New Delhi, Mar 18: Pepsi will be the official beverage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for five years and the deal with the soft drink giant has been struck at USD 12.5 million.

Well-placed sources in the IPL said only the eight franchise owners would benefit from the deal.

Pepsi, which has a long association with Indian cricket, has been the main sponsor of India`s domestic tournaments for several years and has also been associated with the International Cricket Council (ICC) as its global sponsor.

A significant part of the deal is that the eight franchises - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Mohali, Jaipur and Hyderabad - will be the direct beneficiaries of the money accruing from the sponsorship.

"Pepsi will pay USD 2.5 million each year and, importantly, the entire income from this deal will go to the eight franchise owners," according to the IPL sources who did not wish to be identified.

In other words, each franchisee stands richer by USD 312,500 per year.

The team owners benefiting from this deal are Mukesh Ambani`s Reliance, which bought Mumbai team for USD 111.9 million, Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad, USD 107.01 million), Vijay Mallya`s UB Group (Bangalore, USD 106 million), India Cements (Chennai, USD 91 million), GMR Holdings (Delhi, USD 84 million), a consortium led by Preity Zinta (Mohali, USD 76 million), Shah Rukh Khan`s Red Chillies (Kolkata, USD 75.09 million) and Emerging Media (Jaipur, USD 67 million).

The Twenty20 tournament, comprising 59 matches, will be played over 45 days starting April 18. Matches will be telecast live on SET Max, which along with World Sports Group paid USD 1.026 billion to get the television rights for 10 years.