Online Fantasy Sports in India: A Shift Towards Uniform Legal Approach

Fantasy Sports: A brief historySince the 1990s, the advent of the internet led to the large-scale popularisation and commercialisation of fantasy sports leagues globally. Fantasy sports platforms and operators have developed different kinds of competitions broadly based on the nature of sports, seasonal duration and number of sporting teams. Sports fans can form fantasy teams and engage in competition with other fantasy teams and the winner is determined by the performance of players or teams in real-life competitions. The participants pay an entry fee to the fantasy sports league operators and create one or more fantasy teams to compete with other participants. In India, the fantasy sports competitions started from the early 2000s, however it took almost a decade for this to gain popularity, largely driven by the availability of affordable smartphones, internet penetration and the growth of different mobile application platforms. Some of the major active fantasy sports platforms in India are Dream11, Mobile Premier League, HalaPlay, My11Circle, MyTeam11, BalleBaazi, iGamio and Nostra Pro.Online Gaming & Fantasy Sports: global scenario & trends in India