PepsiCo signs deal with BCCI to be their associate sponsor
Beverage giants PepsiCo, which earlier pulled out as title sponsors of the Indian Premier League in October, is back in the Indian cricket with a bang. Recently, they entered into a four-year partnership with the Board of Control for Cricket in India as an associate sponsor for all its international matches at home.
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This deal would make Pepsico as BCCI's official partner for refreshment, snacks and drinks besides grounds where the firm will try to garner maximum visibility for their brands.
"This means Pepsi will get on-ground visibility. Additionally, we have all the pouring and snacking rights for all the matches for the next four years. Gatorade will be the performance drink for team India" said Mr. D. Shivakumar, Chairman and Chief executive officer of PepsiCo. India.
The announcement came four months after PepsiCo had withdrawn as title sponsor of the Indian Premier League by terminating a five year contract which was due to expire in 2017. It was believed that the decision to back out of such a lucrative deal was largely linked to the negative publicity that engulfed the tournament follwing the 2013 corruption scandal.
However, Mr. Shivakumar said, ”We clearly mentioned that time that we are not parting away with BCCI or cricket. We continue to be involved with IPL with some other franchise and that continues.”
“Pepsico which has been our long term partner are back on the board again as official associate sponsor," said BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur.
Names of two other associate sponsors to be announced soon
Thakur also mentioned that there would be two other official associate sponsors, from which the cricket body would get Rs. 150 crores for the next four years. He added that the names of the sponsors would be announced soon.
In July 2015, mobile payments and e-commerce company One97 Communications Ltd, which operates under the Paytm brand, won the title sponsorship rights for all cricket matches, domestic and international, played in India under the aegis of BCCI for four years in a deal worth Rs.203.28 crore.
So the addition of a major like PepsiCo is surely looking like a lucrative one and it’s going to boost BCCI’s revenues for sure. When asked about whether PepsiCo would sponsor the women’s cricket team, Mr. Shivakumar said they would look into that.
So with another huge sponsor in the kitty, BCCI is surely going right on its way to cement its status as the richest cricketing body of the world.