The craze for cricket is very high in India. This game is very popular from rural areas to big metro cities. Even among cricket events, IPL remains the most trending domestic label. This time before the start of IPL 2026, a deal caught everyone’s attention. That deal is related to last year’s IPL champion team RCB. The owner of RCBE has sold the franchise for Rs 16,600 crore. It has become the most expensive team of IPL to be sold with this amount. But do you know when the journey of this team started? What was its value in the beginning? Let us know about its entire journey in detail.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, one of the most popular and high-value franchises of IPL, has shown tremendous growth in 18 years. This team, which was purchased for Rs 455 crore in 2008, has now reached a value of around Rs 16,600 crore in 2026. It has become the most expensive franchise in IPL history. Before the start of IPL in 2008, when BCCI had sold 8 franchises, Kingfisher owner Vijay Mallya had bought Bengaluru for $ 111.60 million, or about Rs 455 crore at that time. Then this franchise became the second most expensive team after Mumbai Indians. However, after this, RCB had to wait till the 18th season for its first title, but the brand value of the franchise continued to increase and the result of this is that now such a high bid has been made for it.
Brand identity created by star players
RCB’s brand identity was created by its star players. Players like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle gave global recognition to the team. According to the reports of ESPNcricinfo and Forbes, Virat Kohli has been one of the biggest brand ambassadors of IPL, due to which the value of RCB continuously increased. However, RCB played the finals in 2009, 2011 and 2016, but could not win the title. Despite this, the brand value of the team did not decline. RCB has consistently been among the top valuable teams, due to its strong fan base and marketing strategy.
Change in ownership and corporate management
After Vijay Mallya’s financial crisis, the control of RCB passed to United Spirits Limited, which is a subsidiary of Diageo. According to reports, after this the team’s operations became more professional, which accelerated its commercial growth. Before IPL 2026, RCB has been bought by a consortium for $1.78 billion (about Rs 16,600 crore). This consortium includes Aditya Birla Group, The Times Group, Blackstone and Bolt Ventures. This deal is considered to be the biggest franchise sale in IPL history. Between 2008 and 2026, the value of RCB has increased almost 36 times. A team has transformed itself into a global sports brand on the basis of branding, digital engagement and fan connection.
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