Dream11 returns to India as live sports platform after gaming ban

Dig Deeper

Related stories

2025/08/27: Dream11 warns of financial hit after India bans real money gaming 2025/09/04: India BCCI opens new title sponsorship bids after Dream11 exit 2025/09/18: Fear that India’s online gambling ban will drive players to illegal sites 2025/05/26: The Supreme Court of India hears plea to ban all online sports betting apps

The Backstory

Why Dream11 pivoted to live viewing

Dream11’s return to India as a live, second-screen sports platform follows a regulatory shock that wiped out its core business almost overnight. After Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025, which bans real-money gaming nationwide, the fantasy operator warned of a 95% revenue collapse and a hit to profits. Chief Executive Harsh Jain said the law instantly gutted the model that powered the company’s growth, forcing a shift away from paid fantasy contests toward advertising, creator-led livestreams and social features that can scale without violating the ban.

The move to a watch-along experience attempts to keep Dream11’s audience in the ecosystem while regulators shut off payments. Creators provide commentary, users chat and send virtual gifts, and integrated scoreboards add context to the game — a package designed to compete for attention with short-video and livestream platforms. The playbook mirrors a broader industry trend to blend content, community and light gamification in place of cash-prize mechanics that regulators are targeting. It also leverages a massive user base built during the fantasy boom to offer instant distribution for on-air talent, a sell that could attract creators who value reach on day one.

The pivot is not only defensive. In India’s high-growth sports economy, the company is trying to convert a regulatory setback into a media restart that protects brand equity and unlocks new ad inventory and sponsorship categories. Dream11 is still running real-money products in foreign markets, but in India it is testing whether a social viewing network can replace lost fantasy economics at scale.

A sponsorship vacuum in cricket

The policy change has rippled through Indian sports finances. Dream11 ended its national team title sponsorship after the law took effect, a high-profile exit that underscored the cash shock across leagues and federations. The Board of Control for Cricket in India moved quickly to fill the gap, launching a tender with tighter eligibility. The board opened new bids with explicit bans on money-gaming, betting and gambling companies, as well as crypto, tobacco and alcohol brands. It also warned against surrogate branding and set steep financial thresholds for would-be sponsors.

Those rules aim to prevent backdoor promotion by gaming firms and to shield the national team’s jersey from regulatory crossfire. But they narrow the pool of eligible bidders, which could pressure pricing and shift marketing spend toward categories like consumer goods, telecom and fintech. Dream11, once a ubiquitous presence across the Indian Premier League and other properties, now must rebuild its sponsorship narrative around content and fan engagement rather than fantasy contests and cash prizes. The disruption may also dent media-rights valuations over time if a cohort of heavy-spending fantasy advertisers continues to retreat.

Courts and policymakers widen the lens

The crackdown is evolving beyond a single statute. The Supreme Court recently acknowledged a petition seeking a nationwide ban on sports betting apps, citing concerns about harm to young people. In a hearing that drew headlines, the bench notified the central government on a plea to prohibit betting apps after arguments that hundreds of deaths were tied to gambling-related distress and that influencers had promoted betting. While the justices questioned whether legislation alone can end harmful behavior, the court’s move keeps regulatory risk elevated for any operator straddling the line between entertainment and wagering.

The legislative and judicial signals have created a compliance perimeter that favors subscription and social models over anything that resembles real-money play. Dream11’s India relaunch fits that direction. It emphasizes creator content, chat and rewards that do not require cash stakes, positioning the platform closer to video networks than gaming operators. With policymakers scrutinizing the sector, the company is framing its product around safe, viewer-driven engagement rather than contests with financial outcomes.

A risk of users going offshore

Operators warn the ban could push players to unregulated sites that are harder to police. Industry voices have cautioned that the law may drive users to offshore platforms through VPNs and informal payment channels. Early reporting indicates that India’s online gambling ban risks fueling illicit use, even as it shutters compliant domestic products. That displacement would undercut consumer protections and complicate tax collection.

The stakes for sports are also clear. Fantasy platforms had been major advertisers and team sponsors. With marketing budgets cut or redirected, franchises and leagues could face tighter commercial markets, particularly in cycles tied to marquee tournaments. Dream11’s exit from the national team jersey deal was a visible casualty, but the longer-term concern is a drop in sponsor diversity and a reshaping of the ad mix. That makes the success or failure of alternative engagement models — from free-to-view streams to interactive watch parties — consequential not just for one company but for rights holders and broadcasters mapping their next revenue pillars.

Second screens become the main event

Dream11 is not alone in recasting live sports as a social, multiscreen experience. In the United States, Bally Live’s transformation into Bally Sports Live signals a similar strategy: live channels anchored by niche and emerging properties, chat and reward mechanics, multiview streaming, and interactive controls that blur the line between linear broadcasts and user-directed feeds. The rebrand, aimed at clarifying a sports-first identity, points to a competitive field where distribution, interactivity and creator ecosystems matter as much as rights portfolios.

For Dream11, the comparison is instructive. A strong second-screen product can retain fans during live events, extend watch time and create new ad formats, from sponsor integrations to creator-led storefronts. It can also give leagues a different kind of partner: one that trades prize pools for audience development and time spent. If the platform proves it can deliver large, engaged rooms around national and international fixtures, it may reenter sponsorship conversations as a media network rather than a gaming brand, a distinction that could satisfy regulators and unlock new categories.

What to watch next

Two threads will determine how far this pivot goes. First, whether creators and fans embrace watch-along rooms at scale across cricket and other sports. Second, how enforcement evolves against illegal operators and whether new rules clarify the boundary between social mechanics and gambling. The BCCI sponsorship process will be a bellwether for pricing under the new restrictions, while any court action will signal where policy is headed.

Dream11’s bet is that attention is the new currency. By moving fast to build a compliant, social viewing platform at home while keeping real-money products abroad, the company is trying to hedge regulatory risk and preserve growth. If the model holds, it could become a template for Indian sports tech under tighter rules: fewer cash contests, more creator-led live experiences, and a shifting balance of power from fantasy lineups to fan communities.