IPL New Teams Auction for the 2022 Edition

Indian Premier League – the biggest T20 League in the world just got bigger with the addition of two teams from Lucknow and Ahmedabad bought for an atrocious amount of money. This now makes IPL a ten-team league, not for the first time though. In 2011, IPL was played with 10 teams after the addition of Kochi Tuskers and Pune Warriors. Let’s take a look at how the auction panned out, how does it change the format of the league and what does this mean for the cricket betting platforms and the bettors.

The IPL New Teams Auction – How It Happened?

The auction for the two new IPL teams took place on 25th October 2021 in Dubai at a walk-in bidding event. Out of the 22 firms that had bought the tender form only 9 were actually present at the final auctions which went on for a little longer than expected. At the end of it all, BCCI will be more than USD 1.6 Billion richer. That’s how extravagant the bidding went.

The Two New Franchises

The two new teams added to the IPL are Lucknow and Ahmedabad with RPSG (RP Sanjiv Goenka Group) and CVC Capital Partners being the owners respectively. RPSG Group bid the highest among all the bidders – a whopping INR 7090 Crore (Approx. USD 940 million). They bid the same amount for Ahmedabad and Lucknow as was allowed in the bidding process and landed with the Lucknow franchise in the end. The next highest bid for Lucknow was INR 5166 Crore by CVC who bid slightly higher for the Ahmedabad franchise at INR 5625 Crore (Approx. USD 750 million). For the Ahmedabad franchise, they were ahead of the Adani Group in the bidding process who bid at INR 5100 Crore. Thus, bagging the franchise that is going to have the biggest cricket stadium in the world as their home ground.

The base price set by BCCI for placing the bid on each new IPL team was INR 2000 Crore. Effectively, Lucknow was sold for a price of 250% more than the base price and Ahmedabad was sold for 160% more price than the base price. In all, the two franchises were sold for more than USD 1.6 billion. The new franchises are expected to pay this amount over a period of 10 years.

The other possible franchises were Dharamsala, Guwahati, Cuttack, and Indore and the bidders were allowed to bid for more than one franchise whoever could purchase only one. Adani group was the third highest bidder for both Lucknow and Ahmedabad bidding the amount of INR 5100 Crore. Another mentionable bidder was the Lancer Capital who owns the famous Manchester United Football Club.

About The Owners

The RPSG Group who bagged the Lucknow franchise is not new to the IPL. They had owned the Pune IPL team in the past named as the Rising Pune Super Giants for two seasons in 2016 and 2017. They were added to the IPL following a two-year ban for the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. They had finished the 2016 season in the second last position on the points table. However, the Super Giants came back stronger in IPL 2017 to reach the finals which they lost in a thriller against Mumbai by just 1 run. While RPSG had the Sahara Pune Stadium as their home ground in the last stint, this time, they will be playing the home games in Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow with a capacity of close to 50,000 spectators.

CVC Capitals Partners must be happy to have bought the Ahmedabad franchise with the biggest stadium in the world with more than 1.3 Lakh (130K) sitting capacity. It does mean additional ticket money. Although CVC are new to IPL, they are not new to sports per se. They had a stake in Formula 1 for about a decade until 2016. They also have experience in Rugby and the Spanish Football league – La Liga. Interestingly enough, CVC capital has a share in sports betting and poker companies.

How does this change the IPL format?

With the addition of two new teams, the IPL will now be a 10-team event and would revert back to the multiple group format they had employed a decade ago in 2011 when for the first time IPL was played with 10 teams.

This means the teams will be divided into a group of 5 teams. Every team will play the other 4 teams in the group twice – home and away. Additionally, each team will play once against the 4 teams from the other group and play twice against one team in the other group. This equates to a standard 14 matches for each team making is a league stage of 70 matches instead of 56 in the past. Despite playing in two groups the eventual ranking will happen in a single consolidated points table with the top 4 teams reaching the playoffs. Thus, instead of 60, we will now have a 74 match IPL starting from IPL 2022. Only IPL 2013 had more matches (76) when it was played with 13 teams.

What about squads and retentions?

Whenever new teams are added to the IPL they are allowed to buy the same number of players through a draft system before the IPL player auctions begin. This means both Lucknow and Ahmedabad will have some players in the squad before the next mega auctions. While the details about retentions are not clear yet, it is understood that the “right to match” card may not be allowed to current team owners.

What does it mean for the Betting industry?

Well, the various betting sites and apps are very excited about the new teams getting added for the upcoming IPL 2022. The higher number of matches would mean a larger opportunity for bettors and betting companies alike to earn more profit. The IPL betting odds are going to be interesting after the addition of two completely new teams without any history. This kind of brings in a fresh perspective for the bettors who were used the same teams and players in the past.

Overall, the fans, bettors and betting industry as a whole are looking forward to these new changes in IPL 2022.