IPL vs PSL: Find out all the differences between IPL and PSL by comparing the budget, brand value, prize money, revenue & trophy.
There are speculations that the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Pakistan Super League (PSL) will clash in 2025 due to the ICC Champions Trophy scheduled from February to March.
IPL and PSL are the top two most popular T20 Domestic leagues gravitating global mass media and fans from all over the world. Where IPL mostly takes place from March to May, Pakistan’s domestic T20 league PSL starts from February to March. However this year Pakistan will host the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and has to shift the Pakistan Super League time slot from February to May. This time shift leads to a clash between the IPL and PSL.
Both arch-rivals India and Pakistan have a huge fanbase for IPL and PSL from all around the world. There is an ongoing debate war of which T20 Tournament is better, IPL or PSL. Now that both leagues are supposed to schedule in the same month next year in 2025.
Let’s discuss the overall comparison between IPL vs PSL and see which league is better.
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IPL vs PSL Budget Comparison
IPL – The cash-ridge IPL or Indian Premier League was founded in 2008 by the BCCI and brought the sport and entertainment together. When it comes to budget, the BCCI has set the IPL on fire and made it one of the richest sports leagues in the world. In 2024, BCCI increased the IPL budget for each team upto ₹100 crores (1 billion rupees) in the IPL 2024 mini-auction. During the auction, there is no limit on the money that can be offered to a player. Aussie player Mitchell Starc became the most expensive player with INR 24.75 crore in IPL 2024. On the other hand, KL Rahul was retained by the Lucknow Super Giants for INR 17 crore and became the most expensive Indian player of IPL 2024.
PSL – The PSL (Pakistan Super League) had its inaugural season in 2016 after two failed attempts. PSL instantly became one of the most popular T20 domestic leagues in Asia. Unlike IPL, there is no budgeting system for the PSL teams. The whole league works on a draft system where teams can categorize players into Platinum, gold, Silver, and Emerging. Here are the PSL 2024 players’ salaries for different categories- Platinum (INR 2.30 crore), Diamond (INR 1.15 crore), Gold (INR 82.30 lakh), Silver (INR 41.15 lakh), and Emerging (INR 16.46 lakh).
From Babar Azam to Shaheen Afridi there are a total of 17 players in the Platinum category with a 2.30 crore salary which is not only low in comparison to IPL’s most expensive player Mitchell Starc but many uncapped players like Sameer Rizvi (INR 8.4 crore), Shubam Dubey (INR 5.8 crore).
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IPL vs PSL Prize Money
With an INR 20 crore winner prize money tag, IPL is continuing its reign as the richest franchise league tournament. For IPL 2024, BCCI has distributed INR 46.5 crore among the winners, runners-up, top-performing teams and players. The IPL 2024 champion KKR won INR 20 crore, and their runner-up SRH secured INR 13 crore. Whereas Rajasthan Royals received INR 7 crore and Royal Challengers Bengaluru received 6.5 crore for securing the 3rd and 4th place respectively.
Compared to the PSL 2024 prize money, the winner Islamabad United received INR 4.13 crore whereas the runners-up Multan Sultans went home with INR 1.65 crore. Even the total PSL 2024 prize money is less than the WPL 2024 winners RCB who received INR 6 crore.
IPL vs PSL Brand Value
The difference between IPL and PSL brand value can be calculated with their international Media rights deal. Looking at the recent media rights deals, there is a huge financial gap between IPL and PSL.
The media rights value for IPL for five seasons is $6.2 billion (INR 51000 crore approx) from 2022 to 2027 bought by Star Sports network. Due to worldwide popularity, Bollywood glitz, and glamor, IPL has a colossal brand value of $10.7 billion (Rs 88,000 crore).
On the other side, PSL made significant progress and sold their media rights deal worth $6.3 billion (Rs 52000 crore approx.) for 2024 and 2025. Despite the noteworthy development in media rights, PSL’s estimated brand value is $330 million (INR 2700 crore approx.)
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IPL vs PSL Revenue
According to the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board), PSL made over INR 5 billion in revenue for the 2023 edition which comes from the various broadcast media rights deals, brand sponsorship, and other related rights.
On the other side, IPL revenue has been increasing by 6.5% year-on-year to $16.4 billion in 2024. The most important role played in IPL revenue is the huge media rights deal with Disney Star, Viacom18, and Tata Sons. Plus each IPL franchise has an estimated brand value on its own. The Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and Kolkata Knight Riders acquire IPL franchises among the other teams.
IPL vs PSL Trophies and Awards
Apart from winners and runners-up, IPL has many individual awards and trophies for the best players at the end of the tournament. Like the IPL Orange Cap for the most run scorer and IPL Purple Cap for the most wicket takers. Then there is the Most Valuable Player for the uncapped Indian player with the best performance throughout the season. The prize money for all three awards is INR 10 Lakh for each.
PSL also distributes various awards at the end of the tournament. For the PSL 2024 Player of the Match received approx INR 1.50 lakh. And then there is a staggering INR 14.86 lakhs prize money set for Batter of the Tournament, Bowler of the Tournament, Player of the Tournament, All-rounder of the Tournament, Fielder of the Tournament, Emerging Player of the Tournament.
PSL’s emerging player of the tournament, which is equivalent to Most Valuable Player, has a bigger reward than the Indian Premier League.
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Conclusion
Although PSL has increased its substantial value including its broadcasting media rights, promotion, and sponsorship, there is no comparison to BCCI’s Indian Premier League. The IPL is the spearhead of the T20 domestic leagues all around the world with millions of fans following across the nations. It is one of the revolutionized T20 domestic leagues that galvanized sports and entertainment, mixing it so well for cricket fans in India as well as overseas.
