Pandemic that started before Indian Premier League 2020 season, bought several challenges. The impact of Covid19 wasn’t limited to life, but it also affected economy, businesses of different sector and sports industry too. As lockdown was imposed and number of Covid cases were increasing in mid-2020, the IPL was postponed later in the year.
By then, it was very difficult for IPL governing council and BCCI to find sponsors for the event as most the industries and companies were facing huge losses due to pandemic. The event, instead of April 2020, it started in August 2020 and the Cricket betting app, Dream 11 replaced the Chinese brand, Vivo and became the Title Sponsor. Even in IPL 2021, none of the Indian brand showed interest in being Title Sponsor and the Chinese mobile brand, Vivo was brought in back.
However, during both the IPL seasons in pandemic era, it was observed, that all the major cryptocurrency exchanges of India spent heavily on ads during IPL live matches. It’s important to note that in 2021, CoinDCX, WazirX, and CoinSwitch Kuber as well as other top crypto trading platforms, had collectively spent approximately Rs 90 crore on TV advertising for the IPL and T-20 World Cup. Out of these, a whopping Rs 40 crore was spent by Crypto exchanges in IPL 2021. India.
But this year, the scene is going to be different. The top cryptocurrency exchanges in India such as CoinDCX, WazirX, CoinSwitch Kuber, and many more, have collectively decided to not advertise in the forthcoming 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), three people familiar with the development said.
Nischal Shetty went on to say that the decision to not advertise during IPL was taken by the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), which has currently more than two dozen crypto exchanges and crypto-related companies as members. BACC is a part of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have gained a lot of traction in the last one year as a result of massive ad spending during sports events like the IPL and cricket World Cup. These advertisements have successfully increased the visibility and awareness of cryptocurrency as an asset class. According to Ashish Singhal, CEO and Co-founder, CoinSwitch Kuber, the platform’s registrations increased fourfold following the IPL campaign in 2021.
As the official title sponsor, CoinDCX has sponsored the inaugural ICC World Test Championship Final as well as several T20 cricket series, including the India-Sri Lanka T20I series. On the other hand, CoinSwitch Kuber is an associate sponsor for IPL on Disney+ Hotstar and is on SonyLiv for cricket tournaments.
