Investors are taking bets on India’s online fantasy sports space

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Hello readers,

Would you pay to have your fortune told? I have (perhaps unfortunately) friends that have done so and who relay these overpriced predictions to me with immense enthusiasm. But everyone has something that keeps them going. For India, that’s online fantasy sports. The segment is flourishing thanks to the country’s millions of cricket fans, and investors are sitting up.

Today we look at,

• Why investors are clamoring for a stake in India’s online fantasy sports space
• Zoom’s plans to expand its Singapore presence
• Other newsy highlights such as Tokopedia being undecided on a SPAC merger and India getting new features on WhatsApp and Instagram

PREMIUM SUMMARY

Online fantasy sports for the win

The online fantasy sports (OFS) space has been flourishing in India, but it took the Indian Premier League (IPL) to prove just how much the segment has grown. In August this year, title sponsorship rights for the IPL saw contenders including India’s largest conglomerate Tata Group, mobile services operator Jio, and cricket-focused OFS platform Dream11 come up fighting. The biggest surprise: Dream11 secured the rights, paying almost US$32 million for one year, to reach the IPL’s over 400 million cricket fans. Is this real life or is this fantasy?

• What the what?: If you’ve heard of – or indulged in – Fantasy Premier League, then that’s exactly what OFS is: It’s a prediction game through which users can assemble a virtual team of real sports players to score points, as well as join virtual leagues.
• Knock it out of the park: The demand for fantasy sports has burgeoned in the last three years, boosted by increasing smartphone usage and digital payments. According to Girish Menon, head of media and entertainment at KPMG India, the registered user base of OFS in India jumped from 20 million in December 2017 to 90 million in December 2019.
• Bat on it: Because of the sheer volume of time that users spend on OFS platforms, investors are taking notice of the many monetization opportunities in the space. KPMG’s estimates reveal that foreign private equity and venture capital funds put nearly US$200 million on the sector in 2019. With India’s passion for cricket and the fact that OFS bring fans closer to the sport, it’s easy to see why investors and founders are bullish about the industry.

Read more: India’s online fantasy sports knocks it out of the park with investors

PREMIUM SUMMARY

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