The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released its Invitation to Tender (ITT) for title sponsor rights for BCCI events on July 20, 2026, opening a fresh bidding window for one of Indian sport’s most valuable properties, but explicitly locking out every category that the crypto and Web3 ecosystem operates in.
According to the tender document, interested entities can purchase the ITT until August 4, 2026. The deadline for seeking clarifications has been set at August 5, and bid submissions must reach the board by August 13.
The tender document carries a non-refundable fee of Rs 1 lakh, excluding applicable Goods and Services Tax (GST). Indian entities will have to pay a total of Rs 1.18 lakh including GST, while foreign entities purchasing the document must pay $1,050. Participation, however, is restricted to entities registered in India. Individuals, unincorporated entities, consortiums, joint ventures and joint bidders will not be considered.
Crypto, Web3 and VDA Businesses Blocked Outright
The clause that concerns the digital asset industry the most is unambiguous. The BCCI has ruled that companies and their group entities engaged, directly or indirectly, in cryptocurrency trading, crypto exchanges, Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs), Web3 and tokenised products or services cannot bid for the title sponsor rights.
Online money gaming, real-money gaming and fantasy sports companies have also been shut out. The board has clarified that the restriction applies to any game or platform involving deposits, stakes, winnings, prizes or monetary returns, regardless of whether it is described as a game of skill or a game of chance.
Betting, gambling, odds, prediction, tipping and similar services fall under the same prohibition, along with alcohol, tobacco, pornography and products likely to offend public morals.
This is not a new posture from the cricket board. As reported by The Crypto Times last year, the BCCI had already barred crypto firms from bidding for Team India sponsorship in its previous Invitation of Expression of Interest (IEOI). The new ITT extends that stance to the wider basket of BCCI events.
Rs 100 Crore Threshold and the ‘Fit and Proper’ Test
Companies seeking to participate must have an average audited annual turnover of at least Rs 100 crore over the previous three years. Alternatively, they must have an average net worth of at least Rs 100 crore during the same period. The turnover or net worth of companies belonging to the same group may be considered while assessing whether a bidder meets the financial threshold.
Every bidder must additionally qualify as a “fit and proper person”. The BCCI has said it may consider criminal convictions, fraud, economic offences, conflicts of interest, wilful default status, integrity and reputation while examining bids.
The board has also anticipated attempts to circumvent the crypto and gaming restrictions. Companies operating across multiple categories, including alcohol or tobacco, may bid only through a non-prohibited brand category. Surrogate bidding or the use of alternative names, identities, brands or logos to bypass the restrictions has been expressly prohibited.
Three Categories Blocked Due to Existing Sponsors
Separately, the BCCI has blocked three categories from the fresh bidding process because of existing sponsorship arrangements, athleisure, performance wear and sports equipment, tyres, tubes and flaps, and paints, waterproofing and wallpapers. Only the existing BCCI sponsor in the relevant blocked category will be permitted to submit a bid from that segment.
The board has said no other category has been blocked purely because of an existing sponsor conflict for the new rights cycle, but it has reserved the right to add more restricted or blocked categories before the bid submission deadline.
Interested entities have been asked to email their payment confirmation and company details to the address specified by the BCCI. The board has also cautioned that purchasing the tender document will not automatically make a company eligible to bid.
The Contradiction the Rulebook Does Not Address
The tender’s crypto blackout also raises an uncomfortable question about internal consistency at Indian cricket’s governing body. The BCCI will not let a crypto exchange put its name on the board’s events, yet the head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team, Gautam Gambhir, whose salary is paid by the very same BCCI, continues to serve as the brand ambassador of Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX, a role he took on in November 2024 and one he has actively promoted on social media since.
The Crypto Times had earlier reported on how Gambhir was pulled up by users on X for an undisclosed CoinDCX promotion, where he defended crypto as an asset class embraced by “over two crore Indians”. That endorsement, coming from a full-time BCCI employee, sits awkwardly beside a tender document that treats the same asset class as unfit to be associated with Indian cricket at all.
This is not a comment on Gambhir the individual, whose personal commercial arrangements predate his coaching contract in most cases and are legally his own. It is a comment on the structure. If Virtual Digital Assets are considered unsuitable enough to be locked out of the title sponsor category alongside pornography, tobacco and gambling, it is worth asking why the same category is considered suitable for the face of the national men’s team to endorse.
Either crypto is a legitimate asset class that Indians can be invited to invest in through the words of a national coach, or it is a reputational risk severe enough to be walled off from every BCCI property. The board’s current position tries to hold both views at once.
Neither the BCCI nor CoinDCX has publicly addressed the overlap so far, and the tender document is silent on how endorsement contracts held by board employees are meant to be reconciled with the restrictions imposed on board sponsors.
Why This Matters for India’s Crypto Industry
The BCCI ban lands in a market that continues to sit at the top of the global crypto adoption charts even as its regulatory environment tightens. India has led the Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index for three consecutive years, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently pegged India’s annual crypto inflows at $340 billion, equivalent to roughly 9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Despite that adoption, India still does not have a comprehensive cryptocurrency law. Section 115BBH of the Income Tax Act imposes a flat 30% tax on VDA gains with no loss set-off, and Section 194S applies a 1% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) on qualifying transfers.
Crypto exchanges have been brought under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), with dozens of platforms registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU-IND) as reporting entities.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has repeatedly backed an outright prohibition on private crypto, while pushing the Digital Rupee, the country’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), for actual payments.
The cricket board’s decision also arrives against the backdrop of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025, which criminalised real-money online games and forced fantasy sports major Dream11 to walk away from its title sponsorship of the Indian men’s and women’s cricket teams in September 2025. That collapse had briefly opened the door for crypto exchanges to pitch for one of the most visible advertising slots in world sport, but the new ITT has now formally closed it.
For an industry that once bankrolled Indian Premier League (IPL) jerseys, digital boards and broadcast slots through exchanges such as CoinDCX and CoinSwitch, the BCCI’s latest tender is another reminder that access to Indian cricket’s audience, estimated to be the largest sports audience on the planet, will remain off limits until the country decides what it wants its crypto framework to look like.
As parliamentary panels continue to debate whether India should regulate, ban or partially recognise VDAs, the BCCI has made its position clear well before New Delhi does.
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