The Royal Challengers Bengaluru of cricket’s Indian Premier League is selling for about $1.78 billion to an investor group including Blackstone, marking the first sports investment for the world’s largest alternative asset manager. Also part of the consortium is David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures, as well as Indian conglomerates Aditya Birla Group and The Times of India Group.
The Royal Challengers sale includes both the men’s Indian Premier League franchise and the Women’s Premier League franchise, according to a statement from the new ownership group. Aryaman Vikram Birla, director of the Aditya Birla Group, will serve as chairman of the of the Royal Challengers’ franchise, while Satyan Gajwani, chairman of Times Internet, the digital arm of The Times of India, will be vice chairman. The deal still needs approval from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the IPL Governing Council and other regulators.
Diageo, the U.K.-based drinks giant and the team’s owner, put the Royal Challengers up for sale earlier this year. United Spirits, Diageo’s Indian subsidiary, tapped Citigroup to advise on the sale process that was expected to conclude this month, Sportico previously reported.
Gajwani said The Times of India Group has been building up its cricket assets for about 12 years. On the media side, the conglomerate owns Cricbuzz, a news site for cricket, and Willow TV, a leading cricket broadcaster in North America. Gajwani is also co-founder and an investor in Major League Cricket, the U.S. league that launched in 2023. Last year, he was part of a consortium of investors that acquired a 49% stake in London Spirit, a U.K. cricket franchise.
“All roads in cricket eventually point to IPL. The IPL is the mothership of private enterprise in cricket,” Gajwani told Sportico.
When the opportunity to invest in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru presented itself, it became a high priority, he said. Gajwani’s investor group put their first bid in on Jan. 16. On Tuesday, High Spirits announced it had won the process.
“We’re incredibly exited,” Gajwani said. “We have a really cool consortium, a mix of global sports talent, deep cricket expertise, very strong India industrial capability and razor sharp financial partners,” he said.
Gajwani declined to disclose ownership stakes. The four partners have “comparable ownership levels,” he said.
United Spirits put the Royal Challengers up for sale because it considered the team non-core to its “alcobev business.”
Blackstone, which has more than $1.3 trillion in assets, had previously been part of a consortium that won preliminary approval to invest in NFL teams in 2024 but later pulled out. Blackstone’s investment in the Royal Challengers is coming from its perpetual private equity strategy; these evergreen funds are designed for high-net-worth individual investors.
Also investing in the Royal Challengers is Bolt Ventures, the family office of long-time Blackstone senior executive David Blitzer, who recently served as chairman of Blackstone’s tactical opportunities group. Blitzer, who left Blackstone in late 2025, is considered one of the sports industry’s most prolific investors. As co-founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, he owns stakes in teams including the New Jersey Devils, the Washington Commanders, the Cleveland Guardians, the Philadelphia 76ers, Real Salt Lake and Crystal Palace FC.
Along with the Royal Challengers, the Rajasthan Royals are also seeking a buyer. Emerging Media Ventures, the sports investment platform, owns a majority stake in the Royals, while RedBird Capital Partners and Tiger Global have minority stakes. Raine Group is advising on the sale of the Rajasthan Royals.
An investor group led by entrepreneur Kal Somani and Rob Walton of the Walmart family—who also owns the NFL’s Denver Broncos—has emerged as leading bidder for the Rajasthan Royals, a person familiar with the situation said.
Matthew Wheeler of A&W Capital and Moelis’ Dan Zweben provided financial advice to the Royal Challengers’ buyers while Khaitan & Co supplied legal advice. Citi India acted as financial advisor to United Spirits while AZB & Partners was its attorney.
(This story has been updated with quotes from Gajwani and additional details about the deal.)
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.sportico.com ’
