Asia-Pacific Fantasy Sports Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Asia-Pacific Fantasy Sports Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Asia-Pacific Fantasy Sports Market is expected to register a CAGR of 18.32% over the forecast period from 2021 to 2026. The emergence and popularity of sports leagues in the Asia-Pacific region, coupled with the rapid development of digital infrastructure and payments, has led to the rise of fantasy sports as other means for sports enthusiasts for connecting with their favorite sports, and test their skills and knowledge of the game. This format has already seen significant adoption in the global market. The Asia-Pacific region has also witnessed considerable growth in the fantasy sports user base during the past few years. The format is gaining significant traction, catalyzed by affordable mobile data services, and the proliferation of smartphones and broadband internet, which enabled users to connect with their favorite sport through fantasy sports platforms.

Key Highlights

• The Chinese Super League (CSL) is a league known to invest a lot of energy and big money on the dream of creating one of the best football leagues. Attendance records could confirm the public’s interest with more than 24,000 spectators, on average, are present for matches in the CSL This makes it one of the most popular football competitions in the world. In June 2019, FootballCoin is one of CSL’s supporters, and the game’s developers announced to include the league in its CSL fantasy football contests. FootballCoin is a fantasy football game utilizing blockchain technology at its core. The developers of the game successfully merged the two worlds, that of fantasy sports to that of cryptocurrency. The fantasy CSL players and teams are actively involved in the fantasy soccer contests organized by FootballCoin.
• In May 2019, Japan’s first fantasy sports content provider, Neo Sports, announced to host a Fantasy ONE on ONE event as part of the Basketball League Championship 2018-2019 on amid rapidly growing popularity for the game across the country. Because sports betting at present is prohibited in Japan, users will not be able to pay participation fees to win several cash prizes with their fantasy leagues, so the scale is expected to remain small, with Amazon gift certificates could be won totaling the equivalent of JPY 3 million. It is anticipated that events such as this will pave the way for a relaxation of laws governing participation in Fantasy Sports. Neo Sports is the first Japanese company to join the American Fantasy Sports Association and plans to expand beyond basketball to other sports. This experiment is expected to be a revolutionary step for Japanese fantasy sports.
• In June 2020, the South Korean soccer association K League announced a licensing agreement with the blockchain-enabled fantasy soccer platform. The deal gives Sorare, developers of a global fantasy football game, the right to include over 400 players from the league’s upper division in its platform, which at present comprises players from prominent teams including Juventus, Napoli, and Atletico Madrid. Sorare utilizes the Ethereum blockchain to generate unique digital cards representing players, which can be traded by users. The firm’s fantasy soccer platform has about 3,000 monthly active users who can choose to play with players with over 100 different soccer clubs and generate about USD 200,000 in sales in May 2020. Although betting for online sports is illegal in South Korea, fantasy soccer is not betting because no financial sacrifice users have to make.
• The fantasy sports have taken a significant hit as the COVID-19 pandemic forced team-based sports to be immediately suspended from the countries in the region implementing a lockdown. The outbreak resulted in short-term revenue disruptions for the players in the market; however, the fantasy sports operators proactively adopted strategies to like introducing quizzing, the introduction of new sports, which includes baseball and investments in platform innovation, etc. to enable user engagement. For instance, players such as MyTeam11 and Dream11 leveraged on their ancillary platforms SportsTiger and FanCode to increase their array of offerings to increase engagement and amp; improve customer experience by educating them about sports that would, in turn, complement their platform offerings. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the companies are likely to expand other modes of online sports engagement, such as OTT, to expand their user base.

Key Market TrendsCricket is Expected to Hold Significant Share

• Cricket enjoys immense love and passion, especially in the Asia-Pacific countries such as India, Pakistan and Australia, and is almost a religion to its fans India. The ever so enthusiastic fans follow every single run, wicket, century, scored by their favorite cricketers. This in-depth knowledge of the sport, which is very common among countries like India and Australia, gives them an edge in all the fantasy sports games related to cricket. Apart from the Indian Premier League (IPL), other international cricket leagues like the Big Bash, T20 Blast, Caribbean Premier League, Bangladesh Premier League, are very popular among the audience in the region. Hence, with every new T20 league, a new door of opportunities to make significant profits is opened. Countless cricket fans are engaging in the fantasy sports game related to the sport.
• In March 2019, The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) made Dream11, India's Biggest Fantasy Sports Game, as the Official Partner for the VIVO Indian Premier League. This 4-year exclusive partnership began with the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 season. Additionally, the 'Official Fantasy Game' of IPL was also be powered by Dream11. This partnership between India's biggest cricketing event, IPL, and India's Biggest Sports Game, Dream11, provided a platform for several fans to create their fantasy cricket teams, thereby deepening their engagement with their favorite sport. There were several Dream11 brand integrations and on-ground activations at various touchpoints during the Vivo IPL matches.
• In August 2019, India's fantasy sports platform Dream11 created a Guinness World Records title for hosting the 'Largest Online Fantasy Cricket Match'. Dream11 achieved the incredible feat during the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) final between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Dream11 users created over one crore (1,03,17,928) fantasy teams to compete in this fantasy sports match. To claim this record, Dream11 had to prove the participation of at least 40 lakh fantasy teams for that particular match. This is the first-ever Guinness World Records in the online fantasy sports category. Dream11 recorded over one crore fantasy team created by over 43 lakh (43,77,610) unique users playing together for the IPL final.
• According to the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), with the Indian Premier League (IPL) getting postponed, almost 30-40% of the revenues for most of the fantasy sports operators were impacted the first half of 2020. In India, 77% of fantasy sports users are engaged in cricket contests followed by Football at 47% & Kabaddi at 9%. An IPL between September and early November has been made possible with the ICC's decision to postpone the T20 Cricket World Cup in Australia, scheduled between October and November, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, the IPL Governing Council announced the tournament would be played from 19th September to 10th November 2020 in United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is expected to boost the fantasy sports market significantly.

