'There's nothing foreign about Dream11' - The new title sponsor of IPL 2020 buries its Chinese connection

All the speculations around IPL 2020 sponsorship were put to rest when the fantasy sports platform Dream11 dominated all its competitors and bagged the IPL 2020 title sponsorship for whopping INR 222 crores. Post brutal face-off between India and Chinese troops in the months of June, the nation was carrying anti-China sentiments. All these political tensions made VIVO exit as the title sponsor for the 13th season of IPL, set to take place next month.

BCCI moved forward to invite new bidders from the market, and it’s the gaming platform that outbid all the giants to seal the sponsorship rights for the season. However, even the journey for Dream11 wasn’t smooth as it carried allegation of having a Chinese stakeholder, Tencent. The top officials of the gaming platform somehow managed to convince BCCI by stating their ‘all-Indian-identity’ by clearing that Tencent was an only small shareholder for them.

Tracing the entire development, a source told Moneycontrol that Dream11 is looking at this as a golden opportunity to reach a bigger set of fans. “Dream11 is one of the official partners of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and this IPL title sponsorship deal further strengthens the brand’s relationship with the game. The association will also help Dream11 to boost fan engagement and was one of the main factors.”

The All-Indian identity of Dream11

Speaking further the source said, Dream11 is completely an Indian brand that has been growing enormously owing to the craze of fantasy sports in India. It has minor investment from Tencent which is around 20-25%

“Tencent is a minority (single-digit) stakeholder in Dream11. All employees, products, and technology are Indian. There’s nothing foreign about Dream11,” the source added.

The other big names that were in the line for title sponsorship of this season were Byju’s, Unacademy, and Tata. It was also said that purely an Indian brand Patanjali was also in the queue to look for sponsorship rights for IPL this season.

The cash-rich league will commence from September 19 in the UAE and finals will be played on November 10. The matches will take place in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah where strict bio-security protocols are already in place.