After weeks of anticipation, it is finally official. Royal Challengers Bengaluru will have a new owner from IPL/WPL 2026 onwards. Dieageo, owner of the RCB men's and women's franchises, has already initiated the selling process and a tentative deadline of completion has also been mapped out.
As per the latest reports, the process of RCB's change in ownership is expected to be completed on or before 31st March 2026. In an official communication with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Wednesday (November 5), Dieageo had informed the development under the name of United Spirits Limited (USL), the Indian subsidary of Diageo.
The sports section of their investments come under the category of Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited (RCSPL) and Diageo has publicly announced a strategic review of their investments in RCBSL.
"USL is initiating a strategic review of the investment in its wholly owned subsidiary, RCSPL," read the official communication.
"RCSPL's business comprises ownership of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) franchise teams that participate in the men's Indian Premier League (IPL) and Women's Premier League (WPL) cricket tournaments hosted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) annually."
The inside chatter in the trade sectors is that Diageo have already finalised the buyer and that is why the tentative headline has also been dished out. However, whether the new buyer will have complete control over RCBSL or if it will be partial ownership, only time will tell. The official releases by Diageo are too complicated and have technical depth in language to be interpreted that easily.
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"RCSPL has been a valuable and strategic asset for USL. However, it is non-core to our alcobev business," said Praveen Someswar, Managing Director and CEO of USL.
"This step reinforces USL's and Diageo's commitment to continue reviewing their India enterprise portfolio to enable sustained delivery of long-term value to all stakeholders, while keeping RCSPL's best interests in mind."
One thing is for certain, RCB are set to have a new set of owners before WPL/IPL 2026 kicks-off and the only question is about how relevant Diageo will be to the franchise by then.