Credit: BCCI/IPL
Rajasthan Royals (RR) are a franchise cricket team based in Rajasthan and play in the Indian Premier League since its inaugural edition. The RR franchise is owned by Manoj Badale (who holds 65% of the stake), Lachlan Murdoch, and Red Bird Capital Partners. Emerging Media Pvt Ltd gained ownership of the RR franchise for a bid value of $67 million in 2008, which was the least-valued team.
Rajasthan Royals surprised everyone by winning the inaugural edition of the IPL season under late Australian legend Shane Warne's leadership, who went into the tournament with the least expectations among all eight franchises. Rajasthan Royals reached finals in CL T20 2013 under Rahul Dravid's leadership, and later in the recently concluded IPL edition in 2022, they qualified for finals and ended as runners-up.
Despite their legacy, Rajasthan Royals got a two-year ban in 2016 & 2017 due to the involvement of their management in the 2013 betting scandal.
Regarding the Indian Premier League, Tata has been their title sponsor, while Dream11, Saudi Tourism Authority, CRED, Upstox, RuPay, and Herbalife are the league's official partners. Aramco is the official partner for the Orange Cap and Purple Cap award, PayTM is the official Umpire partner, and CEAT is the official strategic timeout partner of the league.
RR, over the years, have earned revenue through media rights, sponsorships, stadium ticket sales, merchandise sales (T-shirts), and prize money they get from the cash-rich league. Here, in this article, we will look into the details of this.
1. Media Rights
In June 2022, the BCCI sold the IPL 2023-27 media rights to Viacom 18 (OTT) and Disney Star (Television) for a massive price of 48,390 crores. Realizing the popularity of this T20 league, the buyers didn't hesitate to spend a hefty price towards this sporting league. BCCI shares 40 to 50 percent of revenue from media rights to all ten IPL franchises.
The highest share of the amount goes to the top performers of the IPL season out of all franchises. The franchises would get a better deal when compared to last year, as the media sales saw an unreal increase, with each game amounting to around 50 Crores per game. Media Rights have been the principal source of revenue for all the franchises in IPL.
92.7 Big FM has been the official radio partner for the RR franchise, and they have been hosts for interacting with their players. Humans of Bombay has been the official storytelling partner of RR in the IPL 2023 season. RR has been active on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. RR is known for providing good social media content on its handle, and they have 672k followers on its YouTube platform too.
2. Sponsorships
The revenue generated through sponsors has been the second-largest source of income for all ten IPL franchises, which almost contributes 20-30% of total revenue for each team. The sponsors who work for IPL exclusively (like TATA, CRED, Upstox, etc.) distribute 40-50% of the money earned from this T20 league to all ten of the IPL franchises, and apart from this, teams work with the brands individually to boost their revenue and visibility.
For Rajasthan Royals, Luminous Power Technologies is their title sponsor. Primary sponsors of RR include Reliance Jio, Dollar Industries, and BKT. RR's Associate sponsors include SBI Life, Goel TMT, and UBON. Their official partners are Fancraze, Dream11, Royal Challenge Package Drinking Water, Mahindra, Deakin University, Fino Payments Bank, Dettol, Schneider Electric, Bisleri, Bombay Shaving Company, Amul Organic, and HemeHealth.
3. Stadium ticket sales
The revenue generated through ticket sales contributes to 15% of the franchise's total revenue. RR played their IPL 2023 home games at Sawai Mansingh Stadium (Jaipur) and a few matches at Baraspara Stadium (Guwahati).
The price of an IPL ticket would generally get decided by team management for home games. A small part of the revenue from ticket sales gets divided between the sponsors and the BCCI. Sawai Mansingh stadium would accommodate around 30,000 people in the stadium, and the ticket cost has varied from 600 to 2000 rupees per person.
Franchises also earn money by hiring third-party food and beverage companies to put stalls in the stadium.
4. Merchandise sales
Franchises partner with merchandise sellers which offers items like jersey replicas, caps, and other athletic equipment to get closer to their fans. Generally, sales skyrocket during the IPL season as fans show their loyalty and support for the team during this period.
RR make money through sales of official merchandise business by receiving a portion of the amount collected from customers. RR's exclusive global merchandise is PlayR, and other official merchandise partners include companies like FanCode Shop, TagZ Foods, and Gullyactive Club.
The collaboration with the FanCode shop will help their fans to purchase licensed RR products. The sports merchandise industry has seen rapid growth over the years. Going by market trends overall, RR sell its merchandise through these commercial organizations to create a seamless experience for all fans.
5. Prize Money
All ten franchises get prize money based on the IPL standings they finish every year. However, among all things mentioned here, every franchise tends to get the least amount through this source of revenue. RR got 4.8 Crores as prize money for winning the IPL trophy in 2008, and in 2022, RR won an amount of 13 Crores for finishing as runners-up in the IPL.
In the last few editions, the prize money got split as 20 Crores for the winning team, 13 Crores for runners-up, 7 Crores for the team losing qualifier-2, and 6.5 Crores for the team losing eliminator match.
