Dream Sports, parent company of fantasy sports major Dream11, will invest $50 million in cricket destination Cricbuzz and North American cricket broadcaster Willow TV for a minority stake as part of its efforts to enhance fan engagement, including commerce-related experiences.
The companies plan to collaborate on providing real-time analysis and statistics, engagement and commerce integrations, and artificial intelligence-driven predictions and personalisation into the product, Dream Sports and Times Internet said in a joint statement Tuesday. Times Internet owns Cricbuzz and Willow TV.
Per an official release, the strategic minority investment pairs India’s largest sports tech company with the most visited cricket media and broadcast ecosystem to unlock next-gen engagement, commerce, and AI-powered interactivity.
“Dream Sports’ mission is to ‘Make Sports Better’ for Indian sports fans. Cricbuzz and Dream11 have worked together for over a decade, and with this investment, all cricket fans can expect much more fan engagement, interactive streams, and integrated commerce experiences that will bring them closer to the action and to each other,” Dream Sports co-founder Harsh Jain said.
“Cricbuzz and Willow sit at the heart of how hundreds of millions of fans follow cricket everyday,” said Times Internet vice chairman Satyan Gajwani. “We’re excited to work with Dream Sports to reimagine and develop new ways to collaboratively create new experiences for cricket fans.”
Dream Sports houses brands such as sports content and commerce platform FanCode, sports experiences platform DreamSetGo, mobile game development unit Dream Game Studios, and sports-based virtual trading platform Sixer, apart from Dream11. The company has 250 million users.
Willow TV holds the rights to broadcast International Cricket Council (ICC) events in the United States and Canada through the end of 2027. The agreement, signed in March 2023, covers 14 international tournaments, including the men’s, women’s, and Under-19 World Cups.
While Cricbuzz is a widely-used platform for live scores and cricket updates, Willow TV serves as a cricket broadcaster in North America. The investment aims to deepen Dream Sports’ global footprint in cricket media and fan engagement.
The partnership creates new opportunities for fan experiences. Atop Cricbuzz’s large audience, the companies intend to collaborate to provide more real-time analysis and statistics, engagement and commerce integrations, and AI-driven predictions and personalisation into the product.
Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor on the transaction.
