Dream11 is an Indian

fantasy sports A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete bas ...

platform that allows users to play fantasy

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

kabaddi Kabaddi is a contact team sport. Played between two teams of seven players, the objective of the game is for a single player on offence, referred to as a "raider", to run into the opposing team's half of the court, touch out as many of their ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

. In April 2019, Dream11 became the first Indian fantasy sport company to become a

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

. In November 2021 Dream11 was valued at $8 billion.

History

Dream11 was co-founded by Harsh Jain (son of Indian businessman

Anand Jain Anand Jain (born 1957) is an Indian business executive. He is the Chairman of Jai Corp Limited, Urban Infrastructure Venture Capital Limited. He has 30 years of experience in various businesses, with an expertise in real estate, finance and cap ...

) and Bhavit Sheth in 2008. In 2012, they introduced freemium fantasy sports in India for cricket fans. In 2014, the company reported 1 million registered users, which grew to 2 million in 2016 and to 45 million in 2018. In April 2019, Steadview Capital completed secondary investment in Dream11. Apart from Steadview, Dream11's investors included

Kalaari Capital Vani Kola is an Indian venture capitalist. She is the founder and managing director of Kalaari Capital, an Indian early stage venture capital firm. She was listed as one of the most powerful women in Indian business by ''Fortune India'' in 2014 ...

, Think Investments, Multiples Equity and

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

. In April 2019, they launched FanCode, an ad-free multi-sport aggregator platform offering content, commerce and community engagement. In 2021, Dream 11's parent company, Dream Sports raised $840 million in a funding round led by

Tiger Global Tiger Global Management, LLC (often referred to as Tiger Global and formerly known as Tiger Technology) is an American investment firm. It mainly focuses on Internet, software, consumer, and financial technology industries. Background and histo ...

, D1 Capital, Falcon Edge,

DST Global DST Global is a venture capital and private equity firm that primarily invests in late-stage internet companies. DST Global has been described as one of the largest and most influential venture firms in the world, with an estimated $50 billion in ...

, and Redbird Capital.

Legality

In 2017, a case was registered against the company in an Indian High Court. The court, in its ruling, stated that playing the Dream11 game involves superior knowledge, judgement and attention. The Court also held that "the element of skill" had a predominant influence on the outcome of the Dream11 game. However, the law does not allow fantasy sports in a few Indian states like

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

and

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. A challenge to this judgement was filed with the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

, which dismissed the appeal. The judgement provided legality to the company and allowed them to run their operations throughout the country. Despite it being adjudged to be a "game of skill", experts believe that the company operates in the country's regulatory "grey area".

Partnerships

In 2017, the company partnered with three leagues within cricket, football and basketball. Dream11 became the Official Fantasy Partner for

Caribbean Premier League The Caribbean Premier League (abbreviated to CPL or CPLT20) is an annual Twenty20 cricket tournament held in the Caribbean. It was founded by Cricket West Indies in 2013 to replace the Caribbean Twenty20 as the premier Twenty20 competition in t ...

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

and US professional

league

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA). Later in the year, they partnered with the Indian Super League as their official Fantasy Football Partner. In November 2017, the NBA, launched a fantasy basketball game in association with Dream11 and launched their official NBA fantasy game on their platform. In 2018, Dream11 announced its partnership with ICC (International Cricket Council), Pro Kabaddi League,

International Hockey Federation The Fédération Internationale de Hockey (English: International Hockey Federation), commonly known by the acronym and initialism, acronym FIH, is the international governing body of field hockey and indoor field hockey. Its headquarters are i ...

(FIH), WBBL and

BBL A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...

. In 2018, through the above partnership, Dream11 introduced two new games on their platform viz.,

and

. In October 2019,

New Zealand Cricket New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Council, is the governing body for professional cricket in New Zealand. Cricket is the most popular and highest profile summer sport in New Zealand. New Zealand Cricket operates the New Z ...

