Becoming a global sports powerhouse: IPL team Rajasthan Royals

The 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) season was unlike any other.

After twice being suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the tournament was eventually moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and fans were treated to the tightest season in the competition’s history.

Just two points separated the teams in third and eighth place as global viewership grew by 30% and the IPL retained its place as the most watched domestic Twenty20 tournament in the world.

Despite a disappointing season on the field, Rajasthan Royals have hopes of becoming a truly global IPL team and have focused their initial efforts on the UK market. It’s clearly working too, with the Royals’ international sales figures surpassing all other sides during 2020.

“Becoming the global IPL team also means we have to be one of the leading teams in India,” explained Rajasthan’s Chief Operating Officer Jake Lush McCrum in an exclusive interview with Calacus. “I state that firstly because we’re not ignoring India as the primary nation, it’s about what we can do in addition to that.

“From my side, we’ve got a lot of work to do in India to become one of the leading franchises here and build our follower base which we’ve done by investing a lot in digital content.

“That’s seen us have the highest engagement rate of all IPL sides on three of the five leading social media platforms which has been really successful.

“With regards the global aims, the reasoning is if you look at fans in the US, UK, Australia, and similar countries, their disposable income and propensity to spend is a lot higher than your average Indian fan.

“Therefore the ability to grow your ancillary revenue streams is significant.”

The Royals once again have a heavy English presence in their 2021 squad with Liam Livingstone joining Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, and Jofra Archer as high-profile international names for the franchise.

This core of English talent coupled with Rajasthan’s lead owner, Manoj Badale, being based in the UK, made it an obvious market to target.

“Those stars gave us the perfect platform to focus on the UK, but we want to build a fanbase that doesn’t rely on us having three or four English stars,” Lush McCrum continued.

“Manoj is based in the UK, I’m from the UK, so we had a network there where we could initially launch and almost use it as a test market to see how much demand there was and potential for monetisation.

“Last year was our first going international and we had the highest sales of any IPL franchise so that shows the work we did in 2018 and 2019 led us to securing those revenues.”

As well as monetising sponsorship, merchandise, and ticketing revenue streams, the Royals have also invested in academies in the UK and UAE, a move that Lush McCrum feels offers great synergy with their commercial aims.

“We’re not only engaging in a new audience, we’re gaining thousands and thousands of people in our database who we can then build a personalised communication plan for, and we can build those customer journeys to get them through to monetisation.

“Yes, they’re paying for academy products, but how do we get them to merchandise or get them to come out to India for IPL matches and buy premium tickets? That multiplier effect of where you first access the fan and then how broadly you can monetise them is huge.

“Currently about 75% of our income is from central revenue so we want to build up those ancillary streams and the big opportunity to do so is in global markets, as much as we can do it in India as well.”

While the organisation continues to make great strides off the field, all eyes will be on the XI led by newly-appointed captain Sanju Samson that takes the field for their opening game against Punjab Kings.

The Royals have also secured the services of Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara as Director of Cricket who will oversee the whole cricket structure and work closely with Samson.

“We’re on a journey,” Lush McCrum added. “Both Kumar and Sanju are new so we know we’re going to have to work and create a bubble and protection around them as this is a long-term project.

“But obviously at a minimum we’re looking to target the playoffs this year and hope to be competing for the title at the end of it.”

The 2021 IPL season begins in early April with defending champions Mumbai Indians taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening game in Chennai.