How cricket is giving a leg up to fantasy sports in India

Cricket, especially the T-20 format, has given a big boost to the gaming industry. The Tata IPL, Big Bash and the Caribbean Premier League today have become very popular in the fantasy sports realm. Fantasy sports is a platform for online gaming where players create a virtual team of real sports players. For example, Dream11 gives plenty of options to create a fantasy sports team for the sport that you would like to play and win. Given the craze for cricket amongst Indians, it has become very popular in the fantasy games space as well. Today, Dream11 has got over 13 crore users and there are over 1,000+ daily contests that are happening. The brand has also made significant penetration into smaller towns and is leading the market with their aggressive promotion and high decibel advertising.

While cricket remains the most popular game, the Dream11 app also offers other games like football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, etc., for players to play and win. IPL has in a big way been the mother of fantasy sports and has also motivated other sports to be part of fantasy sports. Today, even indigenous sports like Kho-Kho, which are popular in smaller towns, are joining the fantasy sports bandwagon. In 2019, there were 90 million fantasy gamers, but by the end of this year, the number is pegged to touch 150 million. The fantasy sports market is expected to generate approximately $3.7 billion by 2024, as per industry reports.

Recently in one of his exclusive conversations with Adgully, Sumit Kumar Jha, Founder, Fantasy Akhada, had said, “The fantasy sports market is growing rapidly in India. Recently, the India FS overtook the US market to become the largest market globally. With a huge potential to grow, on the back of sustained increase in digital penetration, the market is expected to grow exponentially with a CAGR of around 40% for FY21-27.”

While fantasy sports is seen as a game of skill, it is still considered as a game of chance in certain quarters. The gaming companies need to collaborate with the government authorities jointly to correct this perception by being more responsible and not deviate from the set rules.

This is just the beginning of fantasy sports and there is a surge in the growth expected as more fantasy sports platforms will enter the market. With 5G and the internet penetration across the country happening at a rapid pace the demand to play the sport will not be a challenge as India as huge young population filled with sports enthusiasts. With the millennials who have easy access to the internet and launch of cheap smartphones will only give further push for the games to become more popular.

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