The Indian unicorn Dream11 is a fantasy sports platform that provides users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, kabaddi, and basketball.
Dream11 won the race against Baba Ramdev's Patanjali and edtech startup Unacadamy as Indian Premier League's (IPL) title sponsor. As IPL is one of the most followed and watched sports league in the world, becoming a title sponsor of them describes how successful fantasy sports platform became in India.
However, Dream11 is the official partner of many popular leagues in India, like the Indian Super League (ISL - Football), NBA, and Pro Kabaddi (PKL). But, sponsoring the IPL title is a big thing! According to Business Standard, in 2019, IPL achieved a milestone of 326 billion viewing minutes on TV. On the Dream11 platform, the share of cricket as a sport is 85%, which describes how important IPL is for the company.
How Big is Dream11 and the Online Fantasy Sports Market?
Dream11, the online fantasy sports gaming which holds 90% market share, was founded in 2008, but their actual business growth started during the fiscal year 2016-2017. According to a report by the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming, fantasy sports operators reported 7x growth over 2016-2019, while the number of users grew by over 25x to 90 million from June 2016 to February 2019.
According to FIFS, the governing body for fantasy sports in India, the revenue of the market reported growth from ₹920 crores to ₹2470 crore in the last year (2020).
This shows how popular is online fantasy sports have become in India. Especially, Dream11's 85% users who play fantasy cricket on their platform.