Premier Badminton League

Premier Badminton League

Most recent season or competition: 2020 Premier Badminton League
Formerly	Indian Badminton League
Sport	Badminton
Founded	2016
Administrator	Badminton Association of India
No. of teams	9
Country	India
Most recent champion(s)	Bengaluru Raptors (2020)
Most titles	Bengaluru Raptors (2018–19, 2020)
Broadcaster(s)	List of broadcasters
Streaming partner(s)	JioCinema
Sponsor(s)	Star Sports
Tournament format	Round-robin Knock-out
Official website	pbl-india.com

Premier Badminton League, aka PBL, is a team badminton league operating in India. It was launched in 2016 and is one of the top badminton leagues in the world. ^[1] It features nine state or city-based franchise teams and the top Indian and international badminton talent. The league has reached an audience of more than 100 million through television, on-ground support, and social media. The league has hosted 5 seasons. ^[2] In 2025, the Badminton Association of India revealed their plans to restart the league with a new name and a different format. ^[3]

The first season of PBL was held from 2 to 17 January 2016. Delhi Dashers, formerly Delhi Acers, defeated Mumbai Rockets in the final to clinch the title. The second season began on 22 December 2016 and came to end on 14 January 2017 with the Chennai Smashers headed by P. V. Sindhu clinching the title in the finals. The third season began on 23 December 2017 and came to end on 14 January 2018 with Hyderabad Hunters headed by Carolina Marín emerging as the champions. Bengaluru Raptors won the last two editions in 2018-19 and 2020, becoming the only team to win the title twice.

Background

Tournament format

Teams play each other in round-robin format in league stage. Each team plays six ties in the league stage in which each tie consists of five matches. The matches played are two Men's singles, Women's singles, Men's doubles and Mixed doubles. Each of these matches are best of 3 games. ^[4] Teams earn one point for each regular match win; in addition, each team must choose a Trump match, where a win is worth two points, and a loss subtracts one point. ^[5] After league stage, the top four teams in the table will qualify for the knockout stage. The winners of semi-finals goes into the final, in which the winner will be crowned the PBL champions.

Player auctions

The player auctions are usually held at the end of each year for the subsequent season. Professional players from around the world enter the bidding where teams buy them. ^[6] The league has helped players more than double their annual earnings from prize money in the year 2018. ^[7] As per Danish player Victor Axelsen, this was a crucial part of their annual income. ^[8] Each franchise has a purse of ₹2 crore (US$240,000) and the maximum a team can spend on a single player was ₹77 lakh (US$91,000) in the most recent 2020 auction. ^[9]

Fifth Season

The fifth season auctions were held on 26 November 2019 in New Delhi. ^[10] Each franchise had a purse of ₹2 crore (US$240,000), and were not allowed to spend more than ₹77 lakh (US$91,000) on a single player. ^{[9] [10]} The highest paid players were the Taiwanese Tai Tzu-ying and Indian P. V. Sindhu, both sold for the maximum amount of ₹77 lakh (US$91,000) to Bengaluru Raptors and Hyderabad Hunters respectively. Indian doubles player Satwiksairaj Rankireddy was the next highest, bought for ₹62 lakh (US$73,000) by Chennai Superstarz. ^[11]

2020 being the Olympic year, key players like Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Carolina Marín, Victor Axelsen and others have decided to skip the season. ^{[12] [13]}

Some of the players were traded between Mumbai, Chennai and Pune teams ahead of the season. ^[14]

Teams

Currently seven teams compete in the badminton league. ^[15] Previously, there were nine teams, during 2018–19. ^{[16] [15] [11] [14]}

Awadhe Warriors

Mumbai Rockets

Bengaluru Raptors

Pune 7 Aces

Chennai Superstarz

Hyderabad Hunters

Northeastern Warriors

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Locations of the seven PBL teams

Team		City	Highest Paid Male	Highest Paid Female	Home Ground
	Hyderabad Hunters	Hyderabad	Sourabh Verma	P. V. Sindhu	Gachibowli Indoor Stadium
	Bengaluru Raptors	Bangalore	B. Sai Praneeth	Tai Tzu-ying	Koramangala Indoor Stadium
	Awadhe Warriors	Lucknow	Ko Sung-hyun	Beiwen Zhang	Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium
	Mumbai Rockets	Mumbai	Kim Gi-jung	Pia Zebadiah Bernadet	Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium
	Chennai Superstarz	Chennai	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy	Jessica Pugh	Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium
	Northeastern Warriors	Guwahati	Lee Cheuk Yiu	Kim Ha-na	Karmabir Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor Stadium
	Pune 7 Aces	Pune	Hendra Setiawan	Gabby Adcock	Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex

