Paytm awarded title sponsorship for BCCI international and domestic matches

Paytm will sponsor the India's international home series and domestic competitions for the period of 2019 to 2023.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced that One 97 Communications Pvt. Ltd. (Paytm) have acquired the sponsorship rights for the International and Domestic matches.

The title sponsorship is for the period starting September 1, 2019 and will last through March 31, 2023. 

According to the BCCI release, the winning bid was at a price of INR 326.80 Crores to be paid for 2019-23 home season. The winning bid was Rs 3.80 Crores per match which is at 58% incremental value in comparison to the previous per match value of Rs 2.4 Crores.

Paytm had acquired the title sponsorship rights for matches held in India for a period of four years in 2015. As per reports, it had shelled out Rs 203 crore for the rights that included all the series with the title sponsor logo along with the designation as title sponsor.

Prior to Paytm, Micromax was the title sponsor for BCCI matches. It held the rights during 2014-15. Before that, Star India held the rights between 2013 and 2014.

BCCI had invited bids through a process mentioned in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document. The last date to submit the online bidding by uploading the document on the platform was August 19 at 11 pm.

The evaluation of eligibility documents and communication to eligible bidders took place on August 20 and the final announcement was scheduled for August 21.

Paytm pipped quite a few other companies in the race. Chief among them that gave stiff competition was Dream11, which has been hugely investing in cricket.

"I’m pleased to announce Paytm as the BCCI home series title sponsor. Paytm is one of the new generation companies of India and we at the BCCI are proud of Paytm continuing its long-standing commitment with Indian Cricket," BCCI CEO Rahul Johri was quoted as saying in the release.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO, Paytm said: "We are excited to continue our long-term association with BCCI and the Indian Cricket Team. Our commitment to Indian Cricket gets stronger with every season. India loves cricket and we at Paytm are the biggest fans of it."