DUBAI: The International Cricket Council has signed a deal with Dream11, India’s biggest sports gaming platform, to make it the ICC’s Official Fantasy Game Partner till 2023.
As per a press release, the cricketing fans all across the world will have the opportunity to select their fantasy teams after the official team squads are announced for all ICC events worldwide.
The release further adds that Dream11 will develop and operate fantasy games related to all ICC events, which will include “T20 matches, World Cup and Test matches, across major Men, Women, Junior and Qualifier events”.
Speaking on the partnership, ICC CEO David Richardson said: “The ICC is delighted to welcome Dream11 on board to deliver a fantasy cricket platform for cricket’s one billion plus fans across all ICC events. Giving fans the opportunity to enjoy our sport in more ways, by playing fantasy cricket throughout the tournament or for individual games, is important to us.”
Harsh Jain, CEO and co-founder of Dream 11 added: “We are thrilled to be the global Official Fantasy Game of ICC – the apex body of cricket, for all their matches going forward. The ICC Dream11 partnership will provide the best, most trusted fantasy cricket experience to billions of fans globally. Cricket fans are in for a highly engaging and immersive experience helping them to get closer to the real-life cricketing action by virtue of their ICC Dream11 teams. This exciting partnership gives us both the perfect opportunity to revolutionise sports consumption and be the catalyst to increase fantasy cricket adoption from the current base of 4.5 to over 10 crores globally.”
The ICC deal follows on from similar agreements that the fantasy sports platform currently has in place with the Indian Super League, the Pro Kabaddi League and Caribbean Premier League T20.
The fantasy sports ecosystem has been growing exponentially in India over the last few years. From 2 million users in 2016, the base has grown to about 50 million fantasy sports users, with estimated projections of over 100 million Indian sports fans playing fantasy sports by 2020.
Dream11 is a series D funded startup founded in 2012 by Jain and Bhavit Sheth. Kalaari Capital, Think Investments, Multiples Equity and Tencent are its marquee investors. The platform has 45 million users, mainly Indians.
