On-line fantasy games expected to be worth $3.7 billion by 2024

India has traditionally been a cricket crazy country and other sports had their own limited regional following. The emergence of Online Fantasy Sports combined with new sports leagues and formats are positively contributing to bridging the divide with a large number of sports enthusiasts now following many sports in a more engaging manner. Online Fantasy Sports are turning out to be the new sunshine industry for India and the increasing number of start-ups and investors emerging in this industry is a testimony to this.

India is uniquely placed to position and develop fantasy sports as the next emerging industry that will not only grow out of India to the world but can significantly contribute to the growth of sports in India. This contributes to an increased viewership & higher sports fan engagement that naturally contributes to more qualitative investments, upgradation and packaging of these sports making them more viable and remunerative to the players of that sport. Online Fantasy Sports has been accepted and well established as a “game of skill” backed by multiple court rulings. Fantasy sports are dependent on real-life sports and have become one of the primary sources of entertainment for sports enthusiasts across age groups of 24-40 years.

Fantasy sports which began over 60 years ago as “fun” has today turned into a multi-billion-dollar industry and is growing rapidly. Industry discussions and research findings have clearly established that the majority of the participants usually prefer to play in the free-to-play format. Statistics reveal that 80% of the participants play online fantasy sports for free as entertainment. The 20% of the remaining participants engage in the “pay-to-play” format of which a majority 98% have either won or lost less than INR 10,000/- net on an online fantasy platform in their lifetime (past 3 to 4 years).

The Online Fantasy Sports industry is more “skill intensive” and “non-addictive” in nature and has provided an opportunity for newer sports to become popular and their popularity is spread today across metropolitan and non-metropolitan cities as well. The gross revenues of online fantasy sports platforms stood at around ₹2,400crore in FY20 alone. According to experts, in

S. Mohini Ratna, Editor- VARINDIA