Seasons

Season 1

Main article: 2016 Premier Badminton League

In 2016, the league was renamed from Indian Badminton League to Premier Badminton League, and still followed same format. This first season of the PBL started on 2 January 2016 and concluded on 17 January 2016. The four teams to proceed to the semi-finals were Delhi Dashers, Chennai Smashers, Awadhe Warriors and Mumbai Rockets. Delhi beat Chennai 4-3 and Mumbai Rockets beat Awadhe Warriors 3–1 to proceed to the final. Delhi Dashers won the tournament after beating Mumbai Rockets 4–3.

Season 2

Main article: 2017 Premier Badminton League

The second season of the Premier Badminton League started on 1 January 2017 and concluded on 14 January 2017. It followed the same format as the earlier league, and the four teams to proceed to the semi-finals were Awadhe Warriors, Mumbai Rockets, Chennai Smashers and Hyderabad Hunters. Chennai Smashers beat Awadhe Warriors 4-1 and Mumbai Rockets beat Hyderabad Hunters 3-(-1) to proceed to the final. Chennai Smashers won the tournament after beating Mumbai Rockets 4–3.

Season 3

Main article: 2017–18 Premier Badminton League

The third season of the PBL started on 23 December 2017 and concluded on 14 January 2018. Hyderabad Hunters were crowned the champions after they beat Bengaluru Blasters 4–3 in the final tie.

Season 4

Main article: 2018–19 Premier Badminton League

The fourth season of the PBL was played from 22 December 2018 to 13 January 2019. In the fourth season Bengaluru Raptors took their first title after beating Mumbai Rockets in the final.

Season 5

Main article: 2020 Premier Badminton League

The fifth season of the PBL started on 20 January 2020 and concluded on 9 February 2020. Seven teams participated in the season. Delhi Dashers and Ahmedabad Smash Masters did not participate in this edition. Total prize money of ₹6 crore (equivalent to ₹7.1 croreorUS$840,000 in 2023) was announced by Sportzlive for the tournament. ^[17] Bengaluru Raptors beat Northeastern Warriors 4–2 in the finals to win their second title. It was also their second consecutive title in PBL.

Editions and results

Five seasons of Premier Badminton League have been played since the first season back in 2016. Here are the results. ^[18]

Season	Year(s)	Final			Venue	Teams
		Winner	Result	Runner-up
1	2016 Details	Delhi Acers	4–3	Mumbai Rockets	DDA Badminton and Squash Stadium, New Delhi	6
2	2017 Details	Chennai Smashers	4–3	Mumbai Rockets	DDA Badminton and Squash Stadium, New Delhi	6
3	2017–18 Details	Hyderabad Hunters	4–3	Bengaluru Blasters	Kanteerava Indoor Stadium, Bangalore	8
4	2018–19 Details	Bengaluru Raptors	4–3	Mumbai Rockets	Kanteerava Indoor Stadium, Bangalore	9
5	2020 Details	Bengaluru Raptors	4–2	Northeastern Warriors	Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad	7

Performance table

Seasons	Season 1	Season 2	Season 3	Season 4	Season 5
Teams	6	6	8	9	7
Hyderabad Hunters	5th	SF	1st	SF	6th
Bengaluru Raptors	6th	5th	2nd	1st	1st
Awadhe Warriors	SF	SF	5th	SF	5th
Mumbai Rockets	2nd	2nd	8th	2nd	7th
Chennai Superstarz	SF	1st	6th	6th	SF
Northeastern Warriors	DNE		7th	8th	2nd
Pune 7 Aces	DNE			5th	SF
Delhi Dashers	1st	6th	SF	9th	DEF
Ahmedabad Smash Masters †	DNE		SF	7th	DEF

1st	Champions
2nd	Runner-up
SF	Semi-finalists
DNE	Team did not exist in the respective season
DEF	Team defunct
†	Teams that no longer exist

Notes

• Bengaluru Raptors was formerly Bengaluru Top Guns and Bengaluru Blasters.
• Chennai Superstarz was formerly Chennai Smashers.
• Delhi Dashers was formerly Delhi Acers.

