India tops fantasy sports market

India’s fantasy sports industry, which has been growing over the last six years, is estimated to have invested ₹3,100 crore in real-world sports via sponsorships and partnerships with sporting leagues, and is expected to make a cumulative contribution of ₹29,000 crore to the overall sports economy between FY22 and FY27.

A Deloitte India and Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports report, titled Fantasy Sports: A Catalyst for the Sports Economy’, said India has emerged as the fastest growing market in the world, with over 300 fantasy sports platforms having a user base of over 180 million, or almost three times the size of North America.

In FY22, revenues of fantasy sports firms almost tripled in two years to ₹6,800 crore, and 31% over FY21. It is expected to grow at compound annual rate of 30% over the next five years to ₹25,300 crore in FY27, the report added.

The industry’s growth can be attributed to a combination of infrastructural and market-led factors. Currently, there are 692 million active internet users. It is expected to increase to 900 million by 2025.

The report said the industry paid about ₹4,500 crore to the exchequer in taxes in FY18-22. It also attracted steady investments, with both domestic and foreign funding adding up to ₹15,000 crore till FY22, valuing the overall sector at about ₹75,000 crore.

Furthermore, the industry generated indirect revenues of ₹6,200 crore in this period, and created 12,000 direct and indirect jobs by FY22-end.

The Indian users of fantasy sports in FY22 was young and 40% of them were in the 25-34 age group, evenly split across metros and non-metros, and were predominantly male.

The fantasy sports user base has about 40% users participating more than once a week with only 20% registering for paid contests and about 60% of all transactions are from tier 2 and 3 towns.