Fantasy Sports will be of great significance in moulding the next generation fans of Indian sports, especially cricket (football today). We say this based on their quickly growing popularity across their brief history in India’s markets (the football news). So, seeing it’s promising past, it is easy to predict a promising future for fantasy sports too. And this is what the future of fantasy gaming apps in India will bring.
First, let’s review the factors that have boosted the use of these apps in our country:
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Improved Digital Infrastructure and Use
India has made exponential growth in terms of its digital infrastructure. Growing affordability of smartphones, expansion of the internet user base and plummeting data price are resulting in such growth. The report stated that internet subscribers increased from 368 million in September 2016 to 560 million in September 2018 in India. And this growth spurt in internet users has also helped fantasy sports to flourish in the digital gaming space.
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Increase in Investors
The immense popularity of fantasy gaming apps in India is due to these platforms also offering content in regional languages. This, in turn, means that E-sports leaders from Tencent to Nazara are all investing in fantasy sports gaming.
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More Sports Leagues Means More Fantasy Sports
The vast audience base in India has a distinct preference for the sports gaming. And they now have culturally and regionally relevant sports content to game with. Various sports leagues, besides cricket, have been established in the recent past, including those for kabaddi, football, wrestling and volleyball.
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Clarity on legality
The Punjab and Haryana High Court dubbed fantasy sports as ‘games of skill’ and not as ‘games of luck’. This clarification on the legal status of fantasy gaming apps in India, albeit protested helped in promoting the overall market.
And Now, This Is What the Future of Fantasy Gaming Apps in India Will Bring:
The Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) is India’s first and only self-regulatory industry body for the sports gaming sector.
IFSG, along with India Private Limited (KPMG), released a report on the ‘The Evolving Landscape of Sports Gaming in India’. They published their paper at its second flagship event, GamePlan 2019, on March 4th, 2019.
The report claimed that the industry, already worth INR 43.8 billion in 2019, would reach INR 118.8 billion by FY23. In other words, fantasy gaming apps in India would see a growth rate of CAGR 22.1% from 2019 to 2023.
Perhaps more importantly, the report added that fantasy sports are different from betting. Indeed, one may counter the other – fantasy sports can potentially aid in slowing down illegal betting in the long run.
So, research suggests that legal and safe fantasy sports may eventually, some years onward, replace illegal, dangerous betting channels.
In this way, the fantasy gaming structure might resemble arguments to legalize prostitution so as to offer an organized, safe, benefits’-laden professional space for sex workers (and seekers).
But, of course, for both organized fantasy gaming and sex work to not fall into the same traps as unorganized, illegitimate betting or prostitution, our country’s legal framework should adapt quickly to put limits and regulations within this industry; especially after they failed to do so for internet and social media platforms, which now run rampant with misinformation, fraud, and adverse advertisement.
After all, fairness, legality, and secure money transactions are the biggest draws for users to play on these fantasy platforms.
