HBL PSL Set to Expand as Franchise Bidding for Two New Teams Takes Place in Islamabad

The bid for the two new franchises in the HBL Pakistan Super League will take place on Thursday, the 8th of January at the Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad. The bid ceremony will begin at 4.15pm. Furthermore, the bid ceremony will be live streamed on the official handles of the HBL PSL, the official YouTube Channels of the PCB, Tapmad, Tamasha, Myco, and the PCB Live. In addition to that, world famous singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan will be performing at the event after the end of the bid.

Before the onset of the bidding process, the winning teams of the Pakistan Shaheens squads, winning the Men’s Rising Stars Asia Cup 2025 trophies in the city of Doha, and the winning teams of the Hong Kong Super Sixes teams will be taken for a ceremony roll call to commemorate their success. A total of 10 technically qualified bidders will contend for two teams since the HBL PSL will increase from six to eight teams to mark the 11th and historic edition, meant to take action from 26 March to 3rd May 2026.

PSL Set to Expand as Franchise Bidding Takes Place in Islamabad

The bidders are a diverse pool of businesses, ranging from fields such as agrobusiness, telecommunication, real estate, a software firm from the United States, and Tech firms from Pakistan and abroad. The shortlist of the pool of cities to be potentially franchised includes Faisalabad, Gilgit, Hyderabad, Muzaffarabad, Rawalpindi, and Sialkot.

Two out of these six teams will soon become a household name to go with the already thrice champions Lahore Qalandars (2022, 2023, and 2025) and Islamabad United (2016, 2018, 2024), 2017 champions Peshawar Zalmi, 2019 champions Quetta Gladiators, 2020 champions Karachi Kings, and 2021 winners Multan Sultans. In the wake of the tremendous success of the two HBL PSL roadshow events in London and New York on 7th and 13th December 2025, respectively, 12 parties filed their bids for the two teams, but after a rigorous selection process, the following 10 bidders are all set to bid for the two teams through an open auction.