Gigabuck Amazon vacates its IPL e-Auction table; Reliance, Star, Apple still hold the race

The much-awaited e-Auction of the Broadcasting & the Digital Streaming rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is slated to happen this weekend. This e-Auction will enable the Broadcasting & Digital Streaming Rights of the IPL for a 5-year cycle (2023-2027). 

Earlier in 2017, the IPL rights were bought by Star India for $2.55 billion, making it the costliest deal in cricket. Since then, the league has expanded from 8 Franchises to 10, with evaluations touching the sky.

The BCCI decided to hold an e-Auction which is a transparent process to determine the allocation of the rights through fair bidding & evaluations. Heavyweights such as Sony, Star India, Viacom, Amazon, Apple, Google, Zee, Facebook, etc., were expected to arrive at the table after picking up the initial tender documents.

With such gigantic companies lined up to be part of the IPL, the bidding prices are expected to be enormous, making the cash-rich Indian Premier League even richer.

Although, on 10th June, during the bidding valuations and screening process, it was reported that the E-commerce mammoth Amazon, which recently ventured into Live Sports Streaming, did not come to the table. 

Amazon walked out of the race and won't be part of the auction. However, through Prime Video, Amazon had bagged rights for New Zealand's tour earlier this year and had surprised viewers with its excellent quality of Broadcasting.

Surprisingly, even in 2017, Amazon had shown interest in being associated with IPL but had backed out in time. It is reported that Amazon did not want to lose out to Viacom18, whose streaming service Voot is in the fray for picking up heavy biddings at the auctions.

Similarly, Google was speculated to enter the bidding race, but the speculation did not reflect into reality. At the same time, Facebook stopped live streaming sports earlier this year. As a result, Facebook did not arrive for the completion of the e-Auction formalities and put a full stop to the rumours.