'Business behind decision to buy team in 2008': Vijay Mallya makes stunning revelation about RCB

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) finally ended their 18-year title drought to emerge champions in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.

Though RCB are one of the league’s most popular and star-studded franchises, the coveted trophy eluded them for a long time.

The original owner of the franchise Vijay Mallya has made a stunning revelation about RCB in a recent podcast with entrepreneur Raj Shamani. Mallya made stunning revelation about RCB’s origin and about his decision to buy the team.

According to Mallya, during the inaugural team auction in 2008, he had his eyes on more than one franchise including Mumbai Indians.

"I was very impressed with the pitch that Lalit Modi made to the BCCI committee about this league. He called me one day and said ok, teams are going to be auctioned. Are you going to buy it? So, I bid from three franchises, and I lost Mumbai by a very small amount of money," said Mallya.

He eventually won the bid for Bengaluru, acquiring RCB for $112 million, which translated to approximately Rs 600–700 crore at the time the second-highest bid in the league.

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Mallya admitted that his motivation for entering the IPL wasn’t driven by love for the sport rather by business strategy. 

"My sole purpose behind buying RCB was to promote my whisky brand, Royal Challenge; there wasn’t any cricket love behind it," he said.

Mallya also picked his choice of players if he were to build an RCB squad from the current crop of Indian stars. Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant were his top choices for the RCB lineup in current context.