Rajasthan Royals, Champions of the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008 announced selling an equity stake to London based entrepreneur Raj Kundra and his partner, well known Bollywood celebrity, Shilpa Shetty.

Raj Kundra is the Chief Executive Officer of Essential General Trading LLC, a Dubai based international trading company dealing in precious metals, construction, mining and green renewable energy projects.

Shilpa Shetty is the Chief Executive Officer of S2 Global Productions Pvt Ltd., which is her home film production company. The announcement was made by Manoj Badale, Chairman and joint owner, Rajasthan Royals.

Says Manoj Badale - Chairman & Joint Owner, Rajasthan Royals, "It is our pleasure to welcome our new investors Mr. Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty to the Royals family.

The selling of this stake is part of our long-term strategic approach to make Rajasthan Royals a global cricket brand. Our objective is to support investment in key areas of player development infrastructure; positioning for acquisition of international acquisition and to also support continued investment in our playing staff."

The additional investment accrued from this stake sale will be deployed for acquiring cricket franchises overseas, especially in South Africa and Australia, as well as extending the Rajasthan Royals brand into other sports.

In addition, a part of the fund will also be used for recruiting players for Rajasthan Royals. The franchisee will also look at leveraging strategic opportunities for their players for more than just eight weeks a year.

Says Raj Kundra - Chief Executive Officer, Essential General Trading LLC, Dubai, "The benefits to us investing in this venture was to add to the already new found success of last year's underdogs who went on to become the Champions and to add the winning formula of Bollywood to create a true global cricket brand. I believe Shilpa Shetty getting involved would just complete Rajasthan Royals and will certainly add to its valuation."

Says Shilpa Shetty, Chief Executive Officer, S2 Global Productions Pvt. Ltd, "We've taken a strategic approach in investing in Rajasthan Royals. Cricket is not a sport in our country, it's a religion.

I am very passionate about Cricket and who better to invest in than the current reigning IPL champions. It completes the proven success story for an IPL team merging with Bollywood."

As part of their strategic development of the Rajasthan Royals brand, the franchisee has lined up a slew of initiatives and licensing and merchandising plans to enable their army of supporters to uniquely connect with the team and the brand.

Rajasthan Royals recently created and launched a five-tier Royals Army fan club membership programme by adopting global best practices and combined with elements that make the packages attractive for their community of fans both locally and globally.

The Royals Army membership programme has five fan categories, Maharaja Club, Captain's Club, Royal Lions Club, Royal Bugles Club and Young Royals Club, with membership fees ranging between Rs 2, 500 and Rs 1.5 lakh.

The benefits for the members include season tickets, autographed bats, official team jerseys, preferential access to tickets sold online and invitations to the season ending party.

Rajasthan Royals has also chalked out extensive licensing and merchandising plans that will cover not just India but also countries like US, UK and Australia where the team has a fan base.

To begin with, the franchisee also wears a new logo that has been undertaken in line with the key re-branding initiatives across the Royals brand for various aspects including the jersey and other merchandise.

The franchisee has been offering various products such as jerseys, practice T-shirts, bags, sporting goods, team caps and autographed bats as merchandise since the first season. This year, they have decided to get aggressive with its merchandising business and doing it on a much larger scale.

In a first move, it has already started selling its merchandise online through its official website. The prices for the various products range between Rs 1, 000 and Rs 1 lakh.

Going forward the company is looking at partnerships in different categories like FMCGs, linen and kids products. They would use Rajasthan Royals' branding to come out with product formulations.

Besides the sportswear, Rajasthan Royals is also planning to launch formal wear and children's products. The franchisee is in talks with many Indian and international brands to launch formal wear, including Jodhpuris and other apparels.

The franchise is also planning to come up with fan engagement contests in Rajasthan and Gujarat, and other activities such as cricket clinics and talents hunts, consumer activation programmes, and meet and greet cricketer and fan interactions in the near future.