Fantasy Sports during IPL to reach gross revenue of Rs 2900-3100 crore in 2023: Report

According to Redseer Strategy Consultants, the transacting users during IPL season are expected to grow by 25-30% in 2023, with nearly 60-65% of users coming from Tier-2 cities and beyond.  

IPL 2023 keeps the nation on its toes, with 10 teams competing for the coveted trophy. Redseer Strategy Consultants has released a report analysing the different avenues of engagement that contribute to the tremendous growth of the IPL economy, with a focus on fantasy sports during IPL.

Since its inception in 2008, IPL has predominantly been a televised sporting event with an audience of around 100 million viewers. During COVID-19, IPL viewership on TV dropped by 10% as the lack of live sporting events caused many sports viewers to migrate to OTT platforms. 

While the live game in the stadiums is where the real action is, its offshoots spread deep into the virtual world in the form of fantasy leagues. The fantasy game requires users to play strategically, know each player's records, and make their own estimations. Points are earned based on the performance of their players in actual matches, with the platforms offering lucrative prize money to the users.

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Redseer estimates that the IPL market size is expected to have grown because of several factors, including increased awareness of fantasy gaming and new platforms increasing their marketing efforts. Ujjwal Chaudhry, Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants, says “Steep growth in fantasy sports gaming will come from tier 2 cities driven by increasing adoption of fantasy platforms and cross-migration of users from other games. Increased internet accessibility will give a push to the IPL economy. Our estimates suggest that the average revenue per user is expected to grow from INR 410 in IPL 2022 to INR 440 per user in IPL 2023.”

Ujjwal, further adds that encouragement from the government in the form of formalized rules and regulations regarding GST for RMG platforms and Google allowing fantasy platforms on the Google Play Store will further increase transacting users during IPL 2023.

“There has been an increase in efforts to make platforms more secure and reliable for the users. Measures like RNG certification, secure payment gateways, and fraud security, increase user trust in the platforms, and subsequently build confidence in the users to spend higher amounts on gaming.”  adds Saurav Kumar Chachan, Director, Redseer Strategy Consultants. 

You can read the full report below.