Fantasy sports platform Dream11 has been roped in as the co-presenter for IPL 2024 on Disney Star.

While the exact deal price is not known, as per the first-rate card released by Disney Star, which will air matches on its sports channels, the broadcaster is said to be seeking Rs 71 crore for co-presenting sponsorship and Rs 35 crore for associate sponsorship for HD channels. For SD channels, Disney Star is seeking outlays of Rs 167 crore and Rs 83 crore for co-presenting and associate sponsorships, respectively.

Dream11 has also extended sponsorship to all 10 Indian Premier League (IPL) teams, and continues to grow by adding a whopping 55 million new users in 2023 despite a harsh tax regime introduced last October, says Harsh Jain, CEO & Co-Founder, Dream11. 

“Over 55 million new users is roughly 25 percent of our overall user numbers, which is 200 million. This exponential growth is largely driven by female fantasy sports users, a community which is growing 80% year-over-year thanks to the Women’s Premier League, which has emerged as an inspiration for women gamers,” said Jain, hailing the proliferation of cricket across the world through IPL and WPL, including the US which is going host the World Cup this year. 

Jain was speaking at a fireside chat during the Meta’s Gaming Summit in Mumbai on Thursday. The chat was moderated by Meta India Vice President Sandhya Devanathan.  

Notably, rival fantasy sports firm My11Circle is currently the official partner of the IPL, which outbid the incumbent Dream11 early this year. However, Dream11 holds the Team India jersey lead sponsorship rights from 2023 to 2027. 

Speaking about the government’s retrospective GST regime imposed on the gaming sector in 2023, Jain said, “Every disruptive industry when it grows large enough, the government has to come up with regulation.  We welcome regulations that will clean up the space and make it clear in black and white what you can and what you cannot do. The taxes have gone up 3X, but it's good that we have clarity, which is important. Retrospective tax was tremendous though.”

Jain also claimed that his company absorbed all the tax burdens at the cost of its own margins without stressing its users.

On a question about his marketing spends, he said, “Margins have taken substantial hits but marketing hasn't changed as much. We're just people with much more efficient unit economics to match the new unit economics.”

He however noted that smaller players, who were not getting profitability and growth, were hit badly due to new tax regimes. 

Jain also insisted that Dream11 is not just a fantasy sports platform but their flagship product: "We are actually a sports content company with brands including Fancode (OTT), FC Shop (merchandise), Dream Game Studio and DreamSetGo (Travel)."

In October 2023, the Indian government announced a 20 percent GST on Real-Money Gaming (RMG) retrospectively, gaming platforms reported a sharp decline in their users’ traffic. 

The crisis deepened further when the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) issued tax demand notices worth Rs 45,000 crore to a dozen gaming startups. It was followed by massive laying off with some startups even shutting down their shops. 

The tax regime was believed to be the biggest setback for the country's burgeoning gaming sector which had been at the forefront of advertising and sponsoring sports tournaments. 

However, EY's latest report on the media and entertainment sector released on Tuesday in Mumbai reveals that the industry did not only come out of the tax shocker but bounced back within months. 

Transaction-based game revenues increased by 21% to reach Rs 18,200 crore in 2023, indicating higher engagement and spending on the gaming platforms, according to EY’s #Reinvent report.