Team squad

Season 1

Delhi Acers	Hyderabad Hunters	Mumbai Rockets	Awadhe Warriors	Bengaluru Blasters	Chennai Smashers
Ajay Jayaram	Siril Verma	Prannoy Kumar	B. Sai Praneeth	Anand Pawar	Brice Leverdez
Rajiv Ouseph	Parupalli Kashyap	Gurusai Dutt	Sourabh Verma	Sameer Verma	Sony Dwi Kuncoro
Tommy Sugiarto	Lee Chong Wei	Ruthvika Gadde	Tanongsak	Srikanth Kidambi	Simon Santoso
P. C. Thulasi	Supanida Katethong	Han Li	Saina Nehwal	Suo Di	P.V. Sindhu
Shikha Gautam	K. Nandagopal	Liu Zi Jie	Vrushali Gummadi	B. Sumeeth Reddy	Sri Krishna Priya
Akshay Dewalkar	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy	Manu Attri	Cai Yun	Tan Boon Heong	Pranav Chopra
Koo Kien Keat	Markis Kido	Chayut Triyachart	Hendra Gunawan	Koo Kien Keat	Chris Adcock
Tan Boon Heong	Carsten Mogensen	Vladimir Ivanov	Bodin Isara	Joachim Fischer Nielsen	Toby Ng
Aparna Balan	Jwala Gutta	Mathias Boe	K. Maneesha	Robert Blair	N. Sikki Reddy
Gabby Adcock	J. Meghana	Kamilla Rytter Juhl	Christinna Pedersen	Ashwini Ponnappa	Pia Zebadiah Bernadet

Season 2

Delhi Acers	Awadhe Warriors	Mumbai Rockets	Hyderabad Hunters	Bengaluru Blasters	Chennai Smashers
Jan Ø. Jørgensen	Srikanth Kidambi	Ajay Jayaram	B. Sai Praneeth	Viktor Axelsen	P. V. Sindhu
Siril Verma	Wong Wing Ki	Prannoy Kumar	Sameer Verma	Sourabh Varma	Arundhati Pantawane
Son Wan-ho	Saina Nehwal	Shreyansh Jaiswal	Rajiv Ouseph	Boonsak Ponsana	Parupalli Kashyap
Aakarshi Kashyap	Rituparna Das	Sung Ji-hyun	Carolina Marín	Gadde Ruthvika Shivani	Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk
Nitchaon Jindapol	Bodin Isara	Vrushali Gummadi	Sri Krishna Priya	Cheung Ngan Yi	Tommy Sugiarto
Akshay Dewalkar	Goh V Shem	Nipitphon Phuangphuapet	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy	N. Sikki Reddy	Gabby Adcock
Ivan Sozonov	Markis Kido	Mohita Sahdev	Tan Boon Heong	Ashwini Ponnappa	Ramya Tulasi
Vladimir Ivanov	Prajakta Sawant	Nadieżda Zięba	Tan Wee Kiong	Pranav Chopra	B. Sumeeth Reddy
Jwala Gutta	Savitree Amitrapai	Chirag Shetty	Chau Hoi Wah	Ko Sung-hyun	Chris Adcock
K. Maneesha	Aditya Joshi	Lee Yong-dae	Meghana Jakkampudi	Yoo Yeon-seong	Mads Pieler Kolding
		Sanjana Santosh
		Tarun Kona

Season 3

Ahmedabad Smash Masters	Awadhe Warriors	Bengaluru Blasters	Chennai Smashers
H. S. Prannoy	Saina Nehwal	Viktor Axelsen	P. V. Sindhu
K. Nandagopal	Christinna Pedersen	Chong Wei Feng	Aditya Joshi
Kamilla Rytter Juhl	Harshit Aggarwal	Kim Sa-rang	B. Sumeeth Reddy
Tai Tzu-ying	Hendra Setiawan	Kirsty Gilmour	Brice Leverdez
Lee Chun Hei	Srikanth Kidambi	Manu Attri	Chris Adcock
Siril Verma	Mahima Aggarwal	Mathias Boe	Daniel Farid
Sourabh Varma	Or Chin Chung	N. Sikki Reddy	Gabby Adcock
Sri Krishna Priya	Parupalli Kashyap	Rituparna Das	Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk
Stefani Stoeva	Sai Uttejita Rao Chukka	Sanjana Santosh	Vrushali Gummadi
Law Cheuk Him	Tang Chun Man	Subhankar Dey	Lee Yang
Delhi Dashers	Hyderabad Hunters	Mumbai Rockets	North Eastern Warriors
Sung Ji-hyun	Carolina Marín	Son Wan-ho	Wang Tzu-wei
Arathi Sara Sunil	Anoushka Parikh	Arjun M.R.	Ajay Jayaram
Ashwini Ponnappa	B. Sai Praneeth	Zhang Beiwen	Chirag Shetty
Ivan Sozonov	Lee Hyun-il	Tan Boon Heong	Gadde Ruthvika Shivani
Pranav Chopra	Markis Kido	Gabriela Stoeva	Kim Gi-jung
Gurusai Dutt	Pia Zebadiah Bernadet	Tarun Kona	Michelle Li
Shreyanshi Pardeshi	Rahul Yadav Chittaboina	Kuhoo Garg	Prajakta Sawant
Tian Houwei	Rasika Raje	Lee Yong-dae	Pratul Joshi
Vladimir Ivanov	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy	Sameer Verma	Sanyogita Ghorpade
Wong Wing Ki	Yoo Yeon-seong	Sanyam Shukla	Shin Baek-cheol