India is Expected to Witness Fastest Growth

• Sports in India are undergoing significant change, and given India's massive fan base and economic muscle, the future holds massive potential for sports-related activities. According to the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), India has seen exponential growth in the fantasy sports industry in the last two years. From 25 operators and five million users in 2017, the fantasy sports industry has grown to 140+ operators with 80 million+ users in 2020. This rapid growth rate provides the potential for fantasy sports in India. According to the Business of Fantasy Sports report by FIFS, Online Fantasy Sports (OFS) operators' gross revenues stood at INR 2,400+ crore for the FY20 as compared to INR 920+ crore in FY19 an increase of approximately three times over 12 months.
• In February 2020, The Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) announced a change in its name to the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS). IFSG, now FIFS, was established in 2017 to self-regulate the sports gaming industry comprising all online sports-based games of skill. FIFS will continue to focus on the growth of the fantasy sports industry that is proven to increase real-life sports consumption. The change of name from IFSG to FIFS is a result of recognizing this emerging and disruptive sector and its need for self-regulation to sustain growth. The federation looks forward to working with the operators and stakeholders in creating and maintaining high industry standards.
• Furthermore, close to 50% of transactions on OFS platforms in 2019 was initiated from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India, promoting digital payments literacy and adoption. In December 2019, LaLiga, the Spanish football league, has agreed to a five-year deal for Dream11 as its official fantasy game in India, starting this season and running until the end of 2023-24. Dream11 created a game based around the league, allowing fans to form virtual teams and play against each other. According to FortuneIndia, Dream11 has more than 70 million users. The company has a broad range of official fantasy game deals in India, including with the Indian Premier League T20 tournament, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the Pro Kabaddi League, the International Cricket Cricket, the Indian Super League (football), the NBA, and the International Hockey Federation.
• However, along with growth, multiple challenges have also grown. The biggest and significantly important one is ensuring such operators did not cross the line when corruption in sports remained a huge issue in India. In January 2020, Kerala High Court ruled that 'games of skills played for stakes amounts of the offense of gambling. A fake cricket league in Mohali, Punjab, put one of the FIFS members suspicious after the league came under the police's scanner. The league claiming to be played in Sri Lanka was held in Punjab, India. The police have also made certain arrests in the case. The matches were being covered live on FanCode, a member of the FIFS. Such occurrences are a massive challenge for FIFS, hoping to run a self-regulatory fantasy sports industry in India.

Competitive Landscape

The Asia-Pacific fantasy sports market is moderately fragmented, and the companies are utilizing strategic collaborative initiatives to increase their market share and profitability. However, with technological advancements, smaller to mid-size companies are increasing their market presence by securing new contracts and tapping new markets.

• July 2020 - Australia-based online sports betting and technology company, PlayUp, has announced that it has secured market access in Colorado and will enter the market later in 2020. PlayUp's online products are already present in Australia, New Zealand, and India. The company is the largest fantasy sports provider in Australia and has over 300,000 registered users outside the USA.
• October 2019 - Yahoo Sports and BetMGM announced an exclusive partnership that they say would offer fans unique content experiences and live events. Integrating Yahoo's leading fantasy sports operations and content with BetMGM's sports betting and interactive platform uniquely position the company to drive market share and large-scale adoption among sports fans.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

Companies Mentioned
 
Dream11 Fantasy Pvt Ltd 
PlayUP Ltd.
RealGM, L.L.C. 
HalaPlay Technologies Pvt. Ltd
ESPN Inc.
Yahoo Fantasy Sports 
PlayON

Please note: This publisher does offer titles that are created upon receipt of order. If you are purchasing a PDF Email Delivery option above, the report will take approximately 2 business days to prepare and deliver.