The Hundred Is An Overhyped Cricket Tournament
Lalit Modi analyses the real economic value of The Hundred and challenges the ECB's inflated franchise valuations on the Unofficial Partner podcast, with additional insights provided in this article.
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This newsletter is inspired by the recent
podcast featuring the 'Iconic' Lalit Modi, founder of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Modi appeared on the show to express his disagreement with the ECB’s plan to sell 49% of The Hundred and seek investors for its franchises, each valued at £150 million.I find this topic fascinating and agree with almost everything Modi said. As an Indian with cricket in my blood, having played and watched it since I was 7, I can’t help but support his points. From a fan’s perspective as well as a sports business professional, his arguments about the IPL—and how no league compares to it as an overall entertainment package—are deeply relatable.
According to Modi, the ECB's valuation and sale strategy for The Hundred don't make sense due to several limitations the league faces in the UK. These include challenges in sponsorship, commercial deals, and media rights. He also presented a Profit and Loss (P&L) analysis to demonstrate that the ECB's asking price is inflated.
However, I'd like to focus on other important factors discussed in the podcast and some additional ones which resonate with me as an Indian cricket fan, especially when comparing The Hundred to the IPL. Here are my top 6 reasons why I believe The Hundred will struggle to become a successful global format:
1. The Relevance of The Hundred
The Hundred is barely known outside the UK, even among avid cricket followers. In fact, it isn’t even that popular within the UK. While some might point to full stadiums at venues like The Oval or Edgbaston, it’s worth noting that, similar to the ICC T20 World Cup held in the US, a large portion of the audience is often composed of Indian and Pakistani immigrants. In the UK, apart from Test cricket, where the majority of the crowd is British, you’ll often see up to 70% of the audience being South Asian.
In contrast, Hundred’s popularity in the UK has been on the decline over the last three years, while the IPL has consistently grown its viewership. Traditionally, the English audience has been strong supporters of the Test format and great admirers of the One-Day International (ODI) format, but there isn’t a substantial fan base for the T100 format that The Hundred represents. Although we live in a fast-paced world where our attention span is equivalent to that of a goldfish when it comes to viewing and consuming content, hardly any average 16-24-year-old, let alone regular working-class people, would have watched a T100 game or attended one because there isn’t enough promotion or marketing to make the format exciting.
2. Indian Players Are the Real Draw
I couldn’t agree more when Modi said this format would need Indian players to make it global and reach new heights, but it’s an unrealistic expectation. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will never allow Indian players to participate in this league because Modi himself included a clause in 2007 when he established the IPL, that makes Indian players exclusive to the BCCI and IPL. That said, I’d rather watch Indian talent, both experienced and young, playing for domestic sides in the Ranji Trophy (a domestic Test league in India) when not playing in the IPL or representing India in ICC tournaments and regular cricket series.
It’s not just The Hundred—other leagues like the Big Bash in Australia, the PSL in Pakistan, or the CPL in the Caribbean don't come close to matching the IPL's festival-like atmosphere in India. Even though these leagues feature some top foreign players who also play in the IPL, they don’t attract the same level of viewership due to the absence of Indian stars who bring their own millions of followers. Modi’s analysis showed that The Hundred’s media rights, currently valued at $40 million, could potentially grow by 29%, but I doubt this will happen given the lack of global stars that truly make the sport international. This is why the IPL's media rights were sold to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 for over $6 billion, covering the period until 2027.
3. Financial Model for the Owners
Well, I’m no analyst at a PE or VC firm, but I understand Modi’s point when he said the IPL has a robust financial model, with no stadium costs and a cap on team expenses, making it debt-free and sustainable. That’s why so many new businesses like CVC, Torrent Group and Adani Group want to own an IPL franchise—the ROI is guaranteed, and existing owners spend tens of millions in each year’s auction to buy young and experienced talent. The Hundred, on the other hand, has to factor in significant infrastructure and marketing costs to build brand awareness, which could make it less financially viable.
Moreover, the ECB made £15 million in profit last year, but it’s unclear how much of that is reinvested into the growth of the sport or The Hundred itself. In contrast, the BCCI made over $100 billion from the IPL, keeping 50% of the revenue and investing 70-90% of it in grassroots development, infrastructure, and more. This reinvestment excites owners, as they can own a team without incurring losses. In fact, regardless of how much the IPL as a whole generates from sponsorships and media rights, the franchises themselves are money-making machines. For example, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have never won an IPL trophy, yet they have a global fan base and earn millions from merchandise sales, sponsorships, ticketing, and digital platforms. This is arguably due to star players like Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, but the name that has earned the team its most loyal and passionate fans is Virat Kohli.