Season 4

Ahmedabad Smash Masters	Awadhe Warriors	Bengaluru Raptors
Viktor Axelsen	Son Wan-ho	Srikanth Kidambi
Anoushka Parikh	Ashwini Ponnappa	Mohammad Ahsan
N. Sikki Reddy	Mathias Christiansen	Hendra Setiawan
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy	Lee Yang	B. Sai Praneeth
Lee Chun Hei	Zhang Beiwen	Mithun Manjunath
K. Nandagopal	Lee Dong-keun	Lauren Smith
Kirsty Gilmour	Sanyogita Ghorpade	Sanjana Santosh
Vaishnavi Bhale	Gurusai Dutt	Marcus Ellis
Liew Daren	Rasika Raje	Vũ Thị Trang
Sourabh Varma	Arjun M.R.	Nguyễn Tiến Minh
Chennai Smashers	Delhi Dashers	Hyderabad Hunters
Sung Ji-hyun	H. S. Prannoy	P. V. Sindhu
Gabby Adcock	Chai Biao	Eom Hye-won
Chris Adcock	Wang Sijie	Kim Sa-rang
Rutaparna Panda	Maneepong Jongjit	Bodin Isara
Sumeeth Reddy	Evgeniya Kosetskaya	Sai Uttejita Rao Chukka
Saili Rane	Tommy Sugiarto	Lee Hyun-il
Rajiv Ouseph	Harika Veludurthi	Arun George
Parupalli Kashyap	Vighnesh Devlekar	Meghana Jakkampudi
Or Chin Chung	Chirag Sen	Mark Caljouw
Chong Wei Feng	Lee Chia-hsin	Rahul Yadav Chittaboina
Mumbai Rockets	North Eastern Warriors	Pune 7 Aces
Lee Yong-dae	Saina Nehwal	Carolina Marín
Pia Zebadiah Bernadet	Kim Ha-na	Chirag Shetty
Kim Gi-jung	Yoo Yeon-seong	Mathias Boe
Shreyanshi Pardeshi	Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk	Vladimir Ivanov
Sameer Verma	Tian Houwei	Line Kjærsfeldt
Kuhoo Garg	K. Maneesha	Lakshya Sen
Manu Attri	Liao Min-chun	Brice Leverdez
Anders Antonsen	Dhruv Kapila	Sony Dwi Kuncoro
Pratul Joshi	Siril Verma	Ajay Jayaram
Anura Prabhudesai	Rituparna Das	Prajakta Sawant

