Bowled Over by Opportunity: Why Investors are Pitching Up For Cricket

Cricket, with its increased global viewership and untapped international markets, represents a compelling proposition for global investors. It is therefore unsurprising that M&A activity in this field is picking up pace, as global investors pitch in for a slice of the game’s lucrative future.  

One such example is The Hundred, the England Cricket Board (the ECB)’s new flagship shorter format competition, the 2024 final of which has attracted over one million viewers across live and television audiences. The ECB initiated the process for securing private investment into the eight teams in The Hundred in September this year. It has since been reported that around 35 bids from a range of sources including private equity houses and international multi-sport investors have been shortlisted for the teams. 

A collaborative process

The ECB will need to finalise the investment and governance structure of the league and work closely with its members to finalise the nature of any investment and how proceeds will be distributed among the franchises, host counties, MCC and any grass-roots commitments. Given the nascent stage of the process, investors will need to work collaboratively with the franchises and the ECB to understand the cricket ecosystem and navigate implications of any newly implemented rules and regulations together.

Key questions for investors

Key questions will be around: the nature of the investment including the ownership stake available to investors, whether hosts will permit the sale only of a minority interest in their franchise, and what controls an investor will be able to exercise as a result. In terms of the commercial arrangements – how will the rights and commercial interests be divided between the ECB, the league and the teams? 

From a governance perspective, there will also be a number of questions for the ECB to consider. For example, commitments to future investment and  scheduling decisions (including competing formats such as Twenty20) in an already congested sporting calendar? Will there be an express or de facto ‘fit and proper’ test for owners of teams, lock-ups or other restrictions on transfers of ownership? How will the salary cap be applied and evolve to ensure that The Hundred can attract top UK and international talent whilst ensuring a level playing field between the large and small clubs and avoiding spiralling salary cost? These are interesting questions commonly faced when setting up the governance structure for a league, which the ECB and new investors will need to carefully navigate. 

Nonetheless, with the second round of the Hundred bidding process scheduled to follow soon,  an exciting new frontier lies ahead with immense opportunities for those investors ready to come in to bat in shaping the future of the competition – and of professional cricket itself.