The education technology firm, BYJU’S has ascertained that it will not extend its contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to serve as the lead sponsor of the national team’s jerseys.
Since 2019, the Bangalore-based corporation has been a collaborator of the Indian cricket team, with its logo appearing on the front of the team’s shirts. After its initial contract expired in March 2022, BYJU’S renewed its agreement with the BCCI until the end of 2023 for a reported US$55 million fee in June. Divya Gokulnath, the co-founder of BYJU’s, has now told that the firm will not upgrade its alliance beyond March.
Nevertheless, the digital education platform has since reported a loss of more than INR 4,500 crores (US$547 million) for the fiscal year 2021, prompting the action to lay off approximately 2,500 employees in October. Gokulnath stated that the company now hopes to be lucrative by March 2024.
Many other major sports sponsorship deals seem so to be coming to an end as well for the education technology company. BYJU’S co-founder and CEO, Byjus Raveendran stated at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos that the business does not intend to extend its sponsorship agreements with the International Cricket Council (ICC), FIFA, or the BCCI.
Raveendran, said, “The biggest optimisation that you will see over the next few months is that you will see us significantly cutting down branding because we think we have achieved the kind of brand awareness which is required for the segment as well as for the company. So you will see us exiting some of those branding contracts.
“We won’t renew some of the partnerships. We have multiple partnerships with BCCI, ICC, and Fifa and by taking out these branding initiatives by not renewing them, that’s where you will see a lot of improvement.”
In response, the BCCI issued the following statement: ‘BCCI received an email from BYJU’S on November 4, 2022, requesting the termination of the association following the recently concluded T20 World Cup. As per our conversations with BYJU’S, we have asked them to maintain the current arrangement and the partnership at least until March 31, 2023.’