The Global e-Cricket Premier League (GEPL) is poised to become the e-sports equivalent of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for cricket, according to Rajan Navani, Founder and CEO of digital entertainment and technology company JetSynthesys. The league debuted last year with all teams managed by JetSynthesys, but for its second season, it has begun onboarding franchise owners to back its teams.
The GEPL features the made-in-India simulation-based cricket game Real Cricket and has made strides since its inaugural season. Navani has secured joint ownership for the Bengaluru franchise with notable figures such as Nikhil Kamath, Co-founder of Zerodha, Ankit Nagori, Founder of Curefoods, and Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel.
“This is a set of new-age founder-owners. I think that’s a big difference. If you see, most of the leagues are corporate. New-age owners are builders of businesses. They are the builders of new ideas. And nobody has done it more successfully than these three people. Two in their own businesses and one which is the most successful venture fund. Also, it is for a city, which is the new-age capital, not only of India, but pretty much of the world,” Navani told Moneycontrol.
Navani is actively seeking owners for other franchises as well. “The Bengaluru team is the first to have owners. We might retain teams as JetSynthesys also. But our goal is to have all eight teams have eight franchise owners in this season (2). However, we have not announced whether we are doing six teams or eight teams this season,” he stated.
He anticipates that franchise owners will drive brand partnerships for the league. “In IPL, franchises like Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals have built a community. With a franchise owner coming in, there is a community and a city and that gets linked into the ecosystem. Also, the ability for brands to participate and attend to consumers increases manifold because not only will brands come in at the league level, they will come in at a team level, which changes the economy of the entire league,” he added.
Navani emphasized the role of franchise owners in enhancing community engagement: “Franchise owners build a community and a city and get linked into the league’s ecosystem. Also, the ability for brands to participate and attend to consumers increases manifold because not only will brands come in at the league level, but they will also come in at a team level, which in a way just changes the economy of the entire league.”
The first season of GEPL had 12 official partners, including Zebronics, AMD, Dell, and Flipkart. Navani expects sponsorships to increase this season: “We had several sponsors from different categories last year, and we expect the sponsorship this year to go up because last year was more a pilot for us to test with the brands. In addition, some of our team owners have very powerful brands and they might want to use their brands with their teams,” he explained.
As for the current landscape of esports, Navani noted that the first season featured eight teams, which aired on Sports 18 and streamed on JioCinema, achieving a cumulative multiplatform reach of over 70 million and viewership of over 1.1 million minutes. He remarked, “After cricket and kabaddi, e-sports is the most watched sport in India.”
The league also stands as the second esports property to feature on television, following the BGMS (Battlegrounds Mobile India Master series) on Star Sports channels.
Looking ahead, Navani is optimistic about the future of e-cricket. “We hope that simulated cricket will also make it to the esports Olympics. Then the world will not be competing only for the medal in cricket; they will also be competing for a medal in e-cricket,” he said.
As esports gains traction globally, Navani highlighted that the growing industry is estimated to be worth ₹1,400 crores this year, up from ₹1,200 crores last year. “Cricket becoming global thanks to the Olympics will let more people learn cricket rules and also push people to take a bat and go and play. We believe it will not only affect esports, but it will also help the game of cricket in the long term,” he concluded.
The GEPL aims to differentiate itself from other esports games by attracting a broader audience. “Whoever is viewing Real Cricket or viewing GEPL understands what a player is doing. In BGMI or in other games, if you’ve never played the game, you won’t know what players are doing. Even if you don’t play cricket, at least in India, everybody knows the sport. So that is a huge advantage for people who are just viewing the game,” Navani added.