Snapchat is selling IPL advertisers the moment after the six

When Sachin Tendulkar hit a century, the neighbourhood knew. Screams from open windows, crowds pressing against the glass of electronics showrooms, strangers united by a single man at the crease. When Virat Kohli chased down an improbable target, the moment lived on in WhatsApp forwards and Twitter threads for days.

Now, the moment barely outlasts the shot. Before the next ball is bowled, someone has already sent a snap of themselves in an AR jersey, a dog-ear filter, a sticker screaming blue. Cricket's emotional afterlife has moved to the phone, and it moves fast.

This is the territory Snapchat is staking a claim on.

Star Sports and JioHotstar own the match. Snapchat wants to own the reaction, and it is making a serious pitch to the brands that sponsor both.

"Snap is the rare platform that will give you access to be part of that inner circle conversation which is the place where you can truly influence end decisions."
Yagnesh Ravi on what separates the app from the rest. 

The platform's Cricket in a Snap offering this IPL season is its most structured push into sports advertising yet, and the numbers it is leading with are pointed: 85% of Gen Z actively follow the IPL as per a study it conducted with reseatch firm Kantar. With 250 million monthly active users in India and 90% of them aged between 13 and 34, Snap is telling advertisers it has the audience television cannot fully reach.

Yagnesh Ravi, Ad Solutions Lead at Snap Inc, is careful about how he frames the opportunity. Snapchat is not, he insists, a second screen. "It's a parallel screen," he says. The match is on TV. The conversation about the match is on Snapchat, in real time, among close friends. One deepens the other rather than competing with it. "It's not two different things fighting for your consumption. It's about deepening your first engagement."

For advertisers, the distinction is more than semantic. Instagram is public. A post, a reel, a comment exists for everybody. Snapchat is where the three friends you've watched every IPL match with actually talk. "Snap is the rare platform that will give you access to be part of that inner circle conversation," Ravi says, "which is the place where you can truly influence end decisions."

The format variety is part of the pitch too. Ravi is pointed in his scepticism of repetitive video advertising. "How many of us enjoy the sixth frequency of the same video?" he asks. On Snapchat, he argues, a brand can land the same message across genuinely different formats: a video, an AR lens, a chat ad. "You're landing the same message, but users are immersing differently each time."

New this season is the ability for brands to appear within Snapchat's dedicated cricket discovery section, where users tap into a curated feed of cricket lenses and content. A limited set of advertisers will have branded lenses featured there, giving them visibility at the moment users are actively seeking cricket content.

The current Indian T20 squad helps make the story. Two years ago, India's cricket identity on social media was largely Rohit and Virat. Today it is a younger ensemble, and many of them are organic Snapchat users. Fans have learned their personalities through the app: Sanju Samson's reserve, Akshar Patel's pranks, Suryakumar Yadav's barely-contained energy. The boundary between player and creator is thin, and Snapchat sits in that gap.

IPL 2026 is projected to generate around Rs 4,900 crore in advertising revenue. Quick commerce, e-commerce, tech, CPG and AI brands have signed on. Some are going all in on Snap because Gen Z is their primary category driver. Others are treating it as one layer in a broader media plan.

Ravi is relaxed about the distinction. The platform doesn't need to replace the screen in the living room. It just needs to hold on to the one already in your hand.