Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports releases user guide with support of Meta

The Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), the sole self-regulatory industry body in India for Fantasy Sports (FS), has released a ‘User Guide To Fantasy Sports’, compiled with support from Meta. This user guide is aimed at creating a healthy ecosystem for responsible play on fantasy sports platforms.

Sharing his perspective on the launch of the fantasy sports user guide, Anwar Shirpurwala, CEO, FIFS, said, “The Fantasy Sports industry is undergoing revolutionary changes, especially after the recent announcements made by the Central Government, including formation of an Animation, Visual, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) promotion task force, 5G rollout and others to help make India a global hub of this sector as it is currently the largest fantasy sports market in the world with 13 crore users countrywide. Thus, the ‘User Guide to Fantasy Sports’ is a first step to promote awareness, bust myths, improve consumer perception and protection thereby having a positive impact on the efforts of this industry.”

Shirpurwala added, “We are thankful for the support extended by Meta to co-develop the capabilities and help revolutionise fantasy sports by building more awareness among the users to cultivate safer and healthy gaming/ playing habits.”

The manual gives an insight into what exactly is fantasy sports, a game of skill and how it is distinct from other forms on online skill gaming, is not related to betting, gambling or wagering and has been recognised as a legitimate business activity protected under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India in multiple judgements by various courts.

The term ‘fantasy sports,’ describes a wide range of contests in which participants construct virtual teams to compete against other participants’ teams, using statistics generated by real-life athletes in team-based sporting events.

Indian Courts have held fantasy sports to be a game of skill in which participating users act as managers of their virtual teams. The results are tabulated based on statistics, scores, achievements, and results generated by the real sports persons or teams in officially sanctioned or professionally organised sporting events.

Going forward, the FIFS User Guide will serve as a practical compendium that can be referred to by various stakeholders and the general public to provide all the relevant information and different aspects about this rapidly growing sunshine industry. The User Guide will help debunk the misinformation by providing step-by-step guidelines on fantasy sports.

The User Guide will not only provide key insights into the sector to the various stakeholders, but also help the fantasy sports industry create and nurture personal connections with the user community. More so, considering that Meta, as an organisation has developed numerous industry-friendly capabilities over the years and continues to push the boundaries to bring customer delight, create shared value in the social media space.

Welcoming this news, Lokesh Suji, Director, Esports Federation of India & Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation (AESF), said, “We are super excited to see the speed with which things are transforming in regards to the video games/ AVGC sector in India. It was only on February 1, 2022, when our Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Ji announced to form an AVGC Task Force and within a short span of just two months, we have a Task Force in place with the relevant industry veterans on board in the core team.”

He further said, “ESFI welcomes this first official step to unlock the true potential of India towards ‘Create in India’, ‘Brand in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in the AVGC sector, which directly helps us unlock the potential for esports also. ESFI will continue to actively support such initiatives.”