Goodbye Pepsi, hullo VIVO: BCCI swaps beverage for smartphone as IPL title sponsor

PepsiCo Inc. and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have amicably agreed to cut ties. Out goes Pepsi and in comes VIVO, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, as title sponsor the Indian Premiere League for the next 2 years at the minimum, according to various media reports.

Beverage company Pepsi had raised concerns about the way the Indian Premier League was being run. The decision of changing title sponsors was taken by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in a meeting held on Sunday, 18 October.

"There has been too much controversy in the IPL and the internal thought process is that the company doesn't want to re-bid for the title sponsorship," the Economic Times quoted a PepsiCo executive as saying.

There has been no statement from either Pepsi officials or the BCCI. For the period of 2013-2017, Pepsi had paid about Rs 400 crore for the title sponsorship but will now only remain as beverage sponsor of individual teams.