New Delhi, February 2026 — The meteoric rise of India’s fantasy gaming industry is facing a moment of reckoning. While platforms like Dream11 and My11Circle have long marketed themselves as arenas for “sporting intellect,” a closer look at the data and promotional tactics reveals a business model built on a precarious foundation of manufactured hope and heavy financial losses for the masses.
The “Game of Skill” Smoke Screen
For years, the industry has shielded itself behind the legal classification of “games of skill.” However, the structural reality tells a different story. While users are encouraged to research player stats and pitch conditions, the sheer volume of participants—often numbering in the lakhs per contest—mathematically ensures that over 99% of players lose money. The industry thrives not on the success of its users, but on a cycle of small, constant losses that aggregate into massive corporate revenues. The “skill” involved often pales in comparison to the statistical impossibility of consistent winning in such crowded pools.
Celebrity Faces, Hidden Contracts
The video highlights a massive “trust gap” created by high-octane marketing. From Tier-1 cricketers to micro-influencers on Instagram, the message remains the same: “Apni team banao” (Make your team). Yet, the reality behind these endorsements is strictly transactional:
- Performance Contracts: Most celebrities are paid crores to appear in ads but rarely, if ever, use the apps themselves.
- Influencer Dependency: For mid-tier creators and meme pages, fantasy gaming budgets have historically accounted for 20–30% of their total income, incentivizing them to push gambling-adjacent products to young, impressionable audiences.
- The Illusion of Participation: Fans are led to believe their idols are “playing along,” when in fact, the stars are merely the face of a marketing machine fueled by user deposits.
The ₹5,000 Crore Marketing Burn
The scale of this “illusion economy” is staggering. Industry filings reveal that fantasy apps spend upwards of ₹5,000 crore annually on advertising. During peak seasons like the IPL, these ads occupy nearly 70–90% of airtime, effectively tethering the emotional highs of cricket—every six and every wicket—to a financial wager.
This aggressive spending creates a self-sustaining loop: the money lost by users is immediately reinvested into more ads to acquire new users, ensuring the “fantasy” never stops playing on screen.
A Return to the Pure Sport?
As calls for tighter regulation grow, many argue for a “reset” of Indian cricket culture. A shift away from gambling-centric broadcasts would mean:
- Cleaner Jerseys: Removing gaming logos from national and franchise kits.
- Revenue Voids: Broadcasters like Star Sports and JioCinema would face a potential ₹2,000 crore vacuum in ad revenue, forcing a diversification of sponsors.
- Authentic Fandom: Fans watching the sport for the love of the game, rather than the anxiety of a crumbling fantasy lineup.
Bottom Line
The era of “Apni team banao” has been exposed as a brilliant marketing feat that successfully rebranded gambling as a digital sport. As the mask slips, the truth remains: the people who promoted these apps rarely played them, and the millions who played them rarely won.
