MUMBAI: Fantasy sports gaming in India is showing massive growth, with 67 per cent online cricket fans in India aware of the genre and third screen interactivity showing a marked rise, both in metros and non-metros, according to a new study.
‘Scoring Big With Sports Gaming’ is an AC Nielsen report commissioned by the Indian Federation Of Sports Gaming (IFSG) to understand awareness levels, market size, user profile, consumption pattern and how fantasy sports augments real sports consumption.
Talking about the report’s insights, Harsh Jain, chairman of IFSG and co-founder, CEO of Dream11 said: “Over the past decade, Fantasy Sports has been at the helm of evolving the Indian sports fans’ experience by giving them the perfect platform to showcase their sports knowledge and skill. 70 crore* (700 million) Indian passive sports viewers now have the opportunity to become active participants in every single match. Fantasy Sports is the start of a revolution that will change the face of the sports industry forever.”
Almost all major sports leagues in the world are using fantasy sports as their primary tool of fan engagement. The Caribbean Premier League, Indian Super League and NBA have all forged official partnerships with Dream11 to offer fantasy cricket, football and basketball. Further, the Premier League, IPL and Pro Kabaddi League run their own fantasy sports games to keep their fans engaged.
Highlighting the growing interest in fantasy gaming, Ashish Karnad, executive director, Nielsen India said: “Fantasy sports is an emerging phenomenon in urban India – which gives sports fans an opportunity to use their knowledge, skill and understanding of the sport and players to win in online versions of actual on-ground games. Among sports enthusiasts, 2 out of 3 people are aware of fantasy sports.”
Notable findings of the report:
Fantasy Sports is highly sticky – 89% of the users play fantasy sports at least once a month
Out of the users who have ever played fantasy sports – 96% of them have played it at least once in the past 1 year and 89% of them played it in the last one month. The offering is highly sticky and engaging in nature.
60 operators and growing: India fast becoming the battlefield of fantasy sports operators
Fantasy sports in India now has about 60 fantasy sports gaming operators, up from 30 operators in 2017. Of these, Dream11 has around 90 per cent market share, followed by MyTeam11 and HalaPlay.
With 20 million fantasy sports users, growing from just 2 million in 2016, India rapidly catching up with western countries
Fantasy sports has been played in the USA since the 1950s. In USA and Canada alone, there are 59.3 million Fantasy Sports users
Fantasy sports is played across metro and non-metro cities, from Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru to Lucknow, Patna, Indore etc.
Growing popularity amongst financially independent working professionals
Fantasy Sports users are independent, married, well-educated, working professionals with a disposable income. The affluent section of consumers displays the highest awareness of fantasy sports by far. 51 per cent of the users are graduates and 84 per cent are working professionals. Fantasy Sports users are typically married men with higher incomes. 72 per cent of the fantasy sports users are aged 25 to 35, 28 per cent being 18 to 24 year old males.
Statistically, users from North India (69 per cent) display a higher awareness of fantasy sports and participate more, followed by West (67 per cent), East (66 per cent) and South (64 per cent)
93 per cent users play fantasy sports via mobile/tablets making these their preferred devices
*Note: 2,700 males aged between 18-35 years took part in the survey across 12 cities in India
