ICC to go directly to players for gaming rights

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The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided not to involve the World Cricketers Association (WCA) in its targeted bid to create a mobile gaming platform and market it. Securing players' rights is vital to the ambitious project, and the ICC intends to acquire them through member boards, rather than through the players' union.

"A clear direction from the April (ICC Board meeting in Harare) meeting was that all players' rights for this project would be secured through the members. The ICC was not to contract player rights through a third party such as the World Cricketers Association," an ICC note, circulated among members who attended its recent Annual Conference in Singapore, states.

An important spillover - or rather, an additional dimension - to the issue is how to onboard retired players who are no longer under contract to their respective boards. Icon players like Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni are outside of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) fold, and any ICC online game without these legends would feel incomplete. The same applies to big retired players from other countries as well. The matter was discussed during the Singapore meeting and the ICC management has requested its board to form a working group to address such tricky issues.

The world body hopes to resolve all aspects of the project before its next meeting in October. "The aim is to have a preferred partner identified for approval at the October board meetings. (The ICC) management will be in touch with members shortly to formalise the licence of rights required for the mobile game. These agreements will need to be completed by October," the note states.

The global gaming industry is massive - both in terms of finance and cultural-societal significance. "It (mobile gaming in cricket) will be bigger than the movies," Sanjog Gupta, the newly appointed CEO of the ICC, reportedly explained to the members during the Singapore meeting. The ICC expects huge revenue from the project which will be distributed among the members.

"The global gaming market size was valued at USD 249.55 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to grow from USD 281.77 billion in 2023 to USD 665.77 billion by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 13.1% during the forecast period (2023-2030). Asia Pacific dominated the gaming market with a market share of 46.03% in 2022," Fortune Business Insights reported last year. According to PwC India, "the online gaming industry (in the country) is estimated to double to INR 66,000 crore by 2028, with the potential to create an additional 2 to 3 lakh jobs in the next few years."

After the Harare meeting, the ICC initiated an expression of interest process, and 15 respondents were then filtered based on their experience and expertise in creating world-class mobile games and the financial standing of their organisations.

Following the filtering process, the shortlisted organisations were sent an Invitation To Tender (ITT) document. The responses are expected in September. Evaluation of them, based on both technical and commercial criteria, will be done thereafter.

A&W Capital appointed consultant

The ICC has appointed A&W Capital as an independent consultant to help it design distribution and revenue generation models. The appointment followed a competitive request for proposals process in which seven organisations, including Deloitte, BCG, and Sports Five, responded. A&W Capital was eventually selected for its expertise with the Indian mobile gaming market and the cricket economy. The company, with offices in Mumbai and London, is expected to submit a report on independent valuation of the bundle of rights and distribution model(s) at the October board meetings.

As for the mobile game development management, an initial expression of interest document was publicly made available on the ICC website. The document asked the organisations to outline their relevant experience and expertise, financial standing, and how they plan to use the rights. Using this information, a shortlist was created of organisations qualified to receive the ITT.

"The shortlisted organisations will be requested to provide further details on the game such as what type of game they plan to make and how they plan to market and promote the game, which will form the first stage of the ITT evaluation and, if successful at the first stage, the management will then consider their commercial offer for securing the rights," the note says. The responses from the shortlisted organisations are expected by early September, by when the ICC will move to presentation, selection, and ultimately negotiation with the successful candidate.

Although the ICC has laid out the detailed roadmap, the general impression among members is that the project may take over a year for completion. A key element of the plan, according to the ICC management, is the formation of a small working group to assist it in making decisions.