Fantasy sports have become a very important part of the world of sports today. People make teams on these apps and win big.
The rise of fantasy sports has even changed the way we perceive sports today. These apps enhance our sporting experience in a big way.
That’s why Joy Bhattacharjya and Amit Purohit discussed it in a recent event called FICCI Turf 2022.
The highlight of the talk was the support from the central government for fantasy sports apps and they also addressed the need for sports leagues to further leverage fantasy sports platforms.
Firstly, Bhattacharjya explained how the world of fantasy sports is involving more and more fans in different sports.
The phenomenon that has changed fantasy sports is the use of second screens. Sports fans while watching matches on TV, are checking match statistics, or seeing how their teams are performing or even engaging in friendly banter with other fantasy sports users. Fantasy sports uses a second screen to push the engagement even harder.
Nowadays many international sporting leagues have joined hands with fantasy sports apps to increase viewership, deepen engagement, and build a closer connection with their fan base.
Adds Bhattacharjya,
In 2019, when we did the first Volleyball League, we had a fantasy partner. We started off with 2000 people playing on the first day. On Day 17, we had 85,000 people playing FS and by the final day, we reached 185,000 people. These numbers were organic because we did not push our fantasy sports partner hard enough. We realised that once you give people a product they can engage with, there is a huge opportunity.
Amit Purohit also had his say regarding the rise of fantasy sports and spoke at length about it.
Today, even if you search for statistics for any league, you may not find it. You may find information on Virat Kohli’s last five years’ performance, but you will not find enough information at the granular level for all the leagues.
Both of them also gave their closing remarks where they talked about the role of the central government in pushing the trend of fantasy sports ahead.
Comments Bhattacharjya,
Recently, Google has allowed Fantasy Sports on the Play Store. It means a far bigger opportunity to reach a larger set of audience. We, at FIFS, have always been supportive of bringing uniform regulations so that we can strengthen the industry, protect consumer’s interests and work in accordance with the prescribed set of uniform laws and guidelines.
Purohit added,
I believe Fantasy Sports will have a space for itself in conversations not just in drawing rooms, but also in boardrooms of the right people, which are the associations, federations and broadcasters.
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