“As a growing brand which has big plans for a billion strong Indians, there is no better platform than cricket in India”. Owned by One97 Communications, Paytm is backed by China’s Alibaba. Mobile handset manufacturer Micromax, the home series sponsor for the 2014-15 season, was forking out Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) per match.
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With no choice left, the BCCI sold the rights to Paytm for Rs 203 crores for four years, which comes to about Rs 2.4 crore per match. But from now Ranji Competition will be called as “Paytm Ranji Trophy“.
There were only two bidders for the scheduled 84 matches (Tests, ODIs and T20Is) in India during the upcoming seasons as the rights have been awarded till 2019.
The offers were opened at the BCCI advertising advisory group meeting that went on for around five hours.
BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur said they were elated to have Paytm as their homes series title sponsors.
“They are one of the new era organizations and we are pleased to cooperate with them”.
“We are additionally happy that the response has expanded by 20%”.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar added to the media, “I understand that there might have been issues around cricket, but consumer interest in cricket has never gone down”. Cricket epitomises the Paytm values of passion, hard work and team effort. Over the next 4 years, we will continue to invest strongly in cricket and other sports.
It is also learnt that the Micromax bid was cancelled. The board officials decided not to open the Micromax bid after it failed the initial scrutiny.
When asked specifically why Micromax’s bid was cancelled, Marketing Committee chairman Chetan Desai told PTI, “The bid document specifically mentioned that the bidding should be done by consortium of companies. 203.28 crore to be paid over the 4-year term”, a press release from BCCI said. 165 crore for 50 matches for a three-year period.
Nike’s outfit sponsorship agreement is finishing in December and worldwide donning merchandise goliaths Adidas have additionally indicated enthusiasm for it. Presently it will be fight in the middle of Nike and Adidas in the not so distant future to secure the agreement.
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The deal, which runs till 2019, appoints Paytm as the title sponsor for every bilateral home series (a total of 84 matches) hosted by BCCI.
