In 2018 alone, Indians spent a whopping $1.73 billion in sports gaming. This information from the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) is music to the ears of sports app developers.

While the rest of the sporting industry wallows in stagnation, fantasy sports apps seem to be rising in popularity. One of the new entrants in the market is Sharechat, backed by Twitter.

Sharechat Timeline: From Social Networking to Fantasy Sports

• The Indian social media startup was incorporated in 2015 by the Mohalla Tech Private Limited. Unlike its competitors, the app caters exclusively to local Indian dialects. The app currently boasts more than 8 million users.
  
• 2019 August, the social networking appraised $100 million in a financing campaign led by Twitter for its fantasy sports explorations. 
  
• Sharechat’s fantasy sports app is now out. Called Jeet 11, the app is run by Mohalla Tech Private Limited, but it is managed as a separate app.
  
• The app is currently in beta mode with targeted distribution via Xiaomi’s GetApp app store.
  
• Jeet 11 toes within the lines of India’s sports betting laws. Just like other fantasy sports apps, it falls in the category of the skill-based games as defined by the Indian Supreme Court.
  
• The fantasy sports app operates on the same model as Sharechat, targeting the 14 vernacular languages of India.

India’s EverGreen Fantasy Sports Landscape

Sharechat’s Jeet 11 joins a long list of fantasy sports apps in the country known for its stringent betting laws.

The last decade has seen an unprecedented mushrooming of similar apps in India such that currently, more than 20 million players prefer to put their money in the nascent games.

Fantasy sports are rated as more exciting and safer, legally speaking. The games offered by various apps give users the chance to put their skills to the test, from the Indian Premier League (cricket) to the English Premier League and earn legal money while at it, according to analysts.

The Growing Interest in Digital Sports Offerings

Looking at the numbers shows that in the next three years, there will be 50 million fantasy sports fans in India. For app entrepreneurs, there is no better time to launch a fantasy sports app in India than now.

That’s because fans want more sports technology, and developers that offer advanced features have a competitive advantage.

The above sentiments are echoed in the ISPO 2020 sports market report. In their survey, 80 % of Indian respondents said they had used apps, wearables, and other sports technologies.

That figure shows more openness in the Asian market compared to the USA, 56%, Germany 50% and 50% for Britain, France, and Australia, the report confirms.

An Uncertain Future for New Players

While India’s fantasy sports landscape (legality and uptake) is a wet dream for many appreneurs, there are primary market dominants to contest with.

Sharechat’s Jeet 11 could be of a tumultuous future in the face of competition from live sports betting sites such as comeon cricket betting and fantasy market leaders such as Dream 11, HalaPlay, and My11Circle.

ShareChat has no monetization model and reported losses in the last financial year results. On the other hand, Dream 11, the leading sports fantasy app in India, commands a market share of 90% with a robust monetization scheme steered by venture capitalists.

Jeet 11 currently has 12000 users, and the creators are pegging wide-scale rollout on increased user uptake. When it comes to monetization, though, free games could be a thing of the past, or maybe limited to a few games as Mohalla Tech Private Limited develops more advanced offerings on the app.

How Jeet 11 and Others May Fight for Your Attention

New fantasy sports apps may have to outrageously invest in customer satisfaction or risk suffocation from the industry giants.

Monitoring and breaking down user data

App entrepreneurs can borrow a lead from Dream 11 and others that painstakingly monitor and track user behavior. Through data analysis, the developers create unique additions and personalization to make the app more appealing to gamers.

Your past app use history helps the developers to display the most favorite contests. Getting that right, however, requires advanced capabilities in data analysis. Investigating that further opens a can of warms on privacy and the data safety risks of an Indian gamer.

Audience engagement

User experience is not enough.  App entrepreneurs now realize that they need to create apps that engage and excite audiences for high retention. Dream 11 is again on the lead on this with the Fan Code platform on its app.

Prediction content, including articles and videos, is what sells the most as users want to know the details of a game and their opponents.

Other ways you may see new fantasy apps pushing their ways to you include:

• Push notifications
• Banner advertisements
• Influencer marketing
• Social media advertisement

The Place of Fantasy Sports Sites

The proliferation of fantasy sports apps in India hasn’t brought with it the death of websites. Fantasy sports websites still dictate a significant share of the Indian gaming market.

Players get to build their teams, enhance their skills, and increase their odds of winning.  From cricket to basketball, fantasy betting sites in India are thriving unperturbed.

The Demand for a Multichannel Experience

The unpredictability of users and the dominance of industry leaders might require that new fantasy sports apps leverage the power of the website as well, anything to amass the numbers.

At the end of the day, multiplatform gaming channels improve the user’s experience by fitting conveniently in their digital lifestyles.

It’s also worth noting that despite the popularity of fantasy sports in the country, there are states that still consider it as betting. Currently, fantasy sports gaming is banned in the states of Telangana, Sikkim, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh, among others. Jeet11 only accepts users that come outside the restricted states.