Unable to bet legally, tens of millions of Indian cricket fans have turned to fantasy games based on the Indian Premier League (IPL), which have exploited a loophole to create a billion-dollar industry.
Bolstered by foreign investment, Indian firms have invested heavily in the cash-for-points online games, despite fears that government regulation could put the new industry at risk.
Dream11 — now the main sponsor for the IPL, the final of which was played in Dubai last night — said that it has more than 100 million users for its cricket, soccer and NBA platforms.
Photo: AFP
Users pay a fee, often less than US$0.50, to join a contest that escapes India’s ban on gambling because it is considered a game of skill. They register a team of favorite players and win points for their performances in IPL games, which can be turned into cash.
The number of fantasy games has mushroomed for this year’s IPL, which is being held in the United Arab Emirates as India struggles with the world’s second biggest COVID-19 outbreak.
Despite the possibility of new regulations, the cash is rolling in, and industry players say that the sector could grow to be worth billions of dollars.
When software engineer Amit Bhandari started playing Dream11’s fantasy cricket two years ago, he never expected to get hooked on its promise of easy money.
“I am still awaiting my big-money day,” said the 38-year-old, who called the habit “harmless,” even though he hides it from his family, fearing disapproval.
The stigma is familiar to Vinit Godara, cofounder of MyTeam11, a fantasy platform launched in 2016.
In its early years, the company could not get a digital payment platform or a corporate bank account, due to worries about even a hint of betting in India.
Match-fixing scandals regularly hit cricket, and Godara has struggled to explain the difference between fantasy sports and illegal betting to customers.
However this year, Indian fans have seized on fantasy gaming, eager to escape the boredom of being in lockdown and encouraged by a marketing blitz featuring top stars such as India captain Virat Kohli.
“The IPL has come as a boon for the fantasy gaming industry, and we have observed a significant jump in user engagement,” Godara said.
Other platforms have also seen a surge in business.
“We are looking at crossing 80 million users by the end of the IPL,” said Sai Srinivas, cofounder of the Mobile Premier League app.
The Games24x7 platform is predicting a 900 percent growth in paid users from last year to this year because of “pent-up demand in the lockdown,” cofounder Bhavin Pandya said.
Foreign investors are also eager to join in.
Indian fantasy platforms have attracted more than US$200 million in foreign investment since 2018, including from US hedge funds such as Tiger Global and Chinese online giant Tencent Holdings, think tank IndiaTech.org said.
Only 20 percent of an estimated 100 million Indian gamers pay to play on fantasy platforms, while the others stick to free games.
The firms predict major growth, but worries dog the industry.
“There is no regulation... and five or six states have banned different forms of online gaming including fantasy sports,” IndiaTech.org chief executive officer Rameesh Kailasam said.
For now, India’s government seems content to play the game. The sector contributed more than US$60 million in taxes in the past tax year, but the situation remains unpredictable.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier