The Indian Premier League (IPL), which became a decacorn recently with a $10.9 billion valuation, was the country’s first unicorn in 2008 at $1.1 billion in valuation at inception, said an analysis by D&P Advisory, a leading provider of consulting, advisory and valuation services.

Titled ‘IPL-The Pioneer of Indian Unicorns’, the analysis considers the media rights, title sponsorship, and associate sponsorship values of the IPL ecosystem to predict its total value over the years prior to 2014.

“It should also be noted that this unicorn is the most profitable of all the startups out there. The IPL has been a game-changer for the Indian sports industry, and our analysis highlights its incredible success from the very beginning,” said D&P Advisory managing partner Santosh N.

D&P noted that the IPL’s broadcast rights fetched Rs 486 crore in 2008 while the title and associate sponsorship rights brought in another Rs 36 crore and Rs 48 crore, respectively.

Since then, there has been no looking back as the league’s valuation has scaled up on the back of higher broadcast and sponsorship fees payout every year, the consulting firm stated.

According to D&P analysis, the valuation of IPL surged to $1.7 billion in 2009 followed by $2.2 billion in 2010 when 60 matches were played. Beginning in 2011, when the number of matches increased to 74, the league’s valuation jumped to $2.7 billion.

To analyse IPL’s estimated value in 2008, D&P used IPL’s recent ecosystem values including those reported by third-party valuation firms and benchmarked the key metrics spread across multiple years to predict the ecosystem’s value every year from inception.In December, D&P had published a report stating that the IPL ecosystem value has zoomed 75% growth to touch $10.9 billion. In 2020, the company had pegged the IPL ecosystem value at $6.2 billion.

The surge in valuation happened on the back of a record media rights sale, which drew bids worth $6.2 billion from Disney Star and Viacom18. The media rights value presented a three-fold jump compared to the previous five-year cycle (2017-2022).

He also noted that the comparisons between the recently launched Women’s Premier League (WPL) and IPL should be made based on the latter’s valuation in 2008.

“It would be unreasonable to compare the expected current value of WPL with the current value of IPL. Comparing the WPL current valuation with the value of the IPL in 2007-08 would make more sense,” Santosh added.

He further highlighted that the WPL currently involves only five teams, whereas the IPL had eight teams initially.

“Also, the media rights and title rights for WPL are lower than the equivalent numbers for IPL at inception. This makes it difficult for the WPL to command a valuation like that of the IPL in 2008,” he said.

Santosh expects WPL to show steady growth in terms of viewership and fan engagement. “With the right strategies and investments, it could become a significantly more valuable property in the future.”

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