AB InBev, the maker of Budweiser, has signed a two-year global partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC), marking the brand’s first-ever association with cricket. The agreement, announced on Thursday, will cover all major ICC men’s and women’s tournaments across formats from 2026 to 2027.
Global slate of tournaments from 2026 to 2027
The partnership will be led in India by Budweiser 0.0, Budweiser’s no-alcohol beer, while AB InBev’s regional brands will activate in Europe and Africa. The deal spans the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka, the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 in the UK, the inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy 2027 in Sri Lanka, the ICC World Test Championship Final 2027 in England, and the ICC Men’s ODI Cricket World Cup 2027 across South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
AB InBev, which has previously sponsored the FIFA World Cup 2022 and the 2024 Summer Olympics, plans to build extensive experiential engagement around cricket. “We will be looking at activating this in many different ways,” said Kartikeya Sharma, president of AB InBev India. “This is a lot about the on-ground experience… beyond just the stadium into bars, people’s homes, into the community of content that people engage with online.”
ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta called the partnership “truly glocal”, noting its global scale and local relevance.
India strategy shifts from music to sport
In India, Budweiser’s consumer strategy has traditionally leaned on music-led partnerships such as Boiler Room, Lollapalooza India and the upcoming Rolling Loud India. Even its work with the NBA this year revolved around a music-driven event in Mumbai. Sharma said the brand initially used music to create a premium beer environment inside bars and lounges, but is now confident about entering a sport as scale-intensive as cricket.
The beer category has been under pressure this year. A prolonged monsoon cut into peak summer demand, while Karnataka, one of the country’s largest alcohol markets, saw multiple excise duty hikes. “Beer sales in Karnataka were down 20% year on year,” Sharma said. United Breweries, maker of Kingfisher, reported a 3% sales decline and a 65% drop in PAT in the September quarter.
ICC broadcaster turbulence not a concern for AB InBev
The partnership comes amid reports that JioStar is seeking to exit its India media rights deal for ICC matches, citing high costs. AB InBev, however, is unconcerned. “Not at all,” Sharma said at the press briefing, when asked whether broadcaster uncertainty worries the company. “We are coming in with a gigantic amount of optimism… everything syncs up at this point in time, and anything else happening in the media landscape may not be very perturbing.”
ICC CEO Gupta said the alliance aims to “create more moments of cheers, choice and celebration for cricket fans of legal drinking age all over the world.”
