Fantasy sports is one of the latest trends among Indian youth. The concept allows the users to create an imaginary team from a pool of available players according to their ability and win points according to their performance in a particular match.
Sports betting in India is not completely legal, however, experts say that fantasy is the closest term for sports betting in today’s time. The market for fantasy sports in India is worth over $150 Billion and that opens doors for startups to create meaningful products in this space, some of which, we have seen in the last few years emerging out of nowhere.
According to a recent report by KPMG, India had just over 2 million fantasy gamers in 2016, which had skyrocketed to over 70 million in 2018. By the end of 2019, this number is expected to touch 100 Million, which promises huge potential for the startups working in this segment of fantasy sports & online sportsbook.
In this article, let’s have a look at some of the most popular startups in India working on the concept of fantasy gaming
Dream11
With Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the brand ambassador, Dream11 is a Tencent backed fantasy gaming platform which has been valued at over $1.1 Billion. Dream11 is India’s first digital gaming platform to be valued as a unicorn and this has inspired dozens of other startups to register their presence in this sector.
Dream11 has over 50 million users and out of which, over 10 million are paid users. Dream11 currently has a majority of the Indian fantasy market and growing at an unprecedented rate. BCCI has signed up with Dream11 to be the official fantasy partner for IPL until 2022, giving it a huge boost and validation to this concept in India.
MPL (Mobile Premier League)
Founded in 2018, MPL is India’s fastest growing fantasy gaming platform. MPL has roped in Indian Cricket Captain Virat Kohli as the official brand ambassador and is set to take on Dream11 in India in a longer run. In April 2019, MPL raised $35 Million which took the total funding received to over $40 Million. The startup also claimed to have over 25 Million users and a growth rate of 30% MoM.
BalleBaazi
Another fantasy gaming platform in India, Ballebaazi is owned by Gaming company Baazi games. Ballebaazi allows users to create their own private teams and invite their friends to create a private tournament or championship.
HalaPlay
Mumbai based HalaPlay has also raised INR 40 Crores ($5 Million) from Nazara Tech (world’s leading mobile gaming platform) and Delta Corp (leading global casino company). It boasts of over 10 million users and charges them 10-15% of their earnings.
The author of this article is Sudhanshu Mitra. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Bangalore Insider.
Know a great startup story or want to share your own? Write to us at bhumikka.yaadav@bangaloreinsider.com and we will get back to you. For more updates follow Bangalore Insider on Facebook.
Author
