Avram Glazer is the driving force behind the Manchester United owners’ attempts to add Royal Challengers Bengaluru or the Rajasthan Royals to their collection of sports teams
The Glazer family are once again trying to buy an Indian Premier League (IPL) side, with both Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the Rajasthan Royals in their sights. The Glazers already own one T20 franchise and are now reportedly vying for much bigger fish.
Avram Glazer is one of the owners of Manchester United and NFL franchise Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he also has a business interest in cricket. Glazer owns Desert Vipers, one of the franchises in the UAE’s ILT20 tournament, through his company Lancer Capital and has been keen to break into the Indian market for years.
He was unsuccessful in bidding for the two IPL expansion franchises, which became Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans, back in 2021. But the United owner remains undeterred and is now bidding for both RCB and the Royals.
According to State of Play, the Glazers have submitted an offer of around $1.8billion (£1.32bn) to buy Bengaluru, the current IPL champions in both the men’s and women’s competitions. That figure, submitted through New Orleans-based Lancer Capital, makes them one of the highest bidders out of nine competing parties.
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They are also in the running to buy Rajasthan, whose process is one step ahead of Bengaluru’s, with a second round approaching. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) rules don’t allow multi-franchise ownership, so, if they are successful, the Glazer family may have to choose between the two franchises.
The Cricket Monthly reported that the Glazers’ bids for the Ahmedabad and Lucknow franchises in 2021 were the lowest of all the contenders. The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group bought the Lucknow team after submitting an offer in excess of £686m, while the Titans went to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for £541m.
The Glazers seem eager not to miss out this time, with the IPL having gone from strength to strength commercially as the world ’s biggest and most lucrative T20 league.
It was also reported that Avram Glazer – the family member keenest on expanding into cricket – wanted to leverage the Manchester United brand in the sport. Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the son of the ruler of Dubai, tweeted in March 2022 that he’d met Avram and had discussed “the UAE T20 Cricket league’s launch in Jan 2023 featuring Manchester United cricket team & other teams.”
That idea didn’t get off the ground due to copyright issues, but the Glazers haven’t been deterred from pursuing cricket as an avenue. The IPL move isn’t the only reported consideration in India, either, with Indian cricket legend Sourav Ganguly revealing in 2022 that the Glazers had held talks about taking over Indian Super League side East Bengal.
The Glazer family has owned United since 2005 and have been extremely unpopular for the majority of that time. They sold a 26.2 per cent stake to Sir Jim Ratcliffe for £1.3bn in February 2024 and the British petrochemicals billionaire is now responsible for the day-to-day running of the Premier League side.
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Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.
