Big game: How a fantasy sports startup is making money from India’s IPL fever
Dream11, which allows its 60 million users to bet on their fantasy teams, is now valued at over $1 billion.
- Emerging from the grey areas of Indian anti-gambling laws, fantasy sports gaming platform Dream11 has become the country's newest unicorn.
- With over 60 million users, the Mumbai-based firm calls itself India's biggest fantasy sports gaming platform.
- with his friend Bhavit Sheth after they felt a lack of fantasy gaming platforms catering to fans of the Indian Premier League, a wildly popular cricket tournament launched the same year.
- While only around 15% of Dream11's users bet money on their fantasy teams, it is also the firm's only revenue source since it stopped running advertisements on its platform.
- Courts in the country have, however, interpreted the law to allow betting on horse races on the grounds that these involve deep knowledge of the horses' and jockeys' pedigree and past performance, not merely luck.