WHEN THE Indian Premier League (ipl) launched in 2008, the owners of the new cricket tournament’s city-based franchises were chiefly India’s glitterati. Bollywood stars and tycoons spent fortunes on these trophy assets. The involvement of such celebrities helped make the league a smashing success. Estimating viewership is tricky, but anywhere from 400m to 900m people regularly watch the matches.
Increasingly, however, Indian A-listers are vying with institutional capital from abroad. In March a consortium including Blackstone, an American private-equity (PE) giant, and Bolt Ventures, an investment vehicle run by David Blitzer, who owns stakes in various sports teams in America and elsewhere, acquired the Royal Challengers Bengaluru for $1.8bn. Now Temasek, a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, is on the hunt for a team, according to Reuters. KKR, another American PE titan (not to be confused with the Kolkata Knight Riders), is also eager. In 2021 CVC, a European PE firm, bankrolled the launch of the Gujarat Titans. Last year it sold a two-thirds stake in the team to an Indian conglomerate for a hefty profit.