PepsiCo India has signed a $12.5-million deal

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: PepsiCo India has signed a $12.5-million deal with Lalit Modi-promoted Indian Premier League for five years as the event’s official beverage partner. Sources said IPL is expected to sell more slots such as travel and hotel partners, but on a cost basis, the details of which are being worked out. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Rajeev Shukla confirmed PepsiCo’s association with IPL as beverage partner. PepsiCo India EVP marketing Sandeep Singh Arora maintained: “We are in negotiations with IPL towards the beverage sponsorship deal.” But a BCCI official said: “PepsiCo has acquired pouring rights for the IPL for $2.5 million per annum, for a five-year period.”

The money will be split among IPL’s eight franchisee owners of the Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Mohali, Jaipur and Hyderabad teams and not the IPL management. This is in contrast to all earlier IPL sponsorships, in which the IPL promoters have been beneficiaries of the deals. The move will strengthen PepsiCo’s association with cricket. PepsiCo has already committed about $60 million to the International Cricket Council (ICC) as one of its global sponsors for an eight-year period (2007-15). Unlike rival Coca-Cola, PepsiCo has associated itself with international and domestic cricket in a big way. Considering that the title sponsorship for IPL was bought by real estate major DLF for Rs 200 crore for a five-year term, PepsiCo’s pouring rights deal is big money. In addition, two-wheeler company Hero Honda has also signed up as a co-sponsor. IPL is looking at six co-sponsors, including Hero Honda. IPL is currently talking to players in categories such as insurance, telecom, banking, automobile and retail, all of which are expected to be closed next week.