The Rajasthan Royals close
Also in the newsletter: The exit, by the numbers and must-reads on sports business
Good evening,
In today’s edition, we trace the arc of Sunday, when the Rajasthan Royals’ $1.65 billion sale was finally sealed and made public. The State of Play has been following the events from the first whisper, when we wrote about early ownership talks in December 2025. Now that the deal is out in the open, and with the Rajasthan Royals as the unique franchise (ownership-wise!) they were until yesterday, it is worth sitting with how we landed here and what this outcome means for the investors who backed them.
Welcome to the Monday edition of The Left Field, a twice-weekly sports business newsletter from The State of Play. It drops into your inbox on Monday and Wednesday evenings (IST), always free to read. Think of it as a short, sharp desk briefing, written for a single sitting. The deeper dives and long reads still live at The State of Play every Friday.
On that note, here is today’s edition 👇🏽
The Signals
• Halla Bol, Mittal
On Sunday afternoon, the Rajasthan Royals said a consortium led by the Mittal family with Adar Poonawalla had agreed to buy the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise for $1.65 billion. On Friday, The State of Play was first to report the Mittal Poonawalla consortium’s binding offer for the franchise and its related assets.
The deal: Through their family office, the Mittals will own about 75 per cent. Poonawalla will take 18 per cent. Outgoing lead owner Manoj Badale and the approved existing investors will retain 7 per cent. The deal covers the IPL franchise and two overseas sister clubs, Paarl Royals in SA20 and Barbados Royals in the Caribbean Premier League.
The process: On March 24, reports suggested that a consortium led by Kal Somani had acquired the Royals for $1.63 billion. At that point, Somani had only signed an exclusivity agreement with the seller after his $1.55 billion bid edged out rivals. Somani, sources told The State of Play, was given a month to close after a formal show of funds. He received an extension. Once that exclusivity lapsed, he was on “borrowed time,” as one source put it.
The clincher: The Mittals were already in the Royals process and were the last serious bidders left after the Birla Blitzer group and the Times of India Group joined forces to buy Royal Challengers Bengaluru for $1.78 billion. They had bid between $1.1 and $1.2 billion, in line with a 75 per cent stake in RR and below the $1.3 billion ceiling set by bankers. Poonawalla was also circling RCB. As The State of Play reported, the two began working together at the tail end of the RCB process, when they made an unsuccessful last-minute fourth bid.
On Thursday, they joined hands again, this time with a firm $1.65 billion binding offer for the franchise, which ultimately prevailed.
What is next: The deal now awaits BCCI, CCI, and IPL Governing Council approval, expected in Q3 2026. The Royals will play out this season under Badale. The Mittal cricket era begins after that.
• The Royals exit, by the numbers
The 18-year cheque: In 2008, Lachlan Murdoch put $2.3 million into the Rajasthan Royals for a stake of nearly 13 per cent. On Sunday’s announced sale to the Mittal Poonawalla group at a $1.65 billion valuation, he walks away with about $214.5 million. That implies an exit of roughly 93.26 times his money over eighteen years. Among the IPL’s first-generation investments, the Murdoch return stands apart, an early-stage bet held through a league that grew into the world’s most valuable cricket property.
The five-year cheque: RedBird Capital Partners entered in 2021 at a $250 million valuation with a $37.5 million cheque for 15 per cent. Earlier this year, its drag-along rights forced the full sale that led to Sunday’s deal. RedBird could take home about $248 million, a 6.6 times return in five years on a cricket franchise. Stripped of context, that is the number institutional investors will stare at this week as they run the next round of IPL exits through their models.
The arbitrage cheque: American private equity firm Siguler Guff came in during August 2025 with $40 million for a sub-10 per cent stake. Nine months later, that figure is likely to more than double. The shortest hold of any investor in the deal leaves a lingering question. What did Siguler see in August that the rest of the market was still working out in October?
The Position
🏏No stopping: Cricket Australia will reportedly “test the market” by privatising three Big Bash League (BBL) teams—the Melbourne Renegades, the Perth Scorchers, and the Hobart Hurricanes—less than a week after putting its plans on hold. Queensland and New South Wales rejected the original proposal, which sought to sell stakes in all eight BBL teams.
💰Big money: Annual media rights revenues for UEFA’s men’s club competitions are set to climb past $5 billion from 2027, a 20% jump on current levels. The new slate of deals across America and Europe, managed by UC3, a joint venture between UEFA and European Football Clubs, brought in a total of $910 million, The Athletic reported.
🏀 Milestone: The Golden State Valkyries are the first WNBA franchise valued at $1 billion, according to CNBC. The expansion franchise, which debuted in 2025, is also the first women’s sports franchise anywhere to reach that mark.
The Stack
🏀Why is an F1 team making $485 golf clubs and is it a risk for Rose? (The Athletic)
⛳ ‘The math is never going to work’: Why sports investors view LIV Golf as a bad bet (The Athletic)
🚗Formula One Went Green – and It’s Driving Everyone Crazy (Wall Street Journal)
That’s about it for this Monday edition of The Left Field.