Indian Premier League: New US Cricket League Aims To Bring IPL Format To New Market

The Indian Premier League has been the biggest professional sporting league in India and is one of the highest-grossing sports franchises in the world as well. In a study done by Duff & Phelps, the IPL’s net worth was at $6.8 billion by 2019, with a 13.6% growth rate from its previously reported net worth of $5.9 billion. A huge part of the revenue of the league comes from major sponsorships by big brands ranging from broadcasting rights, and other major and minor sponsorships.

With that in mind, it is only a matter of time before the Twenty20 format of the IPL gets adapted to a bigger sports market, such as the United States. This is good news for people who are into cricket betting, as they would have a wider choice and better opportunities when it comes to games and league to bet on.

In the United States, an upcoming professional cricket league–which is the first of its kind inf the country–is in the works and is currently backed up by investments from huge names and personalities. This is called the Major League Cricket tournament and is currently scheduled to open its first season in 2022.

Some of the biggest names that are said to be major investors for this upcoming professional cricket league include Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Adobe Shantanu Narayen, and Paytm owner Vijay Shekhar Sharma, among other names.

Most investments by people, both those mentioned above and those who remain unknown, were given to American Cricket Enterprises, the organization that will be running the upcoming cricket league.

Bollywood movie star Shah Rukh Khan, who also has his money on the Knight Riders Group of the IPL, will also reportedly run at least one of the six teams of the Major League Cricket, which would be the Los Angeles Knight Riders.

“It’s like Bollywood meets Hollywood,” Venky Mysore, chief of the Kolkata Knight Riders, said in an interview with The Financial Times. “We’ve gone and been able to add a lot of value to different leagues . It made a lot of sense to be part of that.”

Ironically, although the Indian Premier League is the biggest sports league in India and has fans across the globe, many people outside of India are unaware of the sports fame or at least what the sport is. This is one of the reasons why other major countries are looking to adopt the format and model used by the IPL as it has been proven to be a successful one already.

Australia had already done the same with their Big Bash League, which was established only in 2011. The league is played by eight teams and is held yearly across major sporting arenas across the land of Australia.

England also rode into the increasing popularity of cricket, with the England and Wales Cricket Board launching The Hundred, their professional cricket league. It was set to launch this year but was postponed to sometime around next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, unlike the IPL and the Big Bash League, The Hundred would be played in a 100-ball cricket format. Originally, the upcoming league was proposed to follow the same Twenty20 format but concerns about the opportunity to attract new fans and viewership prompted its organizers to go for a shorter and faster version of the sport. This move to change the format from the already popular Twenty20 garnered mixed reactions, with some calling it a bad move and others praising it as an innovation.