Mastercard To Replace Paytm As BCCI’s Title Sponsor

Payments giant Mastercard is all set to replace Paytm as the title sponsor for all international and domestic cricket matches organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

According to an ET report, the transfer contracts have been drawn and signing will take place in the 1st week of August. Paytm had asked to pull out of the deal and Mastercard was willing to come in at the same price, the report claimed.

Inc42 has previously reported that fintech giant Paytm requested BCCI to assign its India Home Cricket title rights to credit card major Mastercard. Paytm had reportedly missed the July deadline to request a reassignment. However, BCCI has been willing to consider its delayed request due to their ‘long standing’ relationship.

The fintech giant and BCCI first inked a contract for the title sponsorship in 2015 for INR 203 Cr for four years (i.e., INR 2.4 Cr per match). The deal had been last renewed in August 2019 for up to March 2023 and Paytm would be placing a winning bid of INR 3.80 Cr per match – a 58% increase from the previous deal.

Mastercard will reportedly be assigned the rights till 2023, as per the original terms of the Paytm deal and will continue to pay INR 3.8 Cr per match. Paytm, on the other hand, will have to pay a re-assignment fee of around INR 16.3 Cr – 5% of the original deal value (INR 326.8 Cr).

The update comes despite Paytm’s recent performance update indicating an all-around positive second quarter of 2022. Paytm’s share price, too, jumped around 20% over the last month and the company claims to be on track to break even at the EBITDA level by the quarter ending September 2023. 

However, Paytm’s losses increased 41% year-on-year, reaching INR 2,396.4 Cr for FY22.

Troubles At BCCI As Indian Startups’ Funding Turns Dry

As the funding winter descends on Indian startups, especially late-stage startups, many companies have resorted to cost-cutting measures to improve their operational efficiencies. While lay-offs in the ecosystem have been the gruelling conversation of all time, marketing expenses within the ecosystem have also taken a hit. One such effect can be visible within the advertisement via the cricket ecosystem.

While Mastercard has been a successful replacement for Paytm for the title rights of the cricketing team, IPL will need to find new associate sponsors as Unacademy and Upstox have pulled out of their deals, citing market saturation.

BYJU’S will continue to stay on the Indian cricket team’s jersey and had renewed its sponsorship with BCCI until March 2023 for $55 Mn. Some of the prime startup names that backed IPL teams were Paytm, Unacademy, Swiggy, CRED and Dream11 while Tata Group was the title sponsor for IPL 2022. Many of these deals will expire by March 2023 and there are no renewals in sight.