IPL 2023: RCB rope in Qatar Airways as title sponsors for three years in INR 75 crore deal

Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore have signed an INR 75 crore deal with Qatar Airways, who will be their title sponsor for the next three seasons. According to reports, it’s the second-largest deal in the history of IPL sponsorships.

Qatar Airways recently roped in Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone as their global brand ambassador and will now replace one of the largest NBFC's in India, Muthoot FinCorp, as the main sponsor of the third most popular franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Now with the signing of the deal, the logo of Qatar Airways will be seen on the front side of RCB's jersey.

“The deal has been signed, and the announcement will be made in a couple of weeks. It’s worth ₹75 crore for three years, the biggest deal for RCB ever,” a person was quoted as saying by Mint on the condition of anonymity.

In 2022, the most successful franchise of the tournament, five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI), signed a similar three-year deal worth over INR 90 crore with FinTech company Slice. Prior to the Slice deal, the second most successful franchise of IPL, Chennai Super Kings(CSK) which has four titles to their name signed an INR 70 crore-plus deal with TVS Group’s Eurogrip for three years.

Despite not being able to win a single IPL trophy in the 15-year-long history of the tournament, RCB is being praised for its brand valuation and has a massive fan base. According to experts, "this is also the power of Brand Virat on display to a good degree".

IPL 2023 to begin on March 31

The IPL season 16 will kick off on March 31 with the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) going up against CSK. RCB will start their campaign against Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 2 at their home ground M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

At the IPL 2023 auction, RCB bought the services of left-arm seamer Reece Topley for a whopping INR 1.9 crore and added Will Jacks to strengthen their batting for INR 3.2 Crore. They also added some local talent roping in likes of Himanshu Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, and Avinash Singh.

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