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4. Bollywood x IPL = The Biggest Indian Festival
When the two biggest forms of entertainment in India collaborate, there’s no way this partnership will fade away. As a kid, when I saw that IPL owners included Shah Rukh Khan (the biggest star in the world, btw), Shilpa Shetty, Preity Zinta (in the picture below), alongside other business tycoons who were very relevant to us, it became an instant selling factor. Bollywood is the biggest entertainment industry in India, and when all the stars associate themselves with their favourite teams in any capacity, it drives more engagement and adds to the fan base of the franchises. Interestingly, IPL games are mostly played at 8 pm, which automatically makes it a family activity to watch the games, as families would typically watch reality TV during that time. This helps create more awareness about the tournament’s new trends and boosts engagement from all age groups.
Without this entertainment collaboration, the level of engagement will never match that of the IPL. Unfortunately, there’s a lack of English or American celebrities who follow English cricket or cricket in general, despite it being the second-biggest sport after football. As a result, new audiences won’t be drawn into the sport or its format. A good case study for anyone who doesn’t understand the impact Bollywood has on cricket is Taylor Swift’s example—when she shocked Swifties and NFL fans alike by attending a Kansas City Chiefs/Chicago Bears game in September 2023 to watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce play. With Swift's presence, the NFL achieved its highest regular-season female viewership since it started collecting that data in 2000. The NFL’s viewership saw a 53% spike among teenage girls, a 24% increase among women aged 18-24, and a 34% rise among women aged 35 and above. In total, Swift's presence led to an estimated increase of over 2 million female viewers.
5. Good for the Domestic Market, Not International
The IPL has the full backing and support of the BCCI, which provides it with credibility and resources. The Hundred, not being recognized by the ICC, lacks this institutional support, which could undermine its long-term viability. Moreover, I second to Modi's point that the success of a sports format depends on immediate acceptance or continuous relaunching, which The Hundred does not seem to have. This could be one of the reasons it might struggle to cater to international audiences. As mentioned earlier, it would require Indian players to participate in The Hundred for it to grow internationally, which will never happen, especially in key cricket-following countries like India, Australia, and South Africa. Since this isn’t likely, it would be more important to focus on the UK audience, where interest in the sport is actually developing.
For example, the women’s game has seen immense growth in England in recent year, and with Metro Bank’s partnership, investment in increasing girls' participation will bring more attention to the game. This will be crucial in making the Women’s Hundred more engaging. Featuring Indian women cricketers such as Smriti Mandana, Richa Sharma and Dipti Sharma for the first time in The Hundred, after the BCCI gave them the green light to participate, the tournament can now attract an Indian fanbase settled in the UK. This could potentially help increase viewership of the game in other countries, as women’s cricket is dominated by just a few nations across all formats. As a result, The Hundred could tap into other international cricket audiences.
6. Sports Streaming in the UK is a Headache
Lastly, if you want to watch sports in the UK, especially cricket and football, you might end up banging your head against the wall out of frustration due to the number of subscriptions you need to buy from different broadcasters for different formats of the game. There are so many companies competing for media rights, but none of them offer real value for the average person. With so many socio-economic issues in the country, especially the cost of living, unemployment, and pay disparity, a common person cannot afford multiple subscriptions to watch various sports.
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To address a similar situation in India, one thing Viacom18 did this year in the OTT space during the IPL that revolutionised the streaming industry was to offer a freemium model for all Indians. The games were available to watch for free on the Jio Cinema app and website (a Viacom18 platform) and added new levels of fan engagement through streaming to cater to Indians from various economic backgrounds. This not only helped them achieve record viewership numbers but also enabled them to win bids for other global tournaments beyond cricket. That’s another reason why the IPL is viewed by almost 1 billion people regularly—it's so accessible in today’s rapidly growing digital world.
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Always up for a conversation to discuss this topic in detail. Get in touch to have a chat about the positives or negatives of Modi’s points or my views.
Enjoy Listening and hope you have a good week at the Leaders!