The Week Cricket Became an Asset Class

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Two cricket teams sold in one week for a combined $3.41 billion. On the surface, it looks like a headline about sports valuations. But sit with it for a moment and a few sharper questions emerge:

This is not really about cricket. It’s about how an asset class forms, matures, and gets institutionalized. And if you understand what just happened here, you’ll start to recognize the same pattern in other industries before it becomes obvious.

In late March 2026, two transactions quietly reset the benchmark for cricket economics. Royal Challengers Bangalore sold for $1.78 billion. Forty-eight hours later, Rajasthan Royals changed hands at $1.63 billion.

Together, that’s $3.41 billion—nearly 20% of the entire Indian Premier League valuation—transacted in under a week. That kind of clustering is rarely accidental.

When deals happen this close together, at this scale, it usually signals something deeper: price discovery has reached a level where both buyers and sellers are comfortable moving simultaneously. In simpler terms, the market has matured enough that everyone agrees these assets are now “real.”

Not passion buys. Not vanity assets. A legitimate, recognized category of investment.

To understand why capital showed up in the IPL this week, you have to zoom out. The playbook was written elsewhere.

Take the Dallas Cowboys. Roughly $600 million valuation in 2002. Today, north of $10 billion. The Golden State Warriors went from $450 million in 2010 to about $7.7 billion.
City Football Group crossed $10 billion valuation after institutional investment.

These aren’t exceptions. They’re patterns.

Over the past two decades, sports franchises have quietly transformed into one of the most reliable long-duration assets in global markets. Why? Because of structure.

Between 2018 and 2024, institutional capital poured roughly $15 billion into sports globally. Firms like Ares Management, RedBird Capital Partners, and Sixth Street Partners didn’t just participate—they built strategies around it.

Once capital understands a pattern, it scales into it. The IPL is simply the next logical destination.

The Rajasthan Royals deal tells you more than the price ever could. The buyer group included individuals tied to the National Football League—owners and families who understand sports economics at a structural level.

These are not people experimenting. They know exactly what a closed league with revenue sharing looks like. They’ve lived it for decades. So when they show up in Indian cricket, they’re not betting on cricket per se. They’re recognizing a familiar system:

The returns back this up. Investors like Lachlan Murdoch and RedBird Capital Partners exited with multiples that would make most venture portfolios look average.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth for purists: The team finished near the bottom of the table. Performance didn’t matter. Because in this model, the asset is not the team. It’s the slot in the league.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore deal has a slightly different flavor. The Aditya Birla Group anchors the consortium. That’s expected—this is a flagship Indian cultural asset. But the presence of Blackstone is the signal worth paying attention to. Blackstone doesn’t invest based on sentiment. They invest where four things are true:

RCB checks all four. Yes, Virat Kohli adds brand power. But Blackstone isn’t underwriting Instagram followers. They’re underwriting cash flow durability and market expansion. The Birlas and Blackstone are buying the same asset for different reasons.

One is cultural and generational. The other is financial and systemic. The price reflects both.

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Strip away the headlines, and the IPL business model is unusually clean.

That combination is rare. In most businesses, revenue is uncertain and costs fluctuate. Here, revenue is largely guaranteed and costs are controlled. That’s why investors are comfortable paying what looks like aggressive multiples. Compare it globally:

Yet India’s market is larger, younger, and growing faster. So the bet is simple:
This is a cheaper version of an asset class that has already worked elsewhere.

There is, however, a variable that sits underneath all of this. Media rights.

The IPL’s economic engine depends heavily on broadcast deals. And recent projections suggest the next cycle may flatten rather than grow. Why does that matter?

Because the previous step-change in valuations was driven by aggressive bidding between multiple players. That dynamic has now consolidated. Fewer bidders = less upward pressure.

If media rights plateau, the growth assumptions embedded in these billion-dollar valuations start to look optimistic. This doesn’t break the model. But it changes the timeline.

Returns shift from near-term compounding to long-term holding. And that’s a very different investment profile.

Zoom out again. In 2008, Rajasthan Royals sold for $67 million. Today: $1.63 billion.

That’s not just appreciation. That’s validation. This is how asset classes form:

We are now somewhere between steps three and four. The smart money is no longer asking if this works. It’s asking how much more upside is left.

The headline deals get attention, but the quieter development is more important. A secondary market for IPL equity is emerging. Minority stakes. Private transactions. Informal price discovery.

Take Chennai Super Kings. Its unlisted shares have traded for years among high-net-worth investors. No headlines. No auctions. Just steady demand.

This is how liquidity forms before formal structures catch up. Eventually, you get funds, pooled vehicles, and broader access.

Globally, firms like Arctos Sports Partners have already built multi-billion-dollar strategies around this. India is simply earlier in that curve.

The IPL is no longer just a cricket league. It is becoming financial infrastructure. The next phase is predictable:

At some point, owning a piece of a franchise will look less like owning a team and more like owning infrastructure.

And like all infrastructure, the best returns tend to go to those who entered before it was fully understood.

The real question isn’t whether IPL franchises are valuable. That debate is over. The question is timing.

Are today’s buyers early to a long runway—or late to a fully priced story?

History suggests both can be true at the same time. Early investors build the asset class. Late investors validate it.

The difference is who captures the next leg of value creation. xAnd that’s the part that is still unfolding.

Interested in learning more about Indian economy? Check out our previous coverage here:

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Peeyush and Mohit

Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author's employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.