The Google India arm of the global internet giant has extended a major sponsorship deal to cover the enthralling Indian Premier League (IPL) for Twenty20 franchise cricket.
The Google Search AI Mode platform, through its partnership with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), will therefore be the premier partner for IPL 2026, which starts tomorrow (March 28).
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The partnership will enable live broadcast of IPL integrated with analytics and statistics powered by Google’s AI technology.
Throughout the upcoming season, viewers of IPL games will see AI-powered insights in broadcast coverage, and when fans type an IPL-based question into the Google search engine, the same insights will also be found in Google Search.
Fans can also use Google’s AI mode to compare past matches and create AI-powered match summaries.
Devajit Saikia, Secretary, BCCI, said, “The IPL has always been at the heart of Indian cricket and this partnership with Google India to integrate AI modes into search will fundamentally change the fan experience. We are excited to bring rich, conversational insights to our millions of passionate fans.”
Other sponsors of this year’s league include Tata Group (title partner till 2028), RuPay, CEAT Tires, My11Circle and Wonder Cement.
Shekar Khosla, VP of Marketing, Google India, added: “With AI Mode in Search, we’re helping fans stay connected to the heart of the game like never before, continuing our commitment to bringing the best of Google AI to the world’s biggest sports moments.”
Regarding Google’s involvement with top-level cricket, we entered into an extensive partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC) in early February ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Google’s artificial intelligence brand Gemini served as the tournament’s official fan companion partner, and the Google Pixel series served as the official smartphone.
In fact, Gemini was already slated to become a partner for this year’s IPL before today’s news, through a January deal that was Google’s first deal with IPL.
According to a 2024 study published by Deloitte, India ranks first among countries in the Asia-Pacific region in the adoption of generative AI technologies, especially among younger demographics such as students and young professionals.
Elsewhere in sports, Google Cloud became a key partner of Formula E in late January.
The 2026 IPL will include 10 teams and will be held from March 28 to May 31.
