New Year Sees Massive Investment Boom In Fantasy Sports Sector

In a brilliant news for the fantasy sports industry, the investment boom has seen no bounds at the moment with multiple companies securing solid funding rounds from various Venture Capitalists.

In September 2020, Dream 11 raised $225 million while Virat Kohli-backed Mobile Premier League (MPL) raised $95 million, moving closer to being a unicorn with a valuation of $945 million. It has also seen a huge spike in audience base for multiple Fantasy Sports platforms MPL, WinZO and Paytm First Games and they are reporting a huge jump in user base.

“We have seen more investments in gaming last year than we have seen in the last five years together. The market has reached an inflection point for games. There is equal interest from financial institutions as well as strategic capital looking for partnerships and acquisitions in India," Salone Sehgal, general partner at Lumikai VC, said, as reported by Mint.

According to the report, there is a $438 million investment rise in Indian gaming startups since April 2020, of which $107 million came in 2021. As a matter of fact, the pandemic-ridden 2020 saw only $170 million VC funding in the entire year.

Sensor Tower, an app analytics company, revealed in its report that there was a 51% and 30% growth, respectively, in revenue from user spending on in-app purchases in 2020. The investors are looking at the growth as an indicator of the Indian gaming market and the potential success story it has to offer in the current clime.

“There is excess liquidity in the global market and the Chinese markets are not accessible. More importantly, India is now starting to prove that it is no longer just a consumer of games," added Sehgal.