<P> The Indian Premier League (IPL), officially Vivo Indian Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in India contested during April and May of every year by teams representing Indian cities and some states . The league was founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2008, and is regarded as the brainchild of Lalit Modi, the founder and former commissioner of the league . IPL has an exclusive window in ICC Future Tours Programme . </P> <P> The IPL is the most - attended cricket league in the world and in 2014 ranked sixth by average attendance among all sports leagues . In 2010, the IPL became the first sporting event in the world to be broadcast live on YouTube . The brand value of IPL in 2018 was US $6.3 billion, according to Duff & Phelps . According to BCCI, the 2015 IPL season contributed ₹ 11.5 billion (US $182 million) to the GDP of the Indian economy . </P> <P> There have been eleven seasons of the IPL tournament . The current IPL title holders are the Chennai Super Kings, who won the 2018 season . The most successful franchises in the tournament are the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians with 3 tournament wins each . </P> <P> The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was founded in 2007, with funding provided by Zee Entertainment Enterprises . The ICL was not recognised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) or the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the BCCI were not pleased with its committee members joining the ICL executive board . To prevent players from joining the ICL, the BCCI increased the prize money in their own domestic tournaments and also imposed lifetime bans on players joining the ICL, which was considered a rebel league by the board . </P>

Who has won the ipl cricket league a record 3 times since its inception in 2009