We are sitting in the playoff window of IPL 2026. The early-season optimisation has run, brands have rebuilt creative two or three times, and the data from the last six weeks is now stable enough to pull patterns from. Here is what we are actually seeing across the India iGaming campaigns we run.
Headline read: cost per first-time depositor (CPFTD) on Meta Ads is up roughly 12 to 18 percent year over year for this stage of IPL. WhatsApp and Telegram are partially absorbing that pressure. Brands running only paid social are feeling the squeeze more than brands running a four to five channel stack.
What moved on Meta this IPL
Meta CPFTD on our India iGaming books has averaged INR 1,050 across the first six weeks of IPL 2026. That is up from INR 880 to 920 at the equivalent point in IPL 2025. Two drivers behind the move: account-restriction frequency is up (we have seen 1.4x the ban rate this season versus last), and competition for cricket-affinity audiences has compressed margins as more brands are bidding harder in the same windows.
What is still working on Meta: short-form video creative under 9 seconds with a clear bonus value-prop in the first 2 seconds, broader 18-44 male targeting with cricket interest signals rather than narrow custom audiences, and lookalike audiences seeded from depositing players (not registrations). Brands still running 30-second story ads built last IPL season are getting punished by frequency caps.
WhatsApp is doing the heavy lifting on retention
Match-day WhatsApp sends are producing the cleanest CPFTD numbers of the season. Across active client lists, IPL match-day pushes timed 2 to 3 hours before toss are coming in at INR 220 to 480 per FTD on warm-list sends. That is 4 to 5x cheaper than the Meta numbers above. The trick is that this only works for brands that already have a healthy opted-in database, which is itself the output of months of acquisition work.
For brands without that database, IPL 2026 has been a hard reminder that retention infrastructure needs to be built before the season, not during it. The brands setting up DLT registration and BSP onboarding in March were sending properly by April. The brands trying to do the same in mid-April were still waiting on template approvals when matches went live. Detail on the setup in our WhatsApp and SMS service page.
Telegram is up, not just for tipsters
The interesting shift this IPL is on Telegram. Channel growth across our client base is averaging 11 to 18 percent week over week through the tournament, more than double last year's rate. Part of that is creator-driven (cricket tipsters running larger paid promotions), but a bigger chunk is brands directly running channel-building campaigns with bonus-gated joins.
The CPFTD on Telegram joins-to-deposit flows is landing at INR 500 to 1,100. Mid-range relative to Meta and WhatsApp. The strategic value is the audience asset that survives after IPL. A Telegram channel built during a tournament keeps producing through the off-season at zero marginal cost.
Where Google Ads sits
Google has been the most stable channel this IPL. CPFTD has held at INR 1,800 to 2,400 across our search and Performance Max campaigns, only marginally higher than IPL 2025. Search captures intent, and players searching mid-IPL are usually 80 percent of the way to depositing somewhere. The brands not running Google Ads this IPL are leaving the highest-LTV cohort on the table for whoever is.
The takeaway for operators reading this mid-IPL
Two practical reads. First: if your in-house team is only running Meta and CPFTDs are up versus your last benchmark, that is not your team underperforming, that is the channel moving. Second: the brands posting the cleanest cumulative IPL P&Ls are running 4 to 5 channels in parallel, not chasing one. A balanced stack across Meta, Google, WhatsApp, Telegram and influencer absorbs channel-level shocks that a single-channel approach cannot.
We will publish a full post-IPL 2026 wrap once the tournament closes, with year-on-year comparisons and the channel breakdown by brand size. If you want the read on your own numbers before the finals, the fastest way is a 30-minute call.