BCCI invites expressions of interest in 3 categories of IPL partnership

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday invited expressions of interest (EoI) in three categories of a commercial partnership for the Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL).
Applicable for a minimum of three years, the categories for which the rights are up for grabs include an official partner, strategic time-out partner, and umpire partner. The official partner section has the maximum of six spots up for sale while the other two categories have one each.
The national governing body for cricket in India has issued an advisory stating that the deadline for submitting the EoI is January 17, till 5 pm. The BCCI will hold negotiations with interested parties until January 31. Interested (sports) marketing agencies can submit EoIs for any category, provided they fulfill the criteria reserved for them.

The participating agencies in the process must submit EOIs for at least three IPL official partnerships and each of the IPL strategic timeout and IPL umpire partnership rights.
They must also provide details of their overall experience in selling rights, similar to those of the BCCI is offering, outlining the strategy that they will follow for the same. Agencies making bids should have an annual turnover of at least Rs 500 million, as shown in its latest annual accounts for the financial year ended no earlier than December 31, 2016.
"The rights and also the relevant fees to be paid for the same will be discussed after the delivery of EoIs, with each third party having submitted an EoI. Third parties need not include any indicative level of fees for acquiring the rights in their EoIs, "the BCCI stated. The rights entail privileges such as the right to use the official IPL composite logo and commercial partner status in all communications, and first right of refusal on broadcast sponsorship in the product category.
Last year, the BCCI had held auctions for the rights to IPL title sponsorship. The media rights and the former went to Chinese handset maker Vivo for Rs 21.99 billion for five years while the media rights were picked up by Star India for Rs 163.4 billion - this too for five years.