If you belong to India, chances are that you associate the word “Cricket”
with a lot more than just some popular “Bat-and-Ball” game that is played across
a team of eleven members each. Cricket is deeply embedded in the heart of the
Indian Lifestyle and Culture.
In fact, Cricket is almost analogous to religion for many Indians. Millions of
hearts get shattered whenever India lose matches to other countries and millions
of hearts rejoice in happiness when it wins matches against other countries.
People stay glued to their TV for hours whenever a cricket match is on, shouting
tactics and strategies at the screen.
The passion is so real that many Indians have now taken up “Fantasy Cricket”
(part of a fantasy sports genre) as their new niche, where a team of 11 is
created and points are scored based on your performance in these LIVE matches.
As per Indian Federation of Sports Gaming, two out of three people in India know
what Fantasy sports is all about. In fact, almost 96% of the people who have
ever played Fantasy sports, have played it at least once in a year with at least
89% having played it once in a month. Moreover, fantasy sports is not just
limited to Metro cities and has expanded globally. Fantasy sports is a $7.22
billion industry in the US with about $59.3 million (approximately Rs 5.93 crore)
Fantasy Sports users in the US and Canada. Since the Fantasy Sports bug (Fantasy
Cricket more precisely) has also bitten the Indians, that figure in India is
also likely to boost. And events such as IPL (Indian Premier League) and World
Cup have only contributed to the hype surrounding Fantasy cricket given the fact
that they are a major rife in India.
To put into a larger perspective just how crazy Indians are about IPL, a collab
study done by Indraprastha Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon
University states that close to 6.7 million tweets were recorded from one
million users over a span of two months during IPL 2013. A number that must have
grown exponentially now given that social media use today is higher than ever.
To fuel this obsession in the right fashion, a smorgasbord of Fantasy Cricket
mobile and web apps have come up in the Indian Gaming Market that allows the
Indian users to play in both, the International and Domestic Cricket games
including IPL. The major crux of these apps is to create a team, earn the
highest points, and become the winner. These apps partner with official sports
leagues to have them as their fantasy sports partner.
For instance, there’s an fantasy cricket app named India Big Game, that lets you
get started with fantasy cricket and provides an option for players to choose
from a variety of Cricket leagues. Right after you complete the download and
registration process, you can select from a list of matches (T20, ODI, T20),
create your own team and start playing. In case you’re a newbie in the Fantasy
Games domain then you can go for the “practice tests” in the app where you don’t
have to pay an entry fee and can play cricket for free. However, in case you
want to win cash rewards while playing, you’ll have to pay a fixed entry free
and can then select from different contests tagged as ‘small’, ‘big’, and
‘private’. The cash rewarding process is completely secure and the winning
amount gets directly transferred to your account. There’s also live player
statistics on the app platform as well as the fastest score updates for its
players.
One major thing to keep in mind while playing fantasy cricket is that it’s the
right strategy and skills that help you win the games. You should always analyze
the player performance (instead of selecting players based on their reputation),
research on the pitch performance, look out for an effective captain and the
young, talented players, focus on the overall health of the team, and plan well
ahead to truly win the game.
Additionally, there are always games running on the app without any fixed
schedule helping you play games whenever you want. This is what makes Fantasy
Cricket super convenient because whether you’re a working professional or a
college student, you can play the game as per your convenience. The downloading
and registration process for the app is super simple, with an option to register
directly from your Facebook or Gmail account. Once the registration is done,
it’s time to put your game face on.
Fantasy Sports has seen a significant transformation in the Indian market
over the last several decades. From being a domain that remained largely unheard
of by the common public to becoming this giant popular domain that people can’t
get enough of, fantasy sports is certainly here to stay and reign for many more
years to come. The trend of online gaming, in general, has observed tremendous
growth in India, with the likes of real-money games such as rummy getting played
extensively across India. The rise in the apps and platforms for the rummy game
market only adds to that growth including India Big Game that allows players to
win cash rewards during gameplay.
There’s also been a stupendous increase in the number of sports leagues that
have come up in India ranging across sports like Hockey, Kabaddi, Volleyball,
Football, et al. There are a large number of Cricket lovers in India who have
all the right knowledge and strategies that they would love to see their
favorite cricketers leverage during the LIVE matches. However, not everyone gets
the opportunity to play live on the field with the esteemed cricketers. So, the
fact that fantasy sports offer an interactive medium where cricket lovers can
take their knowledge and obsession a step ahead, and earn money at the same
time, makes it all a perfect paradise.