Gross gaming revenue from fantasy sports during the Indian Premier League is estimated to grow 30-35 per cent to ₹2,900-3,100 crore in 2023, according to a report. Since its inception in 2008, IPL has predominantly been a televised sporting event, with an audience of around 100 million viewers.
According to Redseer Strategy Consultants, over the years, its viewership peaked to 460 million during IPL 2019. However, during Covid, IPL viewership on TV dropped 10 per cent, as the lack of live sporting events caused many sports viewers to migrate to OTT platforms.
Fantasy cricket is an online game where fans create virtual IPL teams of real cricketers playing in the season. Points are earned based on the performance of their players in actual matches, with the platforms offering lucrative prize money to users.
Redseer estimates that the IPL market size is expected to have grown because of several factors, including increased awareness of fantasy gaming and new platforms increasing their marketing efforts.
“Steep growth in fantasy sports gaming will come from Tier 2 cities, driven by increasing adoption of fantasy platforms and cross-migration of users from other games. Increased Internet accessibility will give a push to the IPL economy. Our estimates suggest that the average revenue per user is expected to grow from ₹410 in IPL 2022 to ₹440 per user in IPL 2023,” said Ujjwal Chaudhry, Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants.
Moreover, the encouragement from the government in the form of formalised rules and regulations regarding GST for RMG platforms, and Google allowing fantasy platforms on the Google Play Store, will further increase user base during IPL 2023, Chaudhry added.