As per a latest report by the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports, India is the world’s biggest fantasy sports consumer/user. With an estimated population of 13 crore individuals, there has been a surge in revenue earned and taxable income emanating from Esports. Pertaining to income, the estimated revenue at the moment is 5,200 crores and this is projected to go up to 1,65,000 crores by FY25. This is a massive leap for a country that is beginning to see the major benefits of legalising fantasy sports in a multitude of different ways.
Some of the observations are that Tier 2 and 3 cities have contributed immensely to this growth along with promoting the surge in digital literacy. Along with the Covid pandemic, there is also a major attribution of the growth of fantasy sports to the availability of smartphones, low-cost data plans and other such factors.
FIFS (CEO), Anwar Shirpurwala was quoted saying.”The fantasy sports industry is making huge economic inroads into India’s overall growth and development in multiple ways – creating highly skilled jobs, attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and generating significant revenue for the exchequer. Besides, it is also propelling sporting culture and giving a boost to non-cricket sports as people tend to hone knowledge to participate in fantasy sports contests. Taking cognisance of the potential of this sector together with multiple favourable court judgements, primary government think tank NITI Aayog has released comprehensive guidelines for Fantasy Sports,”.
Sports such as cricket, kabaddi and football are leading the way in terms of users and viewers. Cricket is mainly leading due to the multitude of events that have taken place in the past few years such as the IPL and the men’s and women’s World Cup.
