Creator of game that allows ‘trading’ of cricket players raises $3m

Imagine a cricket player as a company on a stock exchange. There’s a “stock price” for every player that can increase or decrease, depending on performance. You can use real money to buy stocks and withdraw any earnings you get from selling those stocks to your bank account.

Singapore-based Beryllium has turned this imaginary scenario into a reality with its first game, Sixer. The game, which is based on the concept of fantasy cricket in India, allows users to do “trading” on the players’ stock. There’s also a free market mode that lets people purchase stocks without using real money.

Sixer has attracted 150,000 users to date.

Amay Makhija, founder of Beryllium / Photo credit: Beryllium

Beryllium recently announced that it has raised US$3 million in a pre-series A funding led by Bullpen Capital, which counts US sports-betting firm FanDuel as one of its portfolio companies.

Genting Ventures, the investment arm of Malaysia-based conglomerate Genting Group, and existing Beryllium investor Velo Partners also participated in this round.

Founded by Amay Makhija in 2019, Beryllium focuses on integrating the trading mechanisms of fantasy sports into a game. It secured US$600,000 via a seed round in November 2019.

The startup will use the fresh funds to expand its team and engineering resources while exploring more product type, game formats, and features. Beryllium also wants to develop its headquarters in Singapore and expand its product to overseas markets.

According to Allied Market Research, the global fantasy sports market was valued at US$18.6 billion in 2019, and it’s expected to reach US$48.6 billion in 2027. American football is the most popular segment, followed by baseball, basketball, ice hockey, and cricket.

In India alone, the number of fantasy sport users has skyrocketed 50x from 2 million in 2016 to 100 million in 2020. More than 70 fantasy sports apps are available in the market.