Kae Capital, Nazara Games Back Daily Fantasy Sports Startup HalaPlay

Kae Capital, along with Nazara Games has made an undisclosed amount of investment in HalaPlay, a Mumbai-based daily fantasy sports platform.

A daily fantasy sports platform is where players can create a team, enter leagues and win cash prizes at the end of every game on web or mobile. One does not need to wait for a season to end to earn prizes. A daily fantasy sports platform empowers serious and casual sports enthusiasts to play cash-based, quick, simple and interesting games.

This is different from the gambling platforms and is even governed by law. As per Section 12, of the Central Government Act (The Public Gambling Act, 1867), “Nothing in the provisions of this Act contained shall be held to apply to any game of mere skill wherever played.” That means fantasy sports that are part of skill-based games are excluded.

HalaPlay uses data analytics and machine learning to help users draft teams, analyse their playing behaviour and help them to improve fantasy skills. The aim is to increase sports fan engagement and improve viewership for sports by making matches interesting for its users.

According to Swapnil Saurav, CEO & Co-Founder, HalaPlay, “Daily fantasy sports platform is an emerging trend of interactive entertainment. We at HalaPlay are in a quest to build the world best Daily Fantasy Sports Platform and Kae Capital and Nazara’s contribution will give us the requisite impetus to do so.”

HalaPlay will provide different types of leagues in all International, domestic ODIS, T20s, test matches in Cricket, English Premier League (EPL), La Liga, Champions Trophy, World Cup, Euro Cup, Copa America in Football and all Indian domestic leagues in Kabaddi.

Shubhankar Bhattacharya, Venture Partner at Kae Capital further added, “Fantasy sports is a very large market with proven consumer demand and acceptance. We found much to like in how HalaPlay achieved product-market fit as a bootstrapped venture, through the sheer force of hustle and execution. We see Nazara’s participation as a valuable boost to the ambition of creating a Global Fantasy sports company.”

How HalaPlay Will Leverage Nazara Network Across 60 Nations

Nazara is a mobile games company based out of Mumbai and has operations in 61 countries across emerging markets. Nazara runs mobile gaming subscription services to first-time mobile gamers across Africa, Middle East, South East Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

In India, Nazara owns mobile gaming rights to popular IPs like Virat Kohli, Hrithik Roshan, Chhota Bheem, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Motu Patlu, Mighty Raju, Tinkle Characters and Chacha Choudhry.

Nazara has been actively pursuing opportunities in the interactive virtual sports category and has also invested in companies like Mastermind sports, TrulySocial, and Moong Labs. Back in 2014, Nazara infused $654.5K (INR 4.2 Cr) Series A funding in Bengaluru-based gaming startup HashCube. Perry LaForge, Ah Ventures and existing investors Indian Angel Network and Blume Ventures also participated in the round.

Furthermore, Nazara also partnered with local and global mobile game developers like Stick Sports to create entertaining mobile games around physical sports.

CEO of Nazara Games, Manish Agarwal said, “We at Nazara are committed to offering a variety of interactive sports genres to the millennial and Daily Fantasy Sports is the perfect fit for the “NOW” generation offering instant gratification.”

According to Inc42 Datalabs, India currently ranks among the top five countries in the world for online mobile gaming. As per a Google KPMG report published in May 2017, the online gaming industry in India is estimated to be worth over $360 Mn. Poised to grow to $1 Tn by 2021, the industry will likely reach more than 310 Mn gamers around the country by then. Further, India currently accounts for around 13% of the world’s online mobile gaming population. With the recent backing from Kae Capital and Nazara games, HalaPlay thus will have a wide untapped opportunity in the daily sports fantasy segment.