In the past few years, the online gaming market in India has seen a rapid growth with various platforms, right from mobile games such as PUBG to fantasy sports platforms gaining massive user base across the country. In fact, according to a report ‘The evolving landscape of sports gaming in India’ by Indian federation of sports gaming and KPMG, revenues from online gaming have nearly doubled over a period of four years, reaching Rs 43.8 billion in FY18 and is expected to grow further at a CAGR of 22.1% from FY18-23, and reach Rs 118.8 billion.
Of this, a distinct trend that has emerged is that of online fantasy sport gaming (OSFG). This is a skill-based online game where users create their own team made up of real-life players from upcoming matches and garner points based on the actual performance of the players during the game. In India, fantasy gaming comprises cricket, football, kabaddi, basketball and other popular games.
According to the report, OFSG has seen tremendous growth in the past 2-3 years, with the number of fantasy sports operators increasing by seven times over 2016-2018, while the number of users grew by over twenty-five times (~25x) from June 2016 to Feb 2019. One of the major reasons for the rapid adoption of OFSG is that it gives sporting fans a way to engage deeper not just with their favourite sport, but also with their favourite players.
It is no surprise then that there have been a number of platforms emerging in India over the past few years catering to OFSG.
Joining the league now is My11Circle, a platform launched by Play Games24x7 — the parent company of popular card game RummyCircle.
Play Games24x7 unveiled its new fantasy cricket platform in February. With cricket being India’s most favourite game, the fantasy cricket app My11Circle allows fans to select players from both sides during a match and create their fantasy team. And based on how the 11 selected players perform during the match, the team owner wins cash prizes.
At the time of the launch, Bhavin Pandya, Co-CEO and Co-Founder, Play Games24x7, said that the focus will be on understanding the behaviour of the players to provide an awesome gaming experience. And having started with Cricket, Play Games wants to offer multiple games in this format.
Users on My11Circle can select from both domestic and international cricket games.
In May, it also partnered with former Indian captain Saurav Ganguly for a tournament where he participated in a contest #DadaKaVaada. My11Circle said that Ganguly would be playing on the app himself, giving users the opportunity to create their own teams and try and beat Ganguly. And those who would, won cash prizes.
Those who would beat Ganguly’s team would get 5 times more cash and the best teams out of the entire tournament stood a chance to win a cash prize of up to Rs 1 crore.
According to a Hindu Business Line report, the first India-Australia match during the T20 tournament had 8,600 participants forming 11,350 teams on My11Circle. My11Circle reportedly paid Rs 1 lakh as the first prize, Rs 50,000 as the second and awarded Rs 3.5 lakh among 5,685 teams, the lowest prize being Rs 50.
Users can also play on My11Circle fantasy cricket app without putting in any money and first gain confidence before putting in the real bucks.
Being powered by RummyCircle, which is one of Play Games24x7’s most popular gaming platforms, the company is hoping that the large user base on this will also play on My11Circle giving it the required early traction.