PCB sells PSL franchises’ commercial rights for $93 million

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday announced that the Pakistan Super League (PSL)’s commercial rights for franchises, title sponsorship and broadcast have been sold.

The franchise rights have been sold for $93 million. With Quetta, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad set to vie for glory in the first edition of the League, the franchise rights were awarded to successful bidders at the end of the bidding process.

The franchise rights for Quetta were sold to Omar Associates. The Karachi franchise was bought by Salman Iqbal, the CEO of ARY Group. The rights for Lahore’s franchise were awarded to Qatar Oil.

The franchise rights for Islamabad were sold to Leonine Global Sports where the Peshawar franchise rights were won by Javed Afridi, the CEO of Haier Group and a long-timer partner of Pakistan cricket.

In another successful development, one of Pakistan’s oldest and biggest banks, Habib Bank Limited has joined the PSL as title sponsor for the first three years of the League. As a result of this partnership, the League will now officially be known as the HBL Pakistan Super League.

“I am delighted with these positive developments and this is a major achievement in our PSL journey. The best part is that all team owners are ardent cricket fans and their dedication will make this league a success. HBL’s association with the PSL is another indication of established brands partnering with the League,” said Najam Sethi, the PSL Governing Council chairman.

Having reserved production rights to ensure international standard coverage, HBL PSL’s broadcast arrangements have also been finalised for the next three years.

The coverage will be produced by world leaders Sunset+Vine. Matches will be aired in Pakistan on Ten Sports and PTV Sports. Global TV rights for the same duration have been sold to Tech Front, a UAE-based media rights acquisition company.

Commenting on this development, Sethi said, “Having awarded production rights to Sunset+Vine, the next step is to ensure that we get the maximum number of eyeballs and I would like to welcome our media rights partners.” “The sale of all commercial rights – broadcast, franchise and sponsorship is perfectly in line with the League’s budgetary estimates,” he added.

The coach selection process for all five teams will take place in the next 10 days and the player draft event will take place by the end of December.

The first edition of the HBL PSL will take place from February 4 to 23, 2016 with matches taking place in Dubai and Sharjah.