MUMBAI: BCCI has awarded the series sponsorship rights of all international cricket matches played in India to Bharti Airtel for the period 2010-2013.

The winning bid amount was Rs 33.3 million per match (Test, ODI, T20 International).

Airtel will, thus, have to cough out Rs 1.7 billion as 51 matches have been firmed up during this period, according to information available with Indiantelevision.com. There is a possibility that more matches will crop up.
 
The value of the sponsorship rights doesn‘t seem to have moved up. World Sport Group (WSG), which had the rights till March, was paying Rs. 31.5 million.

BCCI had called for fresh bids rather than extend WSG‘s contract.
 
The BCCI had set Rs 20 million per match as the floor price. The other bidders were telecom majors Idea Cellular, Micromax and Karbonn Mobiles.
 
Bharti Airtel, apart from the title sponsorship, will get to advertise its brand on the wickets as well as on in-stadia advertising space. It also gets the first rights of refusal for on-air advertising on Neo Cricket.

The deal allows Airtel to plan for the long term. "Telecom service providers are on an aggressive growth strategy. They want maximum visibility in order to attract customers and this is a good deal for Airtel at this price. You also have more competition in the telecom space," a sports marketing expert said.