ChatGPT is now a BCCI sponsor, and the associate deals are up 44 per cent
The board’s associate-tier sponsorship fetched 44 per cent more than it did last cycle, one of the three buyers is an AI chatbot, and the branding starts appearing when the West Indies arrive on 27 September.
Sep 9, 2026
An AI chatbot will have its logo on Indian cricket this season. The BCCI announced on Tuesday that ChatGPT, the soft drink brand Campa and the insurer SBI Life have signed on as Associate Partners for India’s home cricket, in deals worth a combined total of more than 130 crore rupees.
What the three deals cover
All three run for two seasons and expire in March 2028. They begin with India’s home white-ball series against the West Indies, which starts on 27 September, and the package covers 35 Team India home matches. The BCCI did not break out what each brand is paying. Reporting has put Campa’s bid at 1.31 crore rupees per match, which over 35 games comes to roughly 46 crore on its own.
Associate Partner sits a rung below the lead sponsorship of the India shirt, which Apollo Tyres took in 2025 on a three-year deal worth 579 crore rupees covering 121 bilateral fixtures and 21 ICC matches. The associate tier buys in-stadium branding and broadcast presence rather than the jersey front, and it is where a board’s commercial demand shows up first.
The number the BCCI wants you to look at
Demand has not softened. The 130 crore figure is 44 per cent higher than what the same tier fetched in the previous cycle, and that is the line the board led with. Honorary Secretary Devajit Saikia said the increase showed strong demand for association with Indian cricket, and pointed to the fact that the three brands come from three unrelated categories.
He has a point about the spread. Beverages, life insurance and artificial intelligence is not a set of sectors that would have shared a sponsorship board five years ago. BCCI President Mithun Manhas described the signings as an endorsement of the strength of the Indian cricket ecosystem, which is the sort of thing board presidents say, though in this case the 44 per cent does the arguing for him.
ChatGPT’s second cricket property
The ChatGPT deal is the one that will get talked about, and it is not the company’s first move into Indian cricket. In November 2025 it became a Premier Partner of the Women’s Premier League alongside Kingfisher Packaged Drinking Water, also on a two-season agreement.
That makes India’s men’s home season its second cricket property inside a year. An AI product buying inventory at this level is a bet on reach rather than on any obvious link to the sport, and cricket is still the fastest way to put a brand in front of a national audience in a single evening.
When it starts
The West Indies arrive for three ODIs and five T20Is, running from 27 September to 17 October. The ODIs are in Trivandrum, Guwahati and New Chandigarh. The T20Is go to Lucknow, Ranchi, Indore, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. There are no Tests on this tour.
Eight matches across eight cities in three weeks is a reasonable opening for anyone paying for exposure, and it is the first thing these three brands have bought.