Fantasy Sports industry is moving in the right direction at a very fast pace: Vinit Godara

Shrugging off the disruptions of the year gone by, businesses and agencies are looking for a strong revival in 2021. Over the next few weeks, Adgully – as part of its annual TRENDING NOW endeavour – will be presenting the strategies and views of a cross-section of industry leaders as they go about reclaiming lost time and market opportunities and build for a stronger future, armed with the lessons of 2020. 

Vinit Godara, Co-founder and CEO, MyTeam11, looks back at 2020 and major learnings gained from the year, as well as shares his vision for 2021 and the factor that will further contribute to its growth in the year ahead. 

Outlook for 2021

With the last few months of 2020 giving a major boost to the Fantasy Sports industry, we have experienced exponential growth in all aspects of the business. Further, 2021 has a packed sports calendar with regular cricket and football action for the Indian fans, ICC T20 World Cup and also the FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar. Hence, we expect 2021 to be a year of hope and further growth. As MyTeam11, we aim to follow a fairly simple approach and ensure that our users get the best possible immersive experience, which has been the core value of our brand throughout. 

Moreover, with so many sports crammed into one calendar year, the major trend that I see in the coming months will be centered on Customer Retention. Many new players have emerged in the market since IPL 2020; while it is healthy competition, it can also increase the customer fluctuation from one platform to another. Therefore, we at MyTeam11 have been focusing on personalisation to ensure better customer retention rates. To accomplish this, we are focusing on multiple initiatives around identifying customer patterns, collecting a lot of data, and then using the data to make intelligent decisions and also build a holistic database that gives a complete picture of what our users are indulging in at a particular point in time. These practices have helped us customise our user personalisation process.  

Lastly, as far as revival is concerned, the Fantasy Sports industry is well and truly moving forward in the right direction at a very fast pace.  

Consumer behaviour trends 

With regards to fantasy sports and online gaming, the consumer behaviour pattern change has been rather positive. 

With a highly competitive industry in place, consumer education regarding fantasy sports has certainly grown leaps and bounds. The association of Fantasy Sports industry at a large scale with IPL 2020 has only furthered this process of popularity and has increased acceptance among users. Now, each and every user is able to make more informed decisions on the platforms and this has, in turn, contributed to the popularity of each sport across various genres of audiences.

Further, the Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju, has also said, “Fantasy Sports has played a very important role in fuelling sports consumption and it has revolutionised the manner in which sports enthusiasts engage with their respective favourite sports.” This is evidence of the fact of how the industry is playing now a key role in driving sports viewership patterns as well.  

Learnings from 2020 

The year 2020 has certainly left a very different impact on us. We have braved through many hardships – both personal and in terms of business. We have learned the importance of valuing every aspect of life and most importantly, to pause and look towards a brighter future with a wider outlook.

As far as the fantasy sports industry is concerned, many defining moments compounded into some very important learnings. For the industry, the first big challenge came in the form of the complete halt of LIVE sports in the initial phase of the pandemic. Staring at an uncertain future, we learned the importance of having a sustainable business model in place and also diversifying the business. For instance, MyTeam11 launched properties like MyTeam11 Quiz, MyteamRummy and also MyteamPoker. Further, we focused on building the capabilities of our ancillary offering SportsTiger, which helped us keep the user engagement going even during turbulent times. 

While at the industry level I feel two developments have been the highlight of the season. First, it was IPL 2020 – where the entire fantasy gaming industry played a pivotal role in driving the whole tournament to its successful culmination, adding value to the League in the form of associations, sponsorships, etc. The tournament saw unprecedented viewership. The user engagement was far higher than any other season, owing to the absence of in-stadia audience and the OFSPs were the premier source of engagement for the fans with their favourite sports. 

Secondly, the support and initiative of the Government in recognising the Fantasy Sports industry, with Niti Aayog now taking it upon themselves to draft a common industry regulatory framework.