Fantasy sports in India

Fantasy sports came to India in the later half of the 2010s. The Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) is the highest governing body.

India has many fantasy mobile gaming or fantasy gaming apps. Google Play Store does not allow these apps on their platform for download, thus people who want to play them must download them from their websites. To attract people, these apps sponsor sports leagues, advertise through cricket players, get endorsements from film actors, and run ads with various betting websites.

Various apps advertise that their some users earned lakh, crore rupees on their app. The Indian government does not have any regulation on these apps. The Play Store considers these apps are gambling apps, which violate Google's anti-gambling policy, leading to both Mobile Premier League and Dream 11 being banned. In September 2022, Google Play allowed some gambling, casino apps to be downloaded. In October 2021, Karnataka banned fantasy gaming apps, but in February 2022, Karnataka High Court lifted it. In October 2022, Tamil Nadu also banned them, According to the judge that made the ruling, "These apps are ruined [sic] many families, by indulging people into gambling." The fantasy sport apps can be addictive and lead to financial losses. Telangana, Assam, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, and Nagaland have a complete ban on these type of online games. As per FIFS their member companies do not allow people below 18 to play in their platforms. These apps use KYC (Know Your Customer) guidelines as per FIFS. But The Times of India found that it not true, many apps only ask KYC when user withdraw money and age verification is done by user which can be false.

According to a 2022 report of NITI Aayog, fantasy sports is estimated to attract 10,000 crore rupees foreign direct investment in India in the next few years. As per Deloitte's report in same year, the Indian fantasy sport industry is worth 34,000 crore and it has 13 crore users. In addition to cricket, these apps allow the creation of teams in other sports which are not as popular as cricket, such as field hockey, association football, and kabaddi. Since performance in fantasy sports requires one to be relatively well-versed in the nuances of the sport in question, the addition of hockey, kabaddi, football, and other sports in OFSPs increases the interest in and consumption of these sports.

Advertising guidelines

These fantasy gaming apps claim to give real money to users if they won, but they not use to tell audience through ads that you could lose money, suffered financial losses. In November 2020, Information and broadcasting ministry of India's Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) created some guidelines for 'fantasy gaming apps' doing business in India, such as:

• No fantasy app will should under 18 person playing the game or can not suggest that under 18 can play it
• Every fantasy gaming app, which involve transactions of real money should showcase a disclaimer with alongside any advertisement and occupy 20% are of ad's space. If it is an audio ad, it should say, clearly and in a normal talking speed. The ad should carry the following disclaimer:

“This game involves an element of financial risk and may be addictive. Please play responsibly and at your own risk.”

• Ads should not promote online gaming for real money winnings as an income opportunity or an employment option
• No advertisements should suggest that one who plays the game is more comparatively successful than someone who doesn't

Guidelines Ref -

In 2020 Information and Broadcasting ministry said that it has concerns over such ads and that could be misleading to the audience, and are not in accordance to the stringent rules and regulations of the Consumer Protection Act of 2019 and the Cable Television Act of 1995.

Criticism

In 2019 a person claimed in an article published by Outlook that he downloaded Dream11 when he saw an ad on social media, download and played with 50,000 rupees and in just 2 games lost 24,000 and 26,000 rupees respectively in two days. He expressed that activities offered on Dream 11 were not based on skills but chance.

Fantasy gaming platforms are notorious for sending advertisements in the form of spam messages to the people, asking them download the app with the promise of a signing bonus In November 2022, Community social media platform LocalCircles conducted a survey, which received 33,000 responses, in the survey many tagged 'fantasy sports' as online gambling, and 91% believe that the spam message advertisements should be made illegal. The survey notes that the owners of fantasy gaming platforms claim their game is a game of skill, but most of the respondents believe that it is a game of chance, and thus earnings are random. Nearly two out of three respondents said online fantasy sports were gambling.

See also

• Video games in India
• Surrogate advertising
• False advertising
• Sport in India
• Indian Premier League