The Rajasthan Royals (RR) are on course to become the most expensive team ever sold in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Royals Sports Group (Emerging Media Sporting Holdings Limited), owned by Manoj Badale, holds about 65% of the stake in the franchise. Lachlan Murdoch (13%) and RedBird Capital (15%) as minority holders.
RR sale to set IPL record
According to Bloomberg, four bidders have entered the next round of the sale of RR. Kal Somani, who is already an investor in RR, has formed a consortium and made an offer of $1.3 billion (INR 11,956 crores approximately).
The bid offer is contingent on the value of future IPL media rights sales. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sold the rights for INR 44,075 crore in 2023 for a 5-year cycle, until 2027.
Times Internet Chairman Satyan Gajwani, Blackstone Inc. and Carlyle Group Inc. are the other bidders interested in buying RR. The latter two have shown interest in acquiring the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), which Diageo has decided to sell, at an evaluation of $2 billion, before the IPL 2026 season. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, has also shown interest in buying RCB.
Currently, the Gujarat Titans (GT) are the most expensive team ever sold in the IPL. In 2025, the Torrent Group acquired a 67% stake in the franchise for around INR 5025 crore. This values the IPL 2022 champions at INR 7500 crores. In 2022, CVC Capital Partners secured GT for INR 5625 crore. In the same year, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) was bought by the RPSG group for INR 7,090 crore.
Raine Group, which oversaw the process of the sale of Chelsea F.C. in 2022 and Manchester United F.C. in 2024, will oversee the sale of RR.
