The juggernaut of the Indian Premier League (IPL) seems to have finally hit a bump as the tournament's valuation has declined for the second consecutive year. According to D&P Advisory's 2025 IPL-WPL Valuation Report, titled "Beyond 22 Yards: The Power of Platforms, The Price of Regulation", the valuation of the IPL has fallen to Rs 76,100 crore ($8.8 billion) in 2025 from Rs 82,700 crore ($9.9 billion) in 2024.
Notably, the overall valuation of the IPL has gone down by Rs 16,400 crore in the last two years. Notably, the valuation was at Rs 92,500 crore ($11.2 billion) in 2023 and according to the latest report, this erosion reflects a fundamental reset in Indian cricket's economy.
D&P has identified two structural shifts behind the contraction. The first was the merger of Disney Star and Viacom18 into JioStar which effectively ended the intense bidding war that inflated unreal media-rights values. The second decisive factor for the decline is the government's ban on online money gaming, its advertising and sponsorship.
According to D&P, the ban has wiped out around Rs 1500-2000 crore from the IPL ecosystem alone.
IPL media rights were sold for Rs 48390 crore for five-year cycle in 2022
Interestingly, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sold the IPL media rights for record Rs 48,390 crore in 2022 for the 2023-27 cycle. Disney Star retained the television rights while Viacom18' JioCinema won the streaming rights. The deal witnessed a massive jump of more than Rs 32000 crore which Star India paid for the 2018-22 cycle.
However, Santosh N, managing partner at D&P Advisory, stated that the firm had anticipted the decline in growth earlier. "In 2023, when we pegged the IPL’s valuation at $11.2 billion, we had projected a 40-50% appreciation in media rights by 2027. That assumption was based on the presence of two formidable bidders and the possible entry of global tech companies into sports streaming.
"The subsequent ban on real-money gaming (RMG) further constrained the monetisation outlook," he said according to Economic Times.
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