sports, such as the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and soccer’s Real Madrid, there is still room for growth.
Cricket entered the US market with the 2024 T20 World Cup, won by India, and will return to the US for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Times Group, another of RCB’s new co-owners, has already invested heavily in the US cricket market. The company owns Willow and broadcasts all major cricket matches, including the IPL, primarily in the US.
Meanwhile, Walmart has significant interests in India. The company acquired a majority stake in e-commerce giant Flipkart in 2018 and also controls leading digital payments platform Fonpe and other business interests.
There is also a connection between IPL and Major League Cricket. Major League Cricket begins in 2023 and is a T20 competition consisting of six teams: Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, and Washington DC.
MLC operates with the benefit of IPL franchise. Chennai Super Kings own the Texas franchise, while Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians own teams in Los Angeles and New York, respectively. The league is expected to expand to eight teams in 2027, making Arizona a top candidate to become one of the new franchises.
