With IPL around the corner, fantasy gamers are gearing up to bet on their favourite players and fantasy teams and watch them compete and earn points. Fantasy gaming has gained significant ground in India over the last few years. According to a report by the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) and KPMG, India’s fantasy sports and the gaming industry is worth $43.8 billion and is estimated to reach $118.8 billion by FY23, growing at a CAGR of 22.1%.
While fantasy gaming is played around several sports, one of the most popular is cricket, the reason for which is very well known to all – cricket is treated as no less than a religion in India. And the popularity of fantasy gaming startups is so huge that fantasy sports platform Dream11 became the title sponsor for IPL this year.
Fantasy cricket is a game where a user selects their own team of 11 players by choosing players from two real teams that are actually playing the game. As the game progresses, based on the performance of the players, the fantasy team wins points. This is based on runs scored, and wickets and catches taken by the players.
One such popular startup that has over 7 million users is Howzat.
Howzat fantasy cricket app lets users sign up for free, join a match and select their team of 11 players, including batsmen, bowlers, all-rounders and at least one wicketkeeper. They also get to select a Captain and a Vice Captain for their team, whose performance carries greater weightage. Users also stand to win cash based on the points they earn.
On Howzat, there are two main types of fantasy cricket: free fantasy games and paid fantasy games. As per the company website, users also stand a chance to get a bonus of up to Rs 5,000 on signing up.
Apart from cricket, Howzat also features fantasy football and kabaddi.
While betting is illegal in India, Howzat reiterates that its fantasy cricket game is absolutely legal to play in India.
“Whether you select our free cricket games, or cash games to play cricket and win cash prizes, you do not need to worry about anything whatsoever. All the payment gateways and online transactions on Howzat are absolutely safe and secure, and the winnings are transferred to your account automatically. Fantasy cricket is a skill-based game, and according to a Supreme Court verdict, it is 100% legal to play skill games for free or with cash in India,” its website states.
As per reports, Junglee Games acquired Algorin TechLabs, a Bengaluru-based gaming company to co-develop and launch Howzat. Algorin was founded in 2017 by Vijay Varma and Abhishek Bharti, who along with their team joined Junglee Games post the acquisition.
Junglee Games is a skill-based gaming platform founded in 2012 by Ankush Gera, with offices in San Francisco, Hong Kong, Austria, India, Vancouver, Argentina and Poland. Junglee also has other popular mobile games such as Junglee Rummy, Teen Patti, and a multiplayer underwater survival game called Eatme.io.
Ankush also reportedly said in an interview that Eatme.io is among the top 10 games in Brazil and Russia. Junglee’s Teen Patti game also garnered a lot of downloads and reportedly became the top gaming app and fifth most top-grossing game less than a year since it was launched.