Royal Challengers Bengaluru attracts $1.8 billion bid as nine parties compete
The State of Play can reveal the complete list of bidders for both franchises as RCB narrows the field and Rajasthan Royals moves towards binding bids
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won their second Women’s Premier League title, defeating Delhi Capitals on Thursday night, marking the first instance of a franchise holding the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the WPL at the same time. On the field, it triumphed, hunting down a daunting 204-run target courtesy of captain Smriti Mandhana’s heroic 87 (despite a high fever) and Australian batter Georgia Voll’s 79.
But off it, it received a different kind of validation: nine parties have submitted non-binding bids ranging from $1 billion to $1.8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, while the Rajasthan Royals narrowed its field to five shortlisted parties, including Manchester United’s Glazer family.
The non-binding bids (or R1) indicate serious interest, but carry no obligation to complete a transaction at the stated price. RCB will use them to narrow the field to a shortlist by next week, and then invite binding offers from the remaining parties. In some cases, the consortiums are still forming, with people close to the process summing it up in as many words: “Everyone is talking to everyone.”
The Rajasthan Royals have already moved past this stage and are working towards second-round or “R2” (binding bids) before going into exclusivity with one of its finalists. That process, sources tell The State of Play, could take place in the first week of March.
The Glazer family, through New Orleans-based Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital, is among several bidders pursuing both franchises. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) rules prohibit owning more than one team, so parties that enter into exclusivity talks with one franchise are expected to withdraw from the other.
The Glazers’ bid for RCB is believed to be around $1.8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, positioning them among the highest bidders for the franchise. At that valuation, they sit in the top end of the range, though non-binding bids can shift substantially as parties move to binding offers and complete due diligence.
The dual sales represent the first major test of IPL franchise valuations since the league added two expansion teams in 2021—Lucknow Super Giants for ~$940 million and the Gujarat Titans for ~$750 million. The spread between the highest and the lowest bids—$800 million for RCB alone—suggests that institutional capital is pricing in risk rather than accepting the growth projections that have sustained the IPL’s commercial expansion.
The question is not whether billion-dollar projections hold, but whether the gap between what bankers are selling and what buyers are willing to pay narrows or becomes permanent as due diligence deepens and contingent structures replace confidence. “Ultimately, the question is, who can deliver the biggest growth on these teams?” a person familiar with the process said.
The battle for Bengaluru
The nine parties circling the Royal Challengers Bengaluru represent a cross-section of how global capital is approaching Indian cricket.
As The State of Play reported in January, Adar Poonawalla, whose family built a vaccine empire worth $25 billion (as of February 2025), is backed by TPG, the American private equity firm that manages $303 billion in assets.
Dr Ranjan Pai, founder of Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), was reportedly in advanced talks with private equity giant KKR to form a consortium, with Temasek Holdings potentially joining if needed, according to Moneycontrol. Temasek, the Singapore sovereign fund with a net portfolio value of $434 billion, already partners with Pai through Manipal Hospitals. Pai is considered among the frontrunners, along with the Glazers.
Premji Invest has entered the race. The investment arm of Wipro founder Azim Premji manages approximately $15 billion and has historically stayed within technology and healthcare. Its presence in a cricket sale indicates a departure, though perhaps not a surprising one, given how Indian sport has begun attracting the kind of patient, institutional capital that Premji Invest represents.
EQT, the Stockholm-based private equity giant with €267 billion ($258.17 billion) in assets, has been building a sports investment portfolio across markets, having acquired the IMG Academy in 2023. RCB would be among its first major entries into Indian sport, even as it has a presence in the country through investments in sectors such as technology services, financial services, and healthcare.
Moneycontrol was the first to report on Ranjan Pai, Poonawalla, EQT and Premji Invest’s non-binding bids.
