TL;DR The IPL has grown into a ₹12,000+ crore sports business, with income rising more than tenfold since 2013-14. In 2024-25, over 70% of total revenue came from media rights, showing that broadcasting and streaming deals drive the league’s finances. Despite rising costs, the IPL continues to generate large annual surpluses for the BCCI.

Context

The ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season continues to attract large audiences, major sponsorships, and intense fan interest; it also brings attention to the tournament’s scale as a business enterprise. Over the years, the IPL has become one of the most commercially successful sporting leagues, generating revenue through broadcasting rights, sponsorships, franchise fees, ticket sales, and digital partnerships. At the same time, organising the tournament involves significant spending on operations, logistics, prize money, marketing, and payments to teams and stakeholders. In this piece, we look at key trends related to the IPL’s revenue and expenditure, and how the league has grown into an important part of the finances of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Who compiles this data?
This data is compiled from figures published by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in its annual reports.

Where can I download clean & structured data related to BCCI’s revenue and expenses?

Clean, standardised, structured, and ready-to-use datasets on IPL’s Income and Expenditure are available on Dataful. The collection includes year-wise financial data of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), covering income, expenditure, cricket operations, media rights, and royalty earnings. It also includes the finances of the Indian Premier League, Women’s Premier League, tournaments, tours, and the National Cricket Academy.

Key Insights

• IPL income has grown more than tenfold over the last decade, from ₹1,195 crore in 2013-14 to a record ₹12,005 crore in 2024-25, showing the league’s expanding commercial value.

• Expenditure has increased alongside revenue, climbing from ₹860.87 crore to ₹6,892.73 crore during the same period, reflecting the larger scale of operations, payouts, and tournament costs.

• The league has remained strongly surplus-generating throughout, with income exceeding expenditure every year. In 2024-25, the gap stood at about ₹5,113 crore, far higher than the ₹334 crore surplus in 2013-14.

• Income and expenses increased significantly in 2018-19 and 2023-24 when new multi-billion-dollar TV and digital rights contracts began. Since the league shares half of this central revenue with the franchises, any spike in income automatically causes a matching spike in expenditure. For instance, when the new broadcast cycle began in 2023-24, Media Rights Income rose from ₹3,780 crore to ₹8,744 crore. As this central revenue is shared with teams, Payments to Franchisees also climbed sharply, increasing from ₹2,206 crore to ₹4,669 crore in the same season.

• The COVID-19 pandemic had a visible financial impact on IPL. Income declined from ₹4,165.46 crore in 2019-20 to ₹3,874.66 crore in 2020-21, while administrative expenses dropped to a multi-year low of ₹98.27 crore, likely due to restricted operations, lower travel costs, and scaled-down events.

• Data suggests that IPL is overwhelmingly a broadcast-led business rather than a ticket-led one. In 2024-25, playoff ticket sales contributed just ₹33.93 crore, less than 0.3% of the league’s income. Even the opening and closing ceremonies (₹42.89 crore) cost more than the revenue earned from playoff ticket sales.

• Headline figures like prize money are relatively small in the overall balance sheet. Total prize money in 2024-25 was ₹76.24 crore, only about 1.1% of total expenditure.

Why does it matter?

The IPL is no longer just a cricket tournament. It is one of the most valuable commercial sports properties in the world. Its finances shape the revenue position of the BCCI, fund payouts to franchises and state associations, and influence investments in Indian cricket. The data also shows how IPL, like the Super Bowl and English Premier League, increasingly depends on media and digital rights rather than ticket sales, changing how sports are monetised.

Key Numbers

• Total IPL income: ₹1,194.73 crore → ₹12,005.55 crore (2013-14 to 2024-25)

• Media rights income: ₹844.75 crore → ₹8,744.24 crore (72.8%)

• Annual surplus: ₹334 crore → ₹5,113 crore (2013-14 to 2024-25)

• Playoff ticket sales (2024-25): ₹33.93 crore (<0.3% of income)

• Prize money (2024-25): ₹76.24 crore (1.1% of expenditure)