Indian Badminton League School Programme (IBLSP)

The Indian Badminton League and its commercial partner, Sporty Solutionz, have launched the Indian Badminton League School Programme (IBLSP) to promote badminton across India.

Under the programme, players such as Saina Nehwal, Pullela Gopichand, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, Parupalli Kashyap and PV Sindhu will be visiting 120 schools across India in six cities. The programme, called ‘Shuttle Express’, will offer an incentive of Rs. 10 lakh in prize money to the winners in both boys and girls single events, which will be held in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Lucknow and Pune. The finalists will also get the opportunity to train at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad.

Dabur, Sahara, PVP Ventures - Owners of IBL Teams!

Dabur India Limited has now ventured into badminton. The pharma giant has purchased the Pune based franchise (Pune Vijetas), one of six teams of the Indian Badminton League.

The base price for each team is Rs 6 crore. Sahara has bagged the Lucknow Warriors team, PVP Ventures had bought Hyderabad Hotshots. PVP Group is a Hyderabad-based multi business house that has interest in realty, media and entertainment and particularly Bollywood. PVP Group, which made an unsuccessful bid to buy IPL team Deccan Chargers, makes its debut in sports.

Owners of all six team to be announced soon

The owners of the six teams have been finalized however there is still a small glitch regarding one of the teams. IBA has received 29 bids and accepted six. While the documentation work for all the teams has been done, some last minute work with one of the franchises is left.

Broadcasting Rights

STAR Sports has bagged the broadcasting rights for the fortnight-long tournament and the players' auction will be held at the end of June. Initially Sony bid at Rs 1.1 crore, but later STAR came up with a better offer.