Companies paid millions of dollars  to buy the eight franchises of the Indian cricket board's Twenty20 Indian Premier league (IPL).

Reliance Industries Ltd, successfully bid $111.9 million for the Mumbai team.

United Breweries Ltd, owned by billionaire Vijay Mallya, who last year bought into Formula One team Spyker and renamed it Force India, snapped up Bangalore for $111.6 million.

The base price for owing a team for 10 years was set at $50 million. The inaugural event will be held in April.

The league, expected to feature many of the game's top players, is an effort to counter an unofficial Indian Twenty20 league which began late last year.

Eleven companies --- some a consortium of individuals --- were in the race to own teams from a choice of 12 cities where the franchises would be based.

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was part of the consortium that clinched Kolkata for $75.09 million, while infrastructure company GMR Holdings won the Delhi franchise for $84 million.

Mohali went for $76 million to a syndicate that included Bollywood actress Preity Zinta while media group Deccan Chronicle won Hyderabad for $107.01 million.