Who Bought RCB and RR? IPL's Biggest Sales Explained

Walmart heirs, Ford family and Blackstone: global money takes over cricket’s biggest franchises

North Desk Correspondent

Chandigarh, March 25

It has been quite a week for the Indian Premier League. In the space of 24 hours, two of its most iconic franchises — Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru — changed hands. The buyers include one of the world’s largest retail dynasties, an American sports empire builder, the Aditya Birla Group, and the largest alternative asset management firm on the planet.

The numbers are staggering. The stories behind them are even better.

How it started…

When the IPL launched in 2008, eight franchises were auctioned off to the highest bidders. The prices seemed large at the time. Rajasthan Royals — the cheapest of the lot — went for $67 million. RCB, bought by Vijay Mallya’s United Spirits, was the second-most expensive at $111.6 million.

Fast forward eighteen years, and those numbers look almost quaint.

The IPL is now valued at over $10 billion, having grown 433% since 2008. What drove that? Broadcast money, primarily. A single IPL match now generates around $16 million in broadcasting revenue — second only to the NFL in the world. When the BCCI auctioned the 2023–27 media rights cycle, the combined value came in at over ₹48,000 crore — nearly three times the previous deal.

In short: the IPL stopped being just a cricket tournament a long time ago. It became a financial property. And financial properties attract serious money.

Rajasthan Royals: The Pink Army Gets American Owners

Rajasthan Royals have been acquired by a US-based consortium led by tech entrepreneur Kal Somani for $1.63 billion — roughly ₹15,290 crore. That makes it the most expensive IPL franchise sale in history. The $1.63 billion valuation represents a 24x return on the original 2008 purchase price.

Somani is an Arizona-based entrepreneur who founded IntraEdge, Truyo.AI and Academian, building his reputation across data privacy, AI governance and edtech. He was already a minority investor in the Royals, so this is not a stranger walking in — it is an insider stepping up.

But his backers are the headline. The consortium includes Rob Walton of the Walmart family and the Hamp family of Ford Motor Company. Rob Walton, 81, is the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton and led the group that bought the NFL’s Denver Broncos for a record $4.65 billion in 2022. Sheila Ford Hamp is the principal owner and chairperson of the NFL’s Detroit Lions.

To understand how much has changed since the Royals were founded: the man selling them, Manoj Badale, bought the franchise for just $67 million in 2008 — the lowest bid among the eight original teams. The franchise’s early success, including the 2008 IPL title under Shane Warne’s captaincy, was a testament to his vision of building a competitive team on a modest budget.

Under Badale, the Royals became the original moneyball franchise of the IPL — clever recruitment, youth development, no big-ticket splurges. The franchise has not had it easy either, surviving a two-year suspension after a spot-fixing and betting scandal allegedly involving co-owner Raj Kundra in 2015. They came back, rebuilt, and reached the IPL final in 2022. Badale is now walking away with a 24x return.

Badale will remain in charge until the end of the 2026 IPL season, after which Somani will formally assume control. The deal still needs BCCI ratification.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Enter the Birlas

The RCB story begins with a whiskey company.

In 2008, RCB was bought by Vijay Mallya, the Kingfisher Airlines boss, for $111.6 million — the second-highest bid in the first IPL auction. Mallya was often spotted at RCB games. The team was named after his flagship liquor brand, Royal Challenge. It was very much Mallya’s personal trophy — flashy, ambitious, perpetually on the cusp of something big.

Then Mallya’s empire collapsed. In 2015, Diageo India took control of United Spirits and, with it, RCB. By 2016, Mallya’s legal troubles forced him to step away, and United Spirits became the sole owner. For nearly a decade after that, a British scotch-and-spirits giant quietly ran one of India’s most beloved cricket teams — largely because they inherited it and weren’t quite sure what to do with it.

Diageo eventually decided cricket was “non-core” to its beverages business and set a March 31 deadline to close a sale. The franchise went to market, and the bids came flooding in.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru have been sold for approximately $1.78 billion — roughly ₹16,660 crore — in an all-cash deal.

The buyers are a consortium of four: Aditya Birla Group, The Times of India Group, Bolt Ventures, and Blackstone.

Aryaman Birla, who played as a batter for Madhya Pradesh and was part of the Rajasthan Royals squad, will serve as Chairman, while Satyan Gajwani of the Times of India Group will be Vice Chairman. Bolt Ventures is owned by American sports investor David Blitzer, who already holds stakes in Crystal Palace, the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils, Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians. And Blackstone, the $1 trillion asset manager, rounds out the group.

For those keeping score: RCB were originally bought for $111.6 million in 2008. They just sold for sixteen times that amount.

 The Virat Factor

It would be impossible to discuss RCB’s valuation without acknowledging the obvious: a significant part of what buyers were paying for is the association with Virat Kohli.

RCB are ranked fourth in overall franchise benchmarking, benefiting from a strong global fan base associated with Virat Kohli — though analysts note their position is constrained by limited championship success. That changed last year: RCB won their first-ever IPL title in 2025, defeating Punjab Kings in the final. They go into new ownership as champions, which is a very different conversation than going in as perennial near-misses.

Kohli has been with RCB since the very first IPL auction in 2008. Any new owners would be wise to understand that the man is not just a cricketer to this fanbase — he is the franchise’s entire emotional identity.

The Bigger Picture

These two deals in one week sent a clear signal: the IPL has arrived as a truly global asset class. Harsha Bhogle summed it up pointedly, noting that for comparison, London Spirit — among the most expensive teams in England’s The Hundred — was valued at just $370 million. Rajasthan Royals just sold for more than four times that.