Fantasy Gaming on a Dream Run

Since 2012, I have been a regular Fantasy Premier League player - that really complements my passion for football. Before every matchday, I would set the teams according to the rules that have been laid out and wait for all the matches to be played out. What I have loved about Fantasy Fantasy Premier League is it's one platform where you can utilise whatever knowledge you have gained through tweets, articles and other social media and even connect with like-minded people on those fantasy groups and forums.

But, when I had started out fantasy-gaming in 2012, FPL and fantasy sports, in general, were still quite uncommon in India.

For this reason, it is honestly refreshing to see the fantasy fever that has been gradually taking India by storm in the last two-three years. What's even more intriguing is how the marquee investors and VCs are getting hooked!

In this article, we look at the rapid growth of several fantasy platforms and what exactly has prompted their recent surge in popularity, getting them backed by the top-notch VCs in the country.

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First things first, we need to know what fantasy games actually are and how they work.

Fantasy gaming or Online Fantasy Sports Gaming (OFSG) is a form of online gaming, where in, the user sets up a fantasy team comprising players of different real-life sports teams for the upcoming match(es) within a given amount of virtual credit, in which the better players typically cost more, and these players then garner points based on their performance in that respective match. A user can change the team or retain the players (real-life ones) before every match; however, the number of players that can be changed would depend upon the rules for that online game.

This whole exercise is skill-based, as it depends upon the person's ability to predict which player would play well against a particular opponent and would help them fetch the maximum cumulative points.

The points can be dependent upon any statistical feature. For example, in a fantasy game related to football, a player might get ‘X’ points for every goal scored, and ‘Y’ for every assist. These points are then added for every player in the team, and the cumulative points is what determines the fantasy gamer's performance for that match or matchday.

It was ESPN-Star Sports' Super Selector, created by Joy Bhattacharya, that was the first such game launched in India, back in 2001.

It gained some of popularity among the cricket lovers in India, which peaked during the 2003 Cricket World Cup, but even that was nowhere near the market size that fantasy games these days have been successful in capturing. As we have mentioned previously, fantasy gaming wasn't very popular in India four to five years ago.

A lot of companies playing to gain a defining share of the proverbial pie.

In the last few years, however, quite a few OFSGs have sprung up in India, among which Dream11 is the undisputed leader. Others include MyTeam11, Fantain, Halaplay, etc. With a 90% market share, Dream11's user base has grown at a CAGR of 230% over the last three years (according to a report compiled by KPMG-IFSG). Its current user base stands at around 50 million. In fact, around US$ 1.73 billion was spent last year, in this fantasy gaming landscape.

Mostly, these platforms follow two types of subscription models: ‘Freemium’ or ‘Paid Only’.

While platforms such as Dream11, MyTeam11, Fantain, Starpick follow the ‘Freemium’ model, Halaplay and 11Wickets have ‘Paid Only’ leagues. Freemium includes free leagues where a participant can take part without having to pay any fee, as well as Paid Leagues, where a fee is required to participate in that league. These paid leagues are typically cash leagues, where a user also stands a chance to win cash prizes, depending on how their team performs in that league. The free leagues may or may not have cash prizes. A freemium model's primary source of revenue is advertisements and the fees that users pay for the paid leagues. Dream11 also provides Season Long contests, whereas the others generally provide Daily ones.

A host of investors have started investing in these OFSG platforms. Dream11 alone has been successful in attracting multiple such marquee investors. Kalaari Capital, Think Investments, Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Steadview Capital, Tencent have all invested in Dream11. Other investors would include Kae Capital and Nazara Games who have invested in Halaplay, BookMyShow in Fantain, and Angel Investors, being the ones who have invested in Starpick.

With a user base 70 million strong and growing, the OFSG landscape is now bubbling with enthusiastic participants. The major reason for this has to be the adoption of the internet throughout the country and among the masses, and the development of related infrastructure.

Apps catch users' attention, users catch investors' attention.

What has actually attracted these many investors is the ever rising number of users who are actually trying to be stakeholders in this OFSG experience. Most areas in this country now have decent internet connectivity, which has, in turn not only provided people with access to streaming and other sports content on-the-go but has also, in fact, helped these fantasy games to enter most households, especially in the urban and semi-urban areas.

This, coupled with the increased adoption of digital payments and net banking, has made the user journey seamless by adding a simple and convinient fee payment channel. All these have also been ably complemented by the emergence of league-based competitions in India, like the IPL for cricket, ISL for football, Pro-Kabaddi League for kabaddi, etc along with the increase in popularity of international league competitions, which is a direct result of increasing number of such leagues being broadcast in India.

The marketing approach these platforms are taking and the resulting tie-ups and collaborations that are taking place have also helped them gain the strong footing and seem poised to go anywhere but upwards.

For example, Dream11 is the official fantasy sports partner of a host of leagues and organisations, both domestic and international, among which a few noteworthy mentions would be, Hero ISL, NBA, International Cricket Council. This has helped these platforms to engage more with the viewers and induce them to be onboarded and become stakeholders in the whole experience.

This is quite similar to what happens with consumers in omnichannel retailing, and can be explained further by taking the example of Dream Sports. Today, Dream Sports, in addition to Dream11, has Fancode, DreamPay, DreamSetGo in its portfolio. While Fancode provides the user with analyses, scores, highlights and even live streams of a few matches, DreamPay is a wallet-based payment system and DreamSetGo is a sports travel brand that facilitates experiential sports travel packages for the sports fanatics.

Another huge factor working in OFSGs' favour is that a growing number of people are becoming aware and are starting to differentiate between fantasy games and betting.

You know you are doing good if a regulatory body is established to oversee your activities

Now, betting is not only illegal in India, but is also socially looked down upon. Previously, quite a few people used to be hesitant to engage with such platforms because of this reason. However, more and more people are starting to realise that the fantasy games have more to do with skill and tactics and much less to do with luck. In fact, Punjab and Haryana High Court recently ruled in favour of Dream11, after it was entangled in a lengthy legal battle, and judged it to be a predominantly skill-based exercise.

What's also quite encouraging is that, while cricket is by far the most followed sport in these platforms, OFSGs are trying to look beyond cricket, and have included football, basketball, hockey, kabaddi leagues and competitions. They are also not just sticking to Indian leagues, but are trying to expand their horizons as well and are trying to go international. While Dream11 is the official fantasy game partner of NBA, ICC, FIH and Australian BBL in India, MyTeam11 has partnered with Pakistan Super League.

It will be interesting to see how Dream11 goes forward, having secured all these official partnerships

However, there is a long way to go , and in the future we are sure to see several other platforms come up and try to compete with the market leaders. This makes it imperative for not only the challengers but also the incumbents to ramp up their products, try to make the whole experience much smoother and unambiguous, even bring in newer and updated models while calculating the points and forge tie-ups with the other popular leagues and sponsorship deals with the stars from several sports, just like Dream11 has roped in MS Dhoni. This would definitely make these platforms much more interesting and increase their reach which, inevitably, would help them cater to a larger audience. Another huge challenge they face is that the paid versions of these games are banned in states like Odisha, Assam and Telegana and they would have to try to get out of these legal quagmires.