ILT20 2026 Prize Money: How Much the Champions Take Home
The ILT20 has never been shy about paying its winners well. When the Season 5 final is played on 20 December 2026 at Dubai International Stadium, one team will lift the trophy and collect the biggest cheque of the tournament. The exact figure for this season has not been announced yet, but last season’s numbers set the bar: the total prize pool crossed USD 1 million, and the champions walked away with USD 700,000.
Season 4 prize money: the confirmed breakdown
Season 4 (2025-26) is the reference point because it carries the last fully reported prize pool. Here is where the money went:
| Position / award | Payout (USD) |
|---|---|
| Champions (Desert Vipers) | 700,000 |
| Runners-up (MI Emirates) | 300,000 |
| Belt winners (each belt) | 15,000 |
Desert Vipers beat MI Emirates in the final on 4 January 2026 in Dubai to claim the USD 700,000 top prize, while MI Emirates collected USD 300,000 as runners-up, according to final reports from arabnews.com, uaenews4u.com and pardaisnewsdigital.com. Once the individual belt awards were added, the league’s total prize pool for the season went past the USD 1 million mark.
For a league that had staged only four seasons, that is serious money. The USD 700,000 champions’ cheque put the ILT20 among the better-paying franchise leagues in world cricket for its size, and it helps explain why the Season 5 auction on 1 October 2026 drew such fierce bidding for the top names.
Four seasons, four champions, one constant: USD 700,000
Here is the part that surprises most people. Across four ILT20 seasons, the champions’ cheque has never moved: USD 700,000 every single time. The runners-up prize has been USD 300,000 in all four seasons as well.
| Season | Champions | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1 (2023) | Gulf Giants | Desert Vipers |
| Season 2 (2024) | MI Emirates | Dubai Capitals |
| Season 3 (2025) | Dubai Capitals | Desert Vipers |
| Season 4 (2025-26) | Desert Vipers | MI Emirates |
Four seasons, four different champions. Gulf Giants won the inaugural title on 12 February 2023 (crictracker.com), MI Emirates took Season 2 on 17 February 2024 (crictracker.com, thepapare.com), Dubai Capitals won Season 3 on 9 February 2025 (wam.ae), and Desert Vipers finally lifted their first title in Season 4. No team has won it twice.
On total earnings, Desert Vipers lead on USD 1.3 million: USD 700,000 for the Season 4 title plus USD 300,000 each for two runner-up finishes. MI Emirates and Dubai Capitals sit on USD 1 million each, and Gulf Giants banked USD 700,000 for the inaugural crown.
The league announced a USD 1.3 million pool for Season 1 (mykhel.com, emirates7.tv), and every season since has kept the USD 700,000 / USD 300,000 split with USD 15,000 per belt.
What are the ILT20 belts?
The ILT20 does things a little differently from most leagues. Alongside the team prizes, it hands out colour-coded belts to individual standouts, each worth USD 15,000:
- Red Belt: Most Valuable Player of the season
- Green Belt: highest run-scorer
- White Belt: highest wicket-taker
- Blue Belt: best UAE player
A fifth, the Black Belt, is a newer addition awarded to the champion team. The Green and White belts have a twist: they change hands during the tournament. When a new batter tops the run charts or a new bowler tops the wicket charts, the belt moves to them at the end of that innings (sportsdigest.in, cricketnmore.com).
The belts give players on mid-table sides something concrete to play for: a bowler can still finish USD 15,000 richer even after his team is out of contention.
Some names keep coming back. MI Emirates’ Muhammad Waseem has won the Blue Belt as the best UAE player four seasons in a row (yardbarker.com). Fazalhaq Farooqi, now the league’s record USD 380,000 signing, won the White Belt in Season 3 with 21 wickets. Sam Curran took the Red Belt as MVP in Season 3 with 387 runs and seven wickets, while Shai Hope’s 527 runs earned him the Green Belt that season (wam.ae).
The defending champions’ cut
Desert Vipers banked the full USD 700,000 in January when they beat MI Emirates in the Season 4 final. It was the club’s first ILT20 title, and the payout made them the richest single-season winners in the league’s history at the time.
They return for Season 5 as defending champions with largely the same core, led by Babar Azam, and they will be the team everyone is trying to knock off. If they go back to back, they will collect whatever the Season 5 champions’ prize turns out to be on top of what they have already earned.
The economics: USD 2 million squads chasing a USD 700,000 prize
Here is the part that makes the prize money look small. At the Season 5 auction, MI Emirates spent their entire USD 2 million purse building the squad (cricketdaily.net). That is nearly three times what the champions will collect for winning the whole tournament.
Prize money was never the business model: franchises earn from broadcast rights, sponsorships and rising team values. And the gap keeps widening: Fazalhaq Farooqi’s USD 380,000 record fee alone is more than half the champions’ prize, while Desert Vipers picked up four Pakistan internationals for a combined USD 320,000, less than one Farooqi.
The USD 700,000 champions’ prize is already a serious payout for a six-team league; owners compete on franchise value, not the January cheque.
What to expect for Season 5 (not yet announced)
Here is the honest position: the league has not announced the Season 5 prize pool yet. Until it does, nobody can state a 2026 figure as fact, and you should treat any number you see elsewhere as speculation.
What can be said with confidence is the pattern. The champions’ cheque has been USD 700,000 in all four seasons and the runners-up USD 300,000, so the league has shown it prefers a stable, serious prize structure. The Season 5 auction set a new record with Fazalhaq Farooqi going to MI Emirates for USD 380,000, and the league keeps adding commercial partners. It would be a surprise if the Season 5 total came in below last season’s USD 1 million mark, but that is an expectation, not a confirmed figure. If you are tracking the money story, the auction is usually the first hint. When franchises spend record sums on players, as they did this October, the prize pool announcement tends to follow in the same confident tone. We will update this page the day the league publishes the official numbers.
Frequently asked questions
How much prize money did the ILT20 Season 4 winners get?
Desert Vipers received USD 700,000 for winning the Season 4 final against MI Emirates on 4 January 2026 in Dubai, per reports from arabnews.com, uaenews4u.com and pardaisnewsdigital.com.
Has the ILT20 champions’ prize changed over the seasons?
No. It has been USD 700,000 in all four seasons: Gulf Giants (2023), MI Emirates (2024), Dubai Capitals (2025) and Desert Vipers (2026). The runners-up prize has likewise stayed at USD 300,000 every season.
Which team has earned the most ILT20 prize money?
Desert Vipers lead the all-time table on USD 1.3 million: USD 700,000 for the Season 4 title plus USD 300,000 each for finishing runners-up in Seasons 1 and 3. MI Emirates and Dubai Capitals sit on USD 1 million each (one title plus one runner-up finish), and Gulf Giants banked USD 700,000 for the inaugural title.
What is the ILT20 2026 (Season 5) prize money?
Not announced yet. The league has not published the Season 5 prize pool. The last confirmed figures are from Season 4: USD 700,000 for the champions, USD 300,000 for the runners-up, and USD 15,000 per belt, with a total pool above USD 1 million.
What do the ILT20 belt winners receive?
The Red Belt (Most Valuable Player), Green Belt (highest run-scorer), White Belt (highest wicket-taker) and Blue Belt (best UAE player) each carry USD 15,000. The Black Belt goes to the champion team.
When and where is the ILT20 Season 5 final?
The final is scheduled for 20 December 2026 at Dubai International Stadium.
