Rajasthan Royals Reportedly Up for Sale Ahead of IPL 2026, Following RCB: Reports

The 2025 IPL champions, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), are reportedly up for sale before the 2026 IPL season. According to Harsha Goenka, the elder brother of Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka, the 2008 IPL winners, Rajasthan Royals (RR), are also looking for new owners.

RCB and Rajasthan Royals Up for Sale Ahead of IPL 2026

Harsha wrote on X on Thursday evening: “I hear not one, but two IPL teams are now up for sale RCB and RR. It looks like people want to take advantage of the high value today. So, two teams for sale and 4–5 possible buyers! Who will buy them – from Pune, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, or even the USA?”

The Jaipur-based team, Rajasthan Royals, is mainly owned by the Royals Sports Group (Emerging Media Sporting Holdings Limited), which has a 65% share. Other smaller owners include Lachlan Murdoch and RedBird Capital Partners. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) is looking to sell for $2 billion.

On November 5, Diageo confirmed that it had started the process to sell RCB. Earlier, on October 1, Adar Poonawalla’s post on X hinted that the Bengaluru team might be up for sale. Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute of India (the world’s largest vaccine maker), comes from a family worth over $20 billion, according to Forbes.

In a stock exchange filing, Diageo and USL said they were making this announcement as part of SEBI rules. They also mentioned that the sale process is expected to finish by March 31, 2026. The Times of India reported that a group including Kamath, Pai, and Poonawalla may bid for the team. Forbes says Pai’s net worth is $2.8 billion, and Kamath’s is $2.5 billion. A 2022 Forbes report valued RCB at just over $1 billion, before their championship win this year. Its value is likely higher now.