BENGALURU: UK-based StarPick Limited has entered the online fantasy sports arena in this market with the launch of StarPick India.
Co-founded by Ulf Ekberg, Trigam Mukherjee and Rohit Nair the platform has roped in ace cricketers Jonty Rhodes and VVS Laxman as “advisors”, while cricket stars Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir have been signed on as brand ambassadors.
StarPick will offer the widest game portfolio from across the world, including cricket, kabaddi, European football, hockey, basketball, Formula 1, golf and bicycle racing, to name a few.
Speaking to reporters at the launch event, Mukherjee said sports fans would be able to choose their teams at a variable management fee from the pool of players based on their understanding and analytics of the game and win or lose based on the actual performance of these players.
To a query on the possibility of online gambling charges in future, PTI quotes Nair as stating that the company won a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court last year, wherein a judgment was delivered that playing fantasy sports online does not amount to gambling and involves a substantial degree of skill.
“We started looking at India in 2014 when fantasy sports exploded in the US. However, we were not sure about the legalities. But after the court ruling we thought the time is ripe for India, which is the next outpost for fantasy sports,” Nair said.
