If you thought the first two seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament were the ultimate cricket-meets-entertainment blockbusters, then you haven?t seen anything yet. The third season of IPL (IPL 3), starting on March 12, is set to be bigger and better with not just more matches, but with more razzmatazz and more mega bucks involved.

Not ready to rest on its laurels, the multi-billion-dollar money spinning brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in its third season is setting new records as one of the hottest properties, not just in India, but in the global sports marketing arena. IPL 3 is certainly getting bigger by the day with BCCI tapping every possible opportunity to get the eyeballs as well as the moolah. It has been raining deals this season, with IPL signing on new partners, and in the bargain, rewriting all rules of marketing.

It all started with the tie-up with internet giant Google for live streaming of all the IPL matches. With this, IPL cracked something that even the Super Bowl and the English Premier League couldn?t do. Besides watching the IPL tournament on television, Indian and global audiences can view the live streaming of matches on Google?s user generated content website YouTube. This is being considered a landmark deal as it will be the first time that Google will stream a match live. This one stroke is also expected to resolve the issue of distribution of the game to the global audiences.

At the time of signing the deal, IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi had said the deal marked a paradigm shift in the business of sports. And, indeed it was, as it takes the game to the markets where cricket is not too big such as the US, one of the biggest sports markets but where basketball and baseball have reigned supreme till now.

Says IPL CEO Sunder Raman, ?This is significant for us because we have covered the ground audience, the theatre audience, the television audience and now this will encompass all significant activities that fans around the world can catch on YouTube.?

For the record, sports management company World Sport Group (WSG) won the 10-year media rights for the IPL in 2008. While Multi Screen Media?s (MSM) sports and events channel SET Max is the official broadcast partner of the tournament. This year, Entertainment and Sports Direct (ESD), an investment advisory and private equity firm, has inked a nine-year deal with the IPL to showcase matches in cinema halls, stadia, water borne vessels, buses, trains, armed services establishments, hospitals, bars, hotels, restaurants, airports, railway stations, shopping malls, offices, construction sites, oil rigs, clubs, auditoriums, spas, salons and other similar public venues. ESD signed up with digital cinema venture UFO Moviez and Valuable Media for theatrical and public exhibition in India and key-global markets. In India, nearly 1000 cinema halls will be showing IPL matches.

IPL?s three-year licensing deal with Hindi general entertainment channel Colors is another indication of how the marketing geniuses at IPL are creating spin-offs from the game. The tie-up with the number one Hindi GEC immediately gives it a leg-up among television audiences, especially women viewers, the bedrock of GEC viewership. Industry sources estimate that the valuation of the deal is close to $130 million, 100% of which will go to the eight team owners. The channel will launch a series of entertainment shows not just during the IPL tournament, but throughout the year. To begin with, Colors will create around three or four entertainment shows around IPL including its action game show Fear Factor-Khatron Ke Khiladi IPL Special.

?This collaboration between Colors and IPL is solely an event for fans. We have been working on this for the last one year and with Colors coming on board, it gives IPL an extension to bring more entertainment properties for the cricket fans,? said Modi.

This smart move propels the IPL brand into a different trajectory, where it becomes a year-round brand instead of being restricted to a sports brand which comes alive only during the 45-day window when the tournament is held. The success of Ek Khiladi, Ek Haseena, a reality show aired on Colors last year had proved that the cricketer-Bollywood actor combo clicked with audiences and marketers alike, and IPL has been quick to capitalize on that.

Amongst all the buzz, IPL 3 is also addressing a top concern which has been on everyone?s mind from year one. How viable is the IPL business model for the eight team owners? How soon will they be able to break even? IPL 3 is ensuring just that. This year the team owners will have two new sources of revenue. Besides the money received through the deal with Colors, the teams will also share the spoils from the IPL- Red Partners deal. As the official IPL food concessionaire, Red Partners will be responsible for the entire food and beverage experience for IPL fans in the grandstands and within the IPL stadias across India. The minimum guarantee coming from Red Partners will be paid to the franchisees.

Marketers are clambering onto the IPL bandwagon sure of the success of this mega event. IPL broadcast partner MSM?s channel SET Max, has sold almost its entire inventory to its sponsors Vodafone, Videocon, LG, Samsung, PepsiCo, Godrej, Hyundai. Most of the big companies have upped their marketing outlays for the IPL. The main sponsors-?Videocon, Vodafone and Pepsi?have bought 10-second slots for Rs 5.25 lakh. During IPL2, these slots were sold for Rs3.5 lakh. Associate sponsors LG, Samsung, Godrej, among others, have bought slots for Rs 4.50 lakh to Rs 4.70 lakh per second and have been allotted 120-140 second per match. Last year SET Max had sold the remaining 10% floating inventory for the semi-final and the finals matches at Rs 8-9 lakh for a 10-second slot. This year advertisers are expected to pay 20% higher for the remaining 10% floating inventory. However, if players from Australia stay away from season three of the IPL then it will be difficult for SET Max to earn a premium on the floating inventory.

SET Max expects to collect revenues worth Rs 1800 crore from IPL 3, 50% higher than its revenues from IPL 2. Television viewership for IPL2 was 20% more than that in the inaugural season, resulting in SET Max increasing its revenues from IPL by 100%. HP has become the first company to bag a sponsorship deal with YouTube for IPL 3.

SET Max has already launched the first of its television campaigns to create a buzz around IPL3. With IPL coming back home to India after its second season at South Africa, the campaigns focus on homecoming with the players saying ?We missed you too?. The first commercial with Sourav Ganguly, the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, is already on air. The campaign has been devised this year by JWT.

?But we will focus on two other things with our partner Sony. One of it is going to be enhancing the experience of watching the match at the stadium. So there will be activities and campaigns built around the stadium and the fans who will be coming to the stadium. Second will be ?there is no bigger ticket than the IPL ticket?. Those are our key marketing campaigns which put our fans in the centre,? says Raman.

The IPL committee has done an extensive consumer research through its advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather to understand what is the experience of a fan inside the stadium is, gather some key insight from it and ?you will now start to see that in our communication,? explains Raman.

?In addition to these two marketing phases, we have Sony which is promoting it under the banner of Sare Jahan Se Achcha. So that will encompass the Indian population with ?IPL is here?,? he says. In addition, there are a couple of other initiatives to drive up the excitement, such as the screeing of IPL matches in theatres. Leveraging the banner of ?IPL Premiers?, ?it will essentially say you want to catch an IPL game, then go to the theatre nearest to you. That adds a significant marketing leg in nearly 750 theatres in India,? says Raman.

Coming home does have its advantages, and IPL 3 is certainly planning to score a home run.