New Delhi: Sportiqo , a blockchain-based fantasy cricket platform, has launched operations in India. The company said its users can invest or trade in players, like they would do in stocks.
Earlier, under a beta launch, the company claimed to have about 32,000 active users. It had raised ₹10 crore in a pre-seed round from angel investors.
The platform is live for the ILT20 League for now and is looking to add a portfolio of other sports and leagues, such as the English Premier League and the Indian Premier League, among others.
The company said it has a performance ranking system based on an algorithm that analyses a variety of batting, bowling and fielding statistics to assign an index rating to each player. It added that when a user’s selected players perform, they are rewarded with cash dividends based on their portfolio.
Anindya Kar, chief product officer and co-founder of the company, said, “India and cricket is a market we really want to explore. This kind of personal interest and audience engagement is unique to cricket here and transforming that fandom into a stock markets format is a unique proposition. When we launched our company we were looking for an interactive and entertaining way to engage people while also making it informative so that they get a basic idea of the world of investing and trading.“
“Educating the youth about investing and trading using cricket is a great idea. India really needs creative options to improve the financial literacy of the masses and Sportiqo is addressing that gap.”, said stock market analyst Gautam Duggad.
Amrit Mathur, an advisor to the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) said, “Cricket fans are passionate and many of them have a deep knowledge of the sport and players. I think bringing together the sport and its fans via this format of fantasy gaming is exciting. It is always fun to get your skin in the game and developing a simulated stock exchange in the cricket universe is a potent idea.”
The number of Indian gamers has been expanding at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% and is expected to jump to 700 million in FY25 from 507 million in 2021, as per a report by Dentsu titled ‘Gaming Report India 2022 – For the Game.
The report said that 46% of gamers in India are women, and that overall ‘Real Money Game’ revenues constitute 57% of market size but future growth is projected to be driven by in-app purchases rising at a 34% CAGR. There were 120 million paying users in FY22, which represents a 24% conversion rate.
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