Fantasy cricket has become a big hit among the Indian masses. Compared to other sports categories, be it kabaddi, basketball or football, the number of users who are happy to invest their time and money in fantasy cricket has increased significantly.
According to the report, the number of users playing fantasy sports will reach the 100 million mark by the end of this year, and although the evolution of technology is a major factor, the fact that fantasy cricket has become almost a concept compared to other fantasy sports cannot be attributed to it at all.
Without wasting a minute, let us identify the possible factors that have led to fantasy cricket leagues becoming more popular than the fantasy sports available to sports fans.
The masses love cricket
Indian enthusiasm for cricket started way back in the 80s when the then Indian captain led us to victory in the ’83 World Cup. That moment inspired many future greats to take up the gentlemanly sport and since then, there have been many Indian cricketers, especially Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli, who have been instrumental in taking the sport and its associated fan base to a new level.
In India, cricket is an unapologetic religion and with T20 cricket now being played alongside Tests and ODI matches, the passion for the sport is growing.
Just watching a popular cricketer in action can glue masses of people to their TV or mobile phone screens and if their cricketing heroes achieve impressive numbers, the joy of the game doubles.
From this, one can easily deduce why, of all the fantasy sports, fantasy cricket has made its mark in the Indian market.
Cricketers as brand ambassadors
Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Hardik Pandya and Suresh Raina are very popular cricketers who have become the brand ambassadors of the fantasy game organisation which has played a key role in making fantasy cricket more visible among the audience.
The popular cricketers have a huge fan base which has been a catalyst for the development of fantasy cricket in India where there are millions of die-hard cricket fans.
Television advertising
Marketing through television commercials, in which popular cricketers promote fantasy products by highlighting key features and reasons why cricket fans should use the product to enhance their cricket experience, has led to a significant increase in the number of fantasy league users.
While there are other fantasy sports gaining popularity in the market, cricket clearly dominates the attention of other fan groups.
The rapid rise of social media
The role that social media has played in engaging the public with the game of fantasy cricket cannot be ignored. Most cricket fans have become familiar with fantasy sports, and fantasy cricket in particular, through appropriate marketing on social media – YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and Twitter.
Social media influencers, who often have thousands to millions of followers, play a key role in raising brand awareness for fantasy products and, in this case, cricket, and more importantly, provide tips and tricks to maximise their wins by engaging users.
One thing that is certain from the rise of fantasy gaming is that fantasy cricket apps will rule the Indian market until cricket is played and noticed by the masses.
