GEPL Adds Two Teams, Sets Player Record in Season 3 Auction

JetSynthesys closed the player auction for the third season of its Global e-Cricket Premier League (GEPL), with eight franchises spending a combined ₹62.75 lakh on 56 players against a ₹64 lakh purse.

The top bid went to all-rounder Jetha Ram, whom the Mumbai Grizzlies bought for ₹3.5 lakh, the most any GEPL team has paid for a player in the league's three seasons.

Four players sold for more than ₹3 lakh. Sagar Aanjana went to the Pune Stallions for ₹3.4 lakh, and the Hyderabad Rhinos took Sachin Chavan for ₹3.3 lakh. Golden Kumar joined the new Kolkata Hawks for ₹3.1 lakh. The Bengaluru Badgers retained Soumyadipta Biswas for ₹2.7 lakh, the fifth-highest price. Four of the five changed teams this season, as franchises bid for proven players over holdovers from past rosters.

Each franchise kept one player before the auction and filled seven more slots, for a 64-player league. Season 3 adds two teams: the Kolkata Hawks, owned by singer Sonu Nigam, and the Gujarat Wolves, backed by esports creator Tanmay Singh, who streams as Scout. The league runs on Real Cricket, a mobile cricket game that JetSynthesys says has passed 400 million downloads.

Building Sustainable Careers in the Digital Economy

Rajan Navani, JetSynthesys's chairman, said the higher prices show e-cricket maturing as a format, and that the company built GEPL to create steady income for players rather than to run a one-off tournament. He said he wants to grow an India-based entertainment property that pairs technology with the country's interest in cricket.

Jogesh Lulla, the company's senior vice president of sports, said competitive gaming in India is moving from a hobby to a profession, and that franchise spending shows players can build longer careers through organized competition, much as they do in traditional sport.

Season 3 runs Aug. 1-9 at the Jairaj Sports & Convention Centre in Pune, with a ₹3.1 crore prize pool. Team owners include Sara Tendulkar, Suniel Shetty, Peyush Bansal and Nikhil Kamath. The second season drew more than 174 million broadcast impressions, according to the company. Star Sports and JioHotstar will carry the matches.