Mumbai Indians swings to ₹109 crore profit, revenue more than doubles in FY24

Reliance Industries Ltd-owned Indiawin Sports Pvt Ltd, which runs the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians, more than doubled its revenue and swung to profit in FY24.

Indiawin Sports, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani-promoted RIL, recorded a revenue of ₹737 crore in FY24, earning a net profit ₹109 crore, the annual report of the country's largest conglomerate showed.

Indiawin Sports had clocked a turnover of ₹358.79 crore, registering a loss of ₹49.5 crore in FY23. Interestingly, the company reported that of the entire revenue it made in FY23, it collected ₹227 crore as its share in net revenue of the BCCI-IPL central rights or central pool. When the BCCI sells its central media rights, a large amount of it is directed towards the teams or franchises, currently numbering 10. In other words, every franchise has a guaranteed payout. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, or BCCI, distributes around 40-50% of what is generated by the cricket body from media rights. In 2023, Mumbai Indians made ₹10.8 crore from sponsorships and about ₹92.79 crore from event management, which is typically ticket sales.

However, the company’s franchises in other countries like the Middle East, the US and South Africa continued to bleed.

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The Mumbai Indians franchise has been with the conglomerate since 2008, the inaugural season of IPL. Back then, the Mumbai franchise was the most valuable, with the group spending as much as $111.9 million on it to secure the rights to the team for a decade. According to a recent report titled the IPL Valuation Study 2024 by American investment bank Houlihan Lokey, which analysed the cricket league as both a business and a brand, IPL's total business reached $16.4 billion (approximately ₹1.35 trillion) this season, reflecting a 6.5% increase from 2023.

This growth is modest compared to the previous year's 81.7% surge, when the league's value soared to $15.4 billion from $8.5 billion in 2022.

Meanwhile, the league’s standalone brand value also rose by a similar 6.3% in 2024 over the previous year to reach $3.4 billion. It had grown 77% to $3.2 billion in 2023 against $1.8 billion in 2022.

Mumbai Indians (MI), valued at $204 million in 2024, continues to be a dominant force and is known for developing stars like Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah. However, its brand value took a hit due to leadership changes and performance challenges on the field.

In 2023, the BCCI-backed T20 tournament collected as much as ₹3,000 crore in sponsorship revenue (including central, team and franchise fees). In fact, the Ambani-backed industrial group also shelled out ₹912.99 crore or $110 milion to secure the rights of the Mumbai team of the Women's Premier League, which is also housed under Indiawin. In dollar terms, the bid was equal to its initial bid for the IPL men's team in 2008— $111.9 million.

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Reliance also runs subsidiaries Indiawin Sports Middle East Limited, Indiawin Sports USA Inc, and India Mumbai Indians (Pty) Ltd (in South Africa) owns 100% of each of its cricketing businesses. The MI US team which plays as the MI New York team, part of the Major League Cricket (MLC) tournament was set up in 2023 and is part of the six teams in the inaugural tournament. This team reported a gross revenue of ₹38.6 crore and had a net loss of ₹21.97 crore. Similarly, Indiawin Sports Middle East or The MI Emirates, the professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that competes in the International League T20 there, raked up a gross revenue of ₹32.6 crore and a net loss of about ₹45.3 crore at the end of the fiscal.

In its sports for development, category which is a CSR initiative of the company, the company spent ₹24 crore in the fiscal FY24, down to less than half of FY23's ₹56 crore. In its e) to foundation which focuses on youth sports, it spent ₹105 crore, which is also about half of FY23's ₹207 crore.