Online gaming in India is headed for a phenomenal growth due to increasing digital infrastructure with Fantasy Sports emerging as an important segment alongside the emergence of new sports leagues. With fantasy sports operators increasing rapidly and number of users on this platform expected to cross 100 million by 2020, this segment has the potential to spawn an entire ecosystem around it that could help deepen user engagement with their favourite sports, according to Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) officials.
Highlighting an Online Fantasy Sports event themed “The Economy of Sports Gaming” here today, related stalwarts from Technology, Sports Leagues, Fantasy Sports Operators, Media & Entertainment and Financial Institutions held three panel discussions on ‘Future of Online Sports Entertainment in India,” “Evolving Landscape of Sports Gaming” and “Fuelling Sports Fan Engagement.”
A KPMG Report released here noted that 74% of users play fantasy sports 1-3 times weekly, besides 20% playing over five time weekly and 50% respondents finding important motivators for engagement in “Ability to manage teams virtually,” “Remain connected with the Sport” and “ Utilisation of sports knowledge.”
The “Opportunity to win money” was one motivator for 30% of respondents, while 54% played fantasy sports for free and 46% played paid contests once in 12 months. Majority of users from top 6-7 Indian cities played less frequently compared to smaller cities, while 85% of big city users played fantasy sports 1-3 times weekly as against &0% users in small cities playing over four time weekly on such platforms. 71% respondents played fantasy cricket, while 54% played fantasy football with other non-cricket sports leagues witnessing increasing traction.
The panelists noted that 70% of online data consumption came from videos with increasing watchtime, and voice and video being the biggest unlocked in breaking the literacy barrier in India today. The kind of users and change in user demographics toward deep penetration in the countryside was interesting, besides the last count showing 70-plus online platforms and 20 related companies in the present scenario.
One panelist noted having 250 million viewers of IPL last year with 2019 expecting related growth to 350 million, besides around 4.7 billion App downloads occurring in 2018 with this market growing rapidly on the App ecosystem. The world of Brands and Opportunities remained still ‘under-indexed’ and India needed greater level of engagement in this regard, another said, adding that the Indian diaspora sought more than cricket – which is expected to reduce to 60% in next few years – besides five out of ten users being non-hindi speaking and greater demand coming for regional content, thus emphasizing supply side evolving to fit the need.
“India needs more heroes,” said one panelist while noting that Virat Kohli was the biggest choice of viewers after he tweeted “Stop Trolling.” A ‘seamless’ experience for viewers will draw higher engagement with future viewers paying willingly for highly-segmented products alongside growth of B2C premium and other products that are within the regulatory framework.
To an audience question about ‘BitCoin’ usage in online gaming, one panelist said the USA – and also Europe — is accepting this as ‘tender’ while India was not as this is ‘Hi-Risk, Hi-Reward.’ Regulations on legality of inline gaming is still not clear and many still felt that playing fantasy sports is the same as ‘betting.’ Nine of the world’s top online gamers came from India, and Google and Playstore were doing much to improve the online gaming ecosystem, a Google representative said.
The KPMG report noted that Mobile phones usage comprised 85% of the online gaming revenue share in India and there would be 250 game developers by 2023. Internet subscribers have increased from 368 million (Sept 2016) to 560 million in Sept 2018. There are 70-odd fantasy sport operators in India using the digital infrastructure and the factors driving fantasy sports growth include: emergence of multiple sports leagues like Kabaddi, football, basketball and volleyball. New money flow is needed from related organisations in India, where the gambling market is about US$ 130 billion in 2018 with cricket being the prime source of gambling revenue and US$ 200 million being put on bets on every ODI cricket match in the vast network of ‘underground’ sports betting in the country, even though betting here is prohibited by law.
“The Future of Sports Gaming is in India” noted one official of an online gaming company that is building fantasy games including for FIFA globally – described the number of online players as ‘fantastic’ with 300 million such fans in India itself. Another official said 140 million smartphones were sold in India in 2018 with this figure expected to grow to 800 million within the next few years where user online gaming players spent around four hours daily. There are about 500 million Broadband users in India with technology like the “Cloud’ being enabler for online gaming.
A Facebook representative described FB as an opportunity to grow businesses and drive user engagement, while another panelist said an organic shift is occurring in the online gaming industry.
One panelist said how crucial fans are to a game could be seen from the fact that after the recent India-Pakistan incident, the BCCI had approached the ICC for ensuring security for cricket fans in England. Another panelist said 65% of Indian online gamers are under 35 years of age and Millennials, especially Gen-X have a short attention span which call for attention-grabbing games. Recognition of schools by involving principals in promoting kabaddi, besides also involving mothers through their childrens participation in sports too was needed, they said.
