Fantasy sports to promote growth of sports in India
Cricket is the most dominant in the sports arena, but the emerging generation is fast developing interest in other sporting activities, like hockey, kabaddi, football, basketball, volleyball, and baseball. This growing interest in other sports can be attributed partly to fantasy sports, which resulted in bringing together many large brands and celebrities, said a white paper by Indiatech.
Fantasy sports are not like other online gaming as it is dependent on actualities, seasonality and availability of real-time sports matches, which makes it a non-addictive form of play. This sets it distinctly apart from other forms that are perceived to be in the nature of gambling or betting games.
The Indian fantasy sports market has got impeccable growth. Gross revenues of online fantasy sports operators stood at ₹2,400 crore in FY20 compared to ₹920 crore in FY19, up almost three times year-on-year, according to the FIFS-KPMG 2020 report.
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The whitepaper by Indiatech said Indian online fantasy sports platforms attracted many foreign investment. As per the FIFS report, between 2018 and 2019 the inflow of foreign investments has been to the tune of ₹1,500 crore.
So online fantasy sports business has also contributed to other existing businesses such as online sports scoring platforms, content aggregators, sports merchandising and e-commerce, online sports streaming and digital payments. Several large brands are eyeing online fantasy sports as a medium to promote their products.
