The England and Wales Cricket Board has described the £520m windfall from The Hundred auction as “a seminal moment”, but is the tournament set to expand and will it stay 100-balls-a-side or switch to a T20 format?

What does multi-million pound investment mean for The Hundred?

The impending arrival of high-powered, high-value and high-profile partners in The Hundred’s eight city-based teams is set to see changes to the competition started four years ago.

The 2025 tournament is being billed as a year of transition, leaving time for the details of a 2026 reboot to be thrashed out, while the eventual introduction of a ninth, and possibly 10th, team is very much on the cards – but not until the end of the current broadcast deal in 2028.

“Expansion is a sign of success and that’s what we’re looking at,” said Vikram Banerjee, director of business operations at the ECB.

“I’ll be delighted if it does happen. If the tournament grows and cricket grows across the country then it will be almost a no-brainer.”

ECB chief executive Richard Gould was less convinced by a change in format, however, saying that a shift from 100-balls-a-side to T20 cricket is “not my expectation”.

He added: “There has been lots of discussions and debates and the format is not one that’s been a raging debate.”

An exclusivity period is now taking place, during which terms of the agreed sales after a three-round bidding process will be finalised. In total, the deals value The Hundred as a whole at more than £975m, a figure that would once have been inconceivable in domestic cricket.

The proceeds will be fed straight back into the country’s cricket network, with £50m set aside for recreational level and the rest split between the 18 first-class counties and the owners of Lord’s, Marylebone Cricket Club.

Counties who do not have a Hundred team will receive a larger slice, while the eight Hundred hosts were gifted a 51 per cent share in their teams, with only Yorkshire taking the decision to sell their entire stake in Northern Superchargers who are based at Headingley.

ECB chair: Hundred investment protects cricket ‘for generations’

Reflecting on the potential impact of the investment, ECB chair Richard Thompson said: “We’ve reached a seminal moment for cricket in England and Wales.

“Four years after The Hundred was launched, we’ve now entered final discussions with eight strategic partners, each ready to invest in the competition’s eight teams and help us take the competition and English and Welsh cricket to a new level – for the benefit of the whole of our game.

“Each of these partners shares a passion for the competition’s success and cricket itself. They are global leaders in sport, technology, investment and commerce, aligned in our ambition to continue building The Hundred as a truly world-class sporting spectacle.

“This means vital support for county cricket, growing the women’s game and inspiring even more children – and people of all ages – to pick up a bat and ball.

“This will also secure the funding that will go directly to the professional counties and recreational game, underpinning the fabric of our county game and helping futureproof cricket’s growth in England and Wales for generations to come.”

Who is investing in The Hundred?

Sports team owners and billionaire businessmen are among the high-profile investors who have secured stakes in The Hundred ahead of the 2025 season.

Birmingham City owners Knighthead Capital Management – for whom NFL legend Tom Brady acts as a minority investor – succeeded in a £40m deal for the Edgbaston-based Birmingham Phoenix side.

An 11-strong consortium of tech billionaires are set to pay £145m for a 49 per cent stake in London Spirit, valuing the side who play at Lord’s as the most expensive team in the tournament at around £300m.

This bid is reported to have beaten off competition from Manchester United co-chair Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital and a group affiliated to Chelsea chair Todd Boehly.

After unsuccessfully bidding for Spirit, Chelsea co-owner Boehly ultimately purchased a 49 per cent stake in Trent Rockets as his company Cain International & Ares Management, which he set up with British businessman Jonathan Goldstein, forked out close to £40m for the Trent Bridge-based outfit.

Owners of IPL franchises Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants, Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad also successfully secured stakes in The Hundred teams. Find out who, here.

What have the experts said? | ‘I can’t see anything but a clash at some point’

Michael Atherton on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast:

“These are incredible, irrational sums and it is hard to envisage how [these buyers and investors] will get that back in the near term – and that is the worry really.

“In order to get it back they may have to think about expanding The Hundred, playing more games, raising ticket prices. There is clearly a lot of uncertainty down the line.

“I can’t see anything but a clash at some point.”

Nasser Hussain on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast:

“Make no mistake, English cricket needs this money to survive. It is game-changing for some counties, it is going to save some counties and help some of the bigger counties who have debt.

“My underlying feeling is that it is good for English cricket but we need to be really switched on.

“The future, for me, is pretty dull if it is all about franchise cricket and people just follow the money. Cricket is about more than money, it is about caring and connection.”

Watch the 2025 edition of The Hundred live in full on Sky Sports from August 5-31. You can also stream no contract with NOW.