eSports growth in India is very commendable in recent times due to the entry of major players into this domain. The Indian gamers are getting huge exposure and bigger platforms to make this a full-time profession. Even the audience size for eSports has increased many folds in the last one year. The viewers now look for deep insights about the game they are watching as it helps them to predict the results and understand the game in a better way. India Fantasy is one of the online platforms that provide crucial statistics, analysis and insights for various games. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal recently spoke to Prateek Gupta, Founder, India Fantasy. Prateek shared vital information about the journey of India Fantasy, its user base, challenges and future plans. Read below the excerpts:
Rajeev: How do you look at the growth of esports in India? Please tell us about the overall journey of India Fantasy so far.
Prateek: According to Forbes, India ranked 16th in the world when it comes to esports with total revenue of $1.17 Billion. A decade ago there were only 25 game developers, today there are more than 250 game developers in the country. Recently India hosted some of the significant esports tournaments such as PUBG Mobile Series 2019 and Electronic Sports League. During the pandemic, the number of online gamers using smartphones grew by almost 60% as compared to pre covid times. Apart from Esports such as PUBG, fantasy gaming apps also saw good growth. Back in 2016, only 2 million Indians were playing fantasy games, but today that number has skyrocketed to 100 million and continues to grow day by day.
India Fantasy started in 2017, at that time many apps offered a platform to users to play and win but there was no platform that could help them to win on these fantasy platforms. The vision to help these fantasy players by delivering match analysis and helping them in making a good combination of teams by which they can win some money is the biggest USP of India Fantasy.
Not only in cricket, football, basketball; through Indiafantasy.com we explore many more E-Gaming sports like Free Fire, Call of Duty, Pub G for our audiences and give quality tips and information which help them to play and win on those platforms as well.
Rajeev: What is the current user base of India Fantasy? What are your strategies to fuel your growth and increase the number of users?
Prateek: India Fantasy’s user base comes from diverse sources. From our website on average, we get around 50K page views daily. We have a 5 Million+ reach on our social media platforms and on Youtube, we have a viewership of more than 20 Million.
Our strategy to fuel our growth is simple, we are looking to provide as many benefits as we can to our users and build trust among them. We are also planning to provide them with offers and knowledge on their favourite ESports and also providing them with accurate tips and analysis so that they can win some good amount by playing fantasy games as well as Esports.
Rajeev: What are the key factors that will likely push the growth of India Fantasy in the coming years?
Prateek: Below are the four factors that will likely push the growth of India Fantasy in the coming years.
A) Increasing Interest In Esports- Today's generation is technology-driven and the rise of esports in the country has been incredible. No longer does the new generation plays Esports casually but it has now become a full-fledged business from which people earn a huge amount.
Esports is certainly the future and we at India fantasy in the upcoming time will be planning competitive games, live streams, collaboration with professional players, and helping it reach a wider audience in India.
B) Increase in fantasy players- The lockdown has changed a lot of things, the biggest being that the majority of the youth are now on their mobile screens and laptops the entire day. The youngsters realise that there is huge potential and growth in fantasy sports. The big sports enthusiasts now make fantasy teams earn a valuable amount and the number of fantasy players just keeps multiplying with each day. Our aim is to create an ecosystem for all fantasy players where they can use their knowledge and continue to earn from their passion in Esports.
C) Increased mobile usage- As mentioned above the mobile has now become the best friend of the youth. They are constantly scrolling on their device which has led to them gaining knowledge and interest in Esports. The India fantasy platform is keen to build good goodwill with the fantasy players and become their one-stop destination for playing all the fantasy sports
D) Urge to win big by playing e-sport or fantasy games- At the end of the day, money has to be the biggest factor why a lot of young people are gaining interest in fantasy sports. Our aim will be to satisfy them and create a big pool of money for them to play and also earn big.
Rajeev: As the millennials are now more exposed to other games apart from cricket, so how do you see this aspect for your journey ahead?
Prateek: Apart from cricket, we have seen a huge increase in traffic on our channels for football and basketball-related tips. We are also offering content related to esports like PUBG, FreeFire, COD, etc which is attracting the millennials to visit our channels and get sufficient knowledge about the games.
The audience is slowly but surely getting interested in other sports apart from cricket. We are making sure we cover every possible detail related to football, basketball and Esports whether it is telling about key match players, big matchups and key analysis. Our website has a lot of news, fantasy, and listicle articles of other sports which are liked a lot by our millennials.
The goal will be to continue this and provide knowledge about all the aspects of these sports which helps the millennials when they play fantasy sports.
Rajeev: What are the key challenges that you face today? How are you working to sail through these challenges?
Prateek: The major key challenge is the increasing competition that we face with new upcoming channels on daily basis. We are working hard to increase loyalty among the users by giving the best possible analytical predictions and tips. This is the only way one can survive in this cluttered marketplace.
