Aditya Birla consortium buys RCB for $1.78 billion in biggest IPL franchise deal ever
United Spirits Limited, a Diageo subsidiary that inherited RCB after Vijay Mallya lost control of the company, confirmed the sale on Monday. The $1.78 billion price tag (roughly INR 16,600 crore) makes RCB the most expensive IPL franchise ever sold, surpassing the Rajasthan Royals deal announced just hours earlier.
Who is buying RCB
The consortium is led by the Aditya Birla Group, one of India's largest conglomerates. Aryaman Vikram Birla, son of group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, will serve as franchise chairman. The younger Birla briefly played first-class cricket for Madhya Pradesh and was part of the Rajasthan Royals squad in IPL 2018 before stepping away from the game in 2019 to focus on business.
Satyan Gajwani of the Times of India Group will be vice-chairman. The other partners are David Blitzer's Bolt Ventures, an American sports investment firm with stakes across several US franchises, and Blackstone's perpetual private equity arm BXPE.
Two mega deals in one day
Hours before the RCB announcement, the Rajasthan Royals confirmed they had been acquired by a consortium led by US-based entrepreneur Kal Somani for $1.63 billion. Somani's group includes Rob Walton of the Walmart family and the Hamp family, majority owners of the NFL's Detroit Lions.
Two IPL franchises changing hands on the same day for a combined $3.41 billion tells you everything about where cricket's commercial value is heading. When the original IPL franchises were sold in 2008, the most expensive was Mumbai Indians at $111.9 million. RCB just fetched nearly 16 times that.
What happens next
The ownership transition needs approval from the BCCI, the IPL Governing Council and the Competition Commission of India, and is expected to go through after the 2026 season. For now, RCB's on-field preparations for their title defence are unaffected. They open IPL 2026 against SRH at the Chinnaswamy on March 28, four days from now.
Diageo's decision to sell reflects a broader shift in the drinks giant's strategy, moving away from non-core sports assets to refocus on its beverage alcohol portfolio. For the Birla group, it represents a bet on the IPL's long-term commercial growth at a time when former chairman Lalit Modi has predicted team valuations could hit $5 billion within five years.
