Sports has always been a centre of attraction in India, and the audience has always found creative ways to engage themselves. On its quest, fantasy games gained popularity, and they engaged consumers like never before, which changed the sports and gaming industry altogether.
Sports has always been a centre of attraction in India, and the audience has always found creative ways to engage themselves.
On its quest, fantasy games gained popularity, and they engaged consumers like never before, which changed the sports and gaming industry altogether.
Since 2015 the number of android users has gained drastic momentum. The increasing techno-centric population has led to the immense popularity of the fantasy sports industry. 89% of players on fantasy sports platforms are mobile phone users.
As of the end of 2020, some 100 Million Indians were involved with fantasy game on some level.
A country with the largest youth population, fast-paced technology optimization and sports craze creates a massive market for the fantasy sports platform with overwhelming opportunities and revenues.
Revolution of the Sport Industry
The emergence of new franchise leagues has helped fans connect with fantasy game. The number of players engaged in fantasy sports has risen 25 times in the least amount of time, and numerous new operators continue to emerge in the fledgling market.
Cricket has the most fans in India, and so, it is the most played fantasy game among kabaddi, football, basketball, hockey, and various other sports.
In May 2021, when the IPL had announced, the fantasy sport companies invested and marketed on a large scale to sign up the audiences. Because of increasing covid cases, it had been cancelled, but that did not demotivate the people, and they used fantasy sports as an alternative.
In April, the IPL was reannounced, Dream11 is hosting the IPL 2021, which dictates the reach of these fantasy companies.
Fantasy companies are competing with major companies to invest in the IPL. All the major Fantasy sports companies took this opportunity to grow their player base, and they have been successful so far.
Major news channels are putting up predictions of the teams. Articles are coming out every minute with updates on the live IPL matches and the updates on online leagues.
Various platforms have hopped on the bandwagon to help people learn more about these games. Bloggers gave out playing tips on their channels, and most sport and tech enthusiasts started making it a must-try once thing.
In the already booming fantasy sports industry, the pandemic pushed its parameters as the country was confined in four walls of their own houses.
All sports enthusiasts resorted to the online mode. Fantasy sports have been modifying their apps as per the user base and the unfortunate times so that players could involve, connect and be social too.
These features have worked immensely in the lockdown period as everyone was resorting to online mode for their social life. There are a lot of attractive prizes and cash rewards to keep the youths and young adults engaged.
Revenues of Fantasy Application
The revenue of these games, starting from 2014, was approx two hundred crores and has kept on the high end so far.
The gain was nearly doubled by 2018, making it an industry of 438 crores. By 2019 it rose to 920 crores and took only one year to triple the figure; by 2020, it was a whopping 2470 crores, even more than the Bollywood Box office collections.
Just like sports, Fantasy sports will soon contribute to the economy to a great extent, and it’s on the verge of becoming a career path. The combination of IPL and fantasy sports is already creating an epoch.
All of this has result in making the fantasy sports a legitimized part of the gaming industry between virtual and reality. It is virtual as it is on gadgets, but real-life performances affect it. This is a grey area for the world, and the world is actively engaging in this revolution.
