Complete Break Down of WPL Team Auction Bids By Money & City

Yesterday, BCCI finally opened the team bids for the franchise rights of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) which saw a staggering revenue of lumpsum INR 4669.99 crore (USD 572.78 million approx) for a 10-year franchise rights deal. A total of sixteen big business entities from India submitted a total of 84 bids to claim one of the ten cities on offer for WPL. BCCI had already made clear that for the first three years, only five teams will participate while from the 4th season depending on the success of WPL, a sixth franchise will be added to the tournament. 

Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men's IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid. This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the

— Jay Shah (@JayShah) January 25, 2023

Highest Bid At WPL Team Auction

Adani Sportsline Private Limited placed the record bids at the Women’s Premier League auction event which was held in Mumbai to earn the rights for a franchise in WPL. They were unsuccessful at the Indian Premier League to earn the franchise rights for Gujarat where they were outbid by CVC Capital Partners (Irelia Company Pte Ltd) for Gujarat Titans at a price of 5625 crore. However, this time they came with a clear mind with a big heart to make the highest bids which no other business venture could match. They placed five bids at the WPL team auction which are as follows.

• Ahmedabad for INR 1289 crore
• Bengaluru for INR 1289 crore
• Chennai for INR 1289 crore
• Guwahati for INR 1289 crore
• Kolkata for INR 1289 crore

BCCI had set the rule which says, If an entity places the highest bid for more than one city then they have the option to choose their preferred franchise city which they did and picked Ahmedabad. Adani Group has also announced that their franchise in WPL will now be called Gujarat Giants. Giants will enjoy their home advantage on the world’s largest cricket stadium which is called Narendra Modi Stadium and have a total capacity of 132,000 cricket fans at a single time. 

Mumbai’s Brilliant Tactical Strategy 

Indiawin Sports Private Limited is the same group that also owns Mumbai Indians in Indian Premier League was successful at the WPL auction with its calculated brilliant tactical strategy on display. Mumbai Indians placed eight different bids for eight cities available at the auction event with a gap of INR 0.03 crores which brought a lot of attention to their brilliant diversified strategy. The bids made by Indiawin Sports Private Limited are as follows.

• Guwahati for INR 912.78 crores
• Indore for INR 912.81 crore
• Lucknow for INR 912.84 crore
• Kolkata for INR 912.87 crore
• Chennai for INR 912.90 crore
• Bengaluru for INR 912.93 crore
• Delhi for INR 912.96 crore
• Mumbai for INR 912.99 crore

They had the second-highest bid at the auction which gave them the option to choose their preferred city of choice and it was no surprise they went with Mumbai again which goes with their men’s team which is the most successful franchise at IPL already. 

Challengers Precise Auction Strategy

Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd were very confident before the WPL Team auction event and they expressed their desire to own a WPL team in the media more than once which shows their commitment to Women’s Cricket in India. They won WPL Bengaluru team rights at a price of 901 Crore for a ten-year period which was the third most expensive franchise in the Women’s Premier League. It is to keep note that they only placed 2 bids at the auction event which are as follows.

• Bengaluru for INR 901 crore
• Kolkata for INR 691 crore

Like Mumbai, they also completed their set of owning both Men’s and Women’s teams in India with Royal Challengers Bangalore already a very famous franchise at the IPL. 

Knight Riders Aggressive Approach UnSuccessful 

Knight Riders Sports Private Limited has become a global brand interms of owning different franchises in different cricket leagues around the world. Their most valuable franchise is by far the Kolkata Knight Riders which enjoys a massive fan following due to its association with the King of Bollywood Mr. Shahrukh Khan. KKR Group became the only group who placed their bids for all ten cities available but they remained unsuccessful to earn rights for a single franchise. Knight Riders Sports Private Limited WPL team auction bids were for INR 666 crore for all ten cities available. 

Royals Cheaky Bidding Strategy

Royal Multisport Private Limited owns the Rajasthan Royals franchise in the Indian Premier League which was the least expensive franchise in IPL in 2008 when Men’s IPL was started and their money ball approach was widely discussed by many financial experts along with cricket journalists when they won the inaugural edition of IPL under Shane Warne. After more than a decade, Royals strategy hasn’t changed a bit as they made the lowball offers again in a hope that history will again repeat itself. Their bids at the Women’s Premier League team auction event are as follows.

• Guwahati for INR 180 crore
• Dharamsala for INR 178 crore
• Indore for INR 176 crore

Sadly for the Royals, they couldn’t able to secure the franchise rights on the luck factor as their highest bid had a staggering difference from the lowest selected bid in the WPL team auction event which was 757 crore for the Lucknow franchise. 

The WPL auction event marked a new history in the Women’s cricket circuit and we are already seeing many cricketers from England, Australia & New Zealand showing their excitement to be picked in the WPL player auction event which is due to be held in the first week of February.