Fantasy Sports which falls under online gaming generated investments including foreign and domestic worth Rs 15,000 crore, until FY22, as per the report titled ‘Fantasy Sports: A catalyst for the sports economy’ released on Tuesday. Of this foreign direct investment (FDI) accounted for 66%, amounting to Rs 10,000 crore. Furthermore, data from Tax India Online whitepaper suggested that FDI is projected to reach Rs 25,000 crore by the end of CY2024. “Our analysis suggests that fantasy sports hold tremendous potential to help build a resilient sports ecosystem in India and significantly contribute to the nation’s digital economy. The increased allocation for sports in the 2023 Union Budget, new innovations, investor confidence, and growing consumer demand will help generate fresh prospects for entrepreneurs and stimulate the advancement of this sector in India,” Prashanth Rao, partner, Deloitte India said.
The report which was released by The Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) in collaboration with Deloitte India further stated that with the infusion of capital over the years, the fantasy sports market is currently valued at Rs 75,000 crore.
Moreover, with about 300 fantasy sports platforms and 18 crore users, the industry in terms of revenue grew 31% to reach Rs 6,800 crore in FY22. It is expected to reach Rs 25,240 crore by FY27, as per the study. Interestingly, tier-2 and tier-3 accounted for 60% of user transactions. The industry has created high-skill jobs for 12,800 people and had indirectly employed 7,500 professionals in FY22. As per the report it is further expected to generate 10,500 indirect job opportunities by FY27.
Early this month, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) released new as per which online games which involve wagering or betting will not be allowed. Additionally, these games should not harm users with its content and also further should not lead to any addictive consequences among children. Moreover, online gaming intermediaries (OGI) should not host any games on its platform which is not allowed or verified by the self-regulatory orginisation.
“Our job is to first and foremost to help make sure the self-regulatory bodies that serve our members are the best in terms of the personnel we have, the rules, the secretariat, among others. We will try to participate in helping the government set up an SRO which is independent and truly represents our constituents. Secondly, there will always be a need for an industry body to be able to talk to members and tell them what is happening and how the industry is changing. I think the need for an industry body is only going to increase hereon,” Joy Bhattacharjya, director general, FIFS said.
The new rules further clarified that an educationist besides an expert in the field of mental health, and an individual who is or has been a member or officer of an organisation dealing with the protection of child rights, should be members of SRO.