(NZC) announced Dream11 as the title sponsor for the Super Smash domestic Twenty20 competition. In January 2021, this partnership was extended for another six years until 2026. On 18 August 2020, Dream11 won the title sponsorship rights for the

2020 Indian Premier League The 2020 Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 13 and branded as Dream11 Indian Premier League 2020, was the thirteenth season of the IPL, a professional Twenty20 cricket (T20) league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (B ...

for , after Vivo pulled out for the season.

Financial

Brand ambassadors

The company had first signed commentator

Harsha Bhogle Harsha Bhogle (born 19 July 1961) is an Indian cricket commentator and journalist. He’s widely known as a "voice of cricket". Bhogle has cemented his reputation as being a personality in the global cricket broadcasting industry. Early lif ...

as their brand ambassador in 2017. Cricketer

Mahendra Singh Dhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian former international cricketer who was captain of the Indian national cricket team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He is also the curren ...

was the brand ambassador of Dream11 and launched the "Dimaag se Dhoni" media campaign during the 2018

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

. In 2019, Dream11 signed up seven cricketers and partnered with seven Indian Premier League franchise as part of its multi-channel marketing campaign. In March 2022, Dream11 announced actors

Kartik Aaryan Kartik Aaryan Tiwari (born 22 November 1990), is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. After pursuing a degree in engineering, he made his acting debut with Luv Ranjan's buddy film ''Pyaar Ka Punchnama'' (2011). He went on to star in the ...

and

Samantha Ruth Prabhu Samantha Ruth Prabhu (formerly: Samantha Akkineni; born 28 April 1987) is an Indian actress who mainly works in Telugu and Tamil film industries. She is a recipient of several awards, including four South Filmfare Awards, six South Indian I ...

as their brand ambassadors. This was the first time that the company roped in celebrities outside of sports as their ambassadors. Dream11 also has

Rohit Sharma Rohit Gurunath Sharma (born 30 April 1987) is an Indian international cricketer and the current captain of the Indian cricket team. Widely considered as one of the best opening batter of all time, he plays as a right-handed batsman for Mumbai ...

Rishabh Pant Rishabh Rajendra Pant (born 4 October 1997) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian cricket team as a wicket-keeper batter. Having played all formats for India, he is best known for his consistency to score runs in Test c ...

Shikhar Dhawan Shikhar Dhawan (born 5 December 1985) is an Indian cricketer. Being a left-handed opening batsman and occasional captain of the India national cricket team, he captains Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League and plays for Delhi in first-class ...

Hardik Pandya Hardik Himanshu Pandya (born 11 October 1993) is an Indian international cricketer. An All-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm fast-medium, Pandya has played in all 3 formats for India. He also plays for Baroda cricket team in do ...

Shreyas Iyer Shreyas Santosh Iyer (born 6 December 1994) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian cricket team as a Right-handed batter. He has played in all formats for the Indian team. Iyer has scored a century in his debut test matc ...

and

Jasprit Bumrah Jasprit Jasbirsingh Bumrah (born 6 December 1993) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian national cricket team in all formats of the game. In the India's domestic cricket, he plays for Gujarat cricket team and Mumbai I ...

as their cricket ambassadors.

Format

Dream11 provides a fantasy gaming platform for multiple sports such as fantasy cricket,

and

. It is an online game where users create a

virtual team A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team, distributed team, or remote team) usually refers to a group of individuals who work together from different geographic locations and rely on communication technology such as email, inst ...

of real-life players and earn points based on the performances of these players in real matches. A user who scores the maximum points in their joined contests attains the first rank on the leader-board. Dream11 offers free and paid contests. A user has to pay a certain fee to join a contest and can win real cash. To participate in a Dream11 game, a user must be at least 18 years old and needs to get their profile verified using their PAN.

References

External links

* {{authority control Fantasy sports websites Internet properties established in 2008 Indian companies established in 2008 Companies based in Mumbai Indian sport websites Online companies of India Association football websites Baseball websites Basketball websites Cricket websites Rugby football websites Volleyball websites