From ACC to IPL, Dream11 is 2020 IPL Title Sponsor !
There was a period of ‘courtship’ between the young Dream11, and the young American College Cricket before Dream11 became the sponsor of our first American College Cricket USA vs Canada Series. This led to a full Title sponsorship for the upcoming Fall Regional season and beyond, which included over 50 teams getting uniforms mostly paid for by Dream11. We were also able to use the Broward County Stadiium for more than 1 day.
American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah saw the potential benefit in spreading the game in the USA and welcomed a “partnership” with Dream11, as a pioneer of Fantasy Cricket. Lloyd said, “Take football (American) as an example, 99% of its fans don’t play, or never played. I myself watched a bit, though never having played then I started playing Fantasy Football and I became much more engaged, following players that were not even from my city.”
However that time was tough for Fantasy Sports in general in USA, with many legal challenges and it was very difficult to promote it in colleges whilst those legal issues were unresolved. Additionally it was new to most students, and they did not catch on fast enough – though there were free games to play and promote. Cricket’s biggest weakness has always been its inability, and unwillingness to promote itself. “To me this was a modern form of “book cricket” with the added layers sophistication.” Lloyd said.
In 2016 Dream11 made the decision to pull out of the US market, and focus on India – a decision that has been vindicated to the tune of it’s current valuation of $2.5 Billion ! For the 2020 Indian Premire League, IPL, VIVO the Chinese company is no longer the title sponsor, probably as a result of the tensions between India and China over the worldwide destruction of the Coronavirus which originated in Wuhan, China. It would have been awkward, to put it mildly, for India’s showpiece, the IPL, to continue to have a Chinese company as its sponsor.
Dream11 stepped in with a $30 US Million Title sponsorship for the IPL. This was a tad more than its American College Cricket sponsorship, and reflected how much Dream11 (parent company Dream Sports) had grown since 2015.
