Dream11 Gets Fresh Funding At $2.5-Billion Valuation, Days Before IPL 2020

Dream11 raised $225 million in a fresh round of funding, nearly a month after India's biggest fantasy sports platform bagged the Indian Premier League sponsorship and days before the T20 cricketing event kicks off.

The Mumbai-based fantasy sports platform, which allows users to play multiple virtual sports, raised fresh financing from Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies, ChrysCapital and Footpath Ventures through primary and secondary investments, it said in a statement on Monday.

Avendus Capital was the financial adviser to Dream Sports on the transaction.

While the company didn't reveal valuations, two people in the know told BloombergQuint on the condition of anonymity that the new round values the 12-year-old firm at around $2.5 billion. The firm was last valued at $1.5 billion after a secondary stake purchase by Steadview Capital.

Online gaming in India, including the fastest-growing fantasy sports, have seen a steep growth in the last couple of years driven on the back of increased internet and smartphone penetration, cheaper data and adoption of digital payments methods. Online skill-based gaming, according to a Redseer report, is estimated to grow to become a $3.8 billion market by 2024.

Dream Sports, founded by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, has been able to cash in on India’s love for cricket in the world’s second-largest internet market. Besides Dream11, the fantasy sports platform runs FanCode which provides all updates on sports, merchandising platform Dream X, sports accelerator DreamSetGo, and a payments platform Dreampay.

Jain said in the statement that the firm has around 100 million users on the platform. “In the last two years, we have grown beyond fantasy sports to sports content, merchandise, streaming, experiences, and there is much more to come," Jain said. "Our vision is to ‘Make Sports Better’ for India and Indian fans through sports technology and innovation.”

To be sure, the user growth has come despite restrictions on the Google Play store as it doesn’t allow apps to operate pay to play leagues on the play store. Fantasy platforms including Dream11 provide a direct download option from the website.

Last month, Dream11 won the title sponsorship for IPL 2020, one of the most popular sporting events in the world, being held in the U.A.E because of the pandemic.

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“The sports sector has high growth potential in India,” Akshay Tanna, Managing Director at TPG, said in a statement. “There is a significant opportunity to enhance the fan experience and we are excited to partner with Dream Sports to leverage technology in ways that will deepen the connection between Indian fans and the sports they love.”