Indian Premier League (IPL) continues to be associated with VIVO for now. IPL consistently mentioned the name of VIVO in the press release on February 11 that confirmed the list of 292 players out of 1097 players that had submitted applications for auction. The mini-auction for players is set to take place on February 18 in Chennai.
Earlier this week, reports emerged in Indian media that VIVO is going to terminate the contract with IPL and transfer the title sponsorship rights to Dream11 or Unacademy. Those reports did turn out to be premature as the IPL auction will have VIVO as the title sponsor and the complete event is likely to have the branding of the technology company.
There is still a good possibility that both organisations could part ways before the start of next season. Due to tensions between India and China, VIVO decided to back out from IPL 2020. The governing body of the IPL floated a tender for a single campaign. Dream11 managed to beat all competitors with a bid of Rs 222 crores, almost half of what VIVO was going to pay that season.
However, the contract of Dream11 with IPL ended on December 31 since it was a short-term deal. VIVO had signed a five-year deal worth Rs 2199 crores with IPL in 2019, so the technology brand is back to being the title sponsor for the 2021 campaign.
VIVO is likely to be associated with IPL until the governing body of the tournament floats a new tender that will see a new bidding war for title rights. There is also a possibility that VIVO transfers the title rights of IPL to another brand at the same value that they had agreed with IPL in 2019.
As of now, there is no point in concluding that VIVO will be the title sponsor of IPL 2021, let alone the long-term partner of the tournament. The picture regarding the title sponsor will be much clearer by March when the auction is done, and the trade window is closed.