Fantasy Gaming Platform BalleBaazi Raises $4 Mn Series A Funding

New Delhi-based online Cricket Fantasy gaming platform BalleBaazi has raised $4 Mn in a Series A funding round from Delhi-based Snap Angel Tech and an undisclosed Singapore-based investor.

The funds will be used to expand its business to the newer markets and enhance the gaming experience for the users. Also ,the company plans to introduce more fantasy games across different genres of sports. Prior to this round, the company received $1 Mn from its parent company, Baazi Games.

As a subsidiary of Baazi Games, BalleBaazi was founded in 2018 by Navkiran Singh, Saurabh Chopra, and Puneet Dua. The platform offers a gaming platform to cricket enthusiasts where they can apply their cricket knowledge and skills to create their own virtual team of cricket players and simultaneously earn points based on the real world performance of these players.

The company claims to have nearly 3 Mn users on its platform. Saurabh Chopra, CEO, BalleBaazi.com said, “Online gaming industry in India is growing marvelously and is poised to grow even faster. The potential is huge and the funds will certainly pave way for newer innovations and catalyse our upward journey at BalleBaazi.’’

BalleBaazi has been contending with fantasy gaming platforms such as Dream11, WinZO Games, CricPlay etc. India’s ‘games of skill’ market constitutes yet another digital sector that has been enabled and accelerated by the rapid adoption of the internet. The internet revolution brought in by Reliance Jio, the rise of internet and smartphone penetration even in rural areas, as well as the growth of online gaming players like Nazara Technologies, Dream11 have proven to be the key driving factors for the ongoing revolution within this segment.

Earlier this year, Dream11 joined the Indian unicorn club with an investment from Steadview Capital.  According to the Evolving Landscape of Sports Gaming in India report, the fantasy sports industry is already worth INR 43.8 Bn and is said to reach INR 118.8 Bn by FY23 with a growth rate of CAGR 22.1%.

According to Deloitte, Fantasy Sports in India has grown by 199.69%, generating a total revenue of about INR 67 Cr in 2016-17. This growth can be attributed to annual T20 cricket summer when the Indian Premier League (IPL) dominates all sports in India. Dream11 was the associate sponsor of IPL 2018 and continues to be the same for IPL 2019.