Cricket
What are the other sporting interests of the new IPL team owners?
RPSG Ventures and CVC Capitals will own the new Lucknow and Ahmedabad based IPL teams respectively from the next season.
The biggest scoop of Monday in Indian sports was the announcement of two new Indian Premier League (IPL) teams and their owners. After a fiercely competitive bidding process, the RP-Sanjeev Goenka (RPSG) Ventures and Luxembourg based CVC Capital emerged victorious bagging Lucknow and Ahmedabad respectively.
While RPSG walked away with the Lucknow based side for a whopping INR. 7,090 crore, CVC capital will now own the Ahmedabad side at INR. 5625 crore.
If this is CVC's maiden foray into the IPL, the RPSG group owned the now-defunct Rising Pune Super Giants franchise during 2016 and 2017, when the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were undergoing a two-year ban.
But, did you know cricket is not the only sport RPSG and CVC have invested in? They have other sporting interests too. Read on to find out.
A private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is a well-established name in the world of sports. They are a major player in international sports and owned Formula 1 (F1) from 2006 to 2017. They also recently bought a 10% stake in the Spanish footballing league La Liga and also have their hands spread out to Premiership Rugby, Volleyball World, Six Nations Rugby and Pro 14 Rugby.
There are also rumours of CVC being interested in an investment of around USD. 600 million in a tennis group which would eventually merge Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) into one single entity.
While CVC is a major entity in international sports, the Lucknow based franchise owners RPSG are well-known sports investors in India.
Headed by Dr Sanjeev Goenka, the RPSG group first entered into sports in 2014 acquiring the Kolkata based football team Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) during the inaugural season of the Indian Super League (ISL). RPSG then purchased a majority stake in the iconic Mohun Bagan leading to a merge of both the footballing clubs into one as ATK Mohun Bagan.
Besides football and owning the Pune based team in IPL for two years, the RPSG group also owns the Kolkata based RPSG Mavericks Kolkata in the Ultimate Table Tennis League.