Season 5

Teams	Awadhe Warriors	Bengaluru Raptors	Chennai Superstarz	Hyderabad Hunters	Mumbai Rockets	Northeastern Warriors	Pune 7 Aces
Coach	Anup Sridhar	Arvind Bhat	Vijaydeep Singh	Rajendra Kumar Jakkampudi	Amrish Shinde	Edwin Iriawan	Joachim Persson
Squads	Ajay Jayaram	Ansal Yadav	B. Sumeeth Reddy	Gadde Ruthvika Shivani	Kuhoo Garg	Ashmita Chaliha	Arjun M.R.
	Subhankar Dey	Arun George	Dhruv Kapila	N. Sikki Reddy	Parupalli Kashyap	Kaushal Dharmamer	Chirag Shetty
	Tanvi Lad	B. Sai Praneeth	Gayatri Gopichand	Priyanshu Rajawat	Pranav Chopra	Krishna Prasad Garaga	Mithun Manjunath
		Medha Shashidharan	Lakshya Sen	P. V. Sindhu	Ramchandran Shlok	Rutaparna Panda	Rituparna Das
			Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian	Sourabh Verma	Shreyansh Jaiswal
			Sanjana Santosh		Shreyanshi Pardeshi
			Sathish Kumar Karunakaran
			Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
	Christinna Pedersen	Tai Tzu-ying	Jessica Pugh	Ben Lane	Pia Zebadiah Bernadet	Michelle Li	Chris Adcock
	Wong Wing Ki	Brice Leverdez	Tommy Sugiarto	Sean Vendy	Kim Gi-jung	Lee Cheuk Yiu	Gabby Adcock
	Ivan Sozonov	Rian Agung Saputro	Kirsty Gilmour	Liew Daren	Kim Sa-rang	Kim Ha-na	Tse Ying Suet
	Ko Sung-hyun	Chan Peng Soon		Vladimir Ivanov	Lee Dong-keun	Lee Yong-dae	Hendra Setiawan
	Shin Baek-cheol	Eom Hye-won				Bodin Isara	Kazumasa Sakai
	Zhang Beiwen					Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk	Loh Kean Yew
							Vũ Thị Trang

Broadcast rights

In 2013 STAR Sports India purchased the broadcasting rights for India. ^[19]

Winning bidder	Regional broadcast rights	Terms of deal
STAR Sports	India	2013-2025
Fox Sports	Hong Kong	2013-2020
SKY Sports	United Kingdom	2013-2030
ESPN	United States	2013-2023
Hotstar	Worldwide digital rights	2016–present [20]

See also

• India portal

• Indian Premier League
• Indian Super League
• Hockey India League
• Tennis Premier League
• Prime Volleyball League
• Pro Kabaddi League
• Ultimate Table Tennis
• Ultimate Kho Kho
• Premier Handball League

References

1. "Franchisees to participate in auction for Premier Badminton League". sportstar.thehindu.com. 6 December 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
2. Subrahmanyam, V. V. (8 March 2020). "Premier Badminton League: An uplifting experience!". sportstar.thehindu.com. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
3. Kusari, Kingshuk (24 August 2025). "Shut down for 5 years, Premier Badminton League set for a comeback in new avatar". India Today. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
4. "Rules And Regulations". Premier Badminton League. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
5. PBL to have Trump Match, best of three games for 15 points - The Times of India / Press Trust of India, 15 December 2015
6. Antony, A. Joseph (12 August 2013). "Sudirman Cup-like format for IBL". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 12 January 2020.
7. "From PV Sindhu To Chirag Shetty, Here Are The Highest-Paid Players In Premier Badminton League - Let The Auction Begin!". The Economic Times. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
8. Sachetat, Raphaël. "When private leagues help make a living" . Retrieved 24 January 2020.
9. Sportstar, Team (26 November 2019). "PBL Auction- As it happened: PV Sindhu, Tai Tzu fetch big bucks, Chennai, Pune build strong teams". Sportstar. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
10. "7 Teams, 154 Shuttlers: All You Need to Know About PBL Auction". The Quint. 26 November 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
11. Sportstar, Team (26 November 2019). "PBL 5 Auction: Full team list, released and sold players". Sportstar. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
12. "After Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth pulls out of PBL to focus on international events". India Today. Press Trust of India. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
13. Richard, Dominic (19 January 2020). "PBL 5 preview: League aims to make splash despite several stars missing". Sportstar. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
14. India, P. B. L. (20 January 2020). "Done deal! @gabbyadcock @7acespune Kuhoo Garg @Mumbai_Rockets_ Jessica Pugh @Superstarz_PBL Which team has made the best trade ahead of #PBLSeason5? #RiseOfTheRacquetpic.twitter.com/SYQbqTJmBh". @PBLIndiaLive. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
15. "Home". Premier Badminton League. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
16. Indian Badminton League Teams Archived 26 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
17. "PBL 2020: Reigning world champion PV Sindhu, World No 2 Tai Tzu Ying to headline fifth edition of Premier Badminton League". Firstpost. 18 January 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
18. "Home". Premier Badminton League. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
19. "Indian Badminton League: Dabur nets Pune, PVP bags Hyderabad franchise". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 24 June 2013.
20. Malvania, Urvi (2 January 2016). "Star Sports title sponsor of Premier Badminton League". Business Standard India. Retrieved 25 January 2020.