On Thursday (August 21), the Online Gaming Bill was passed in both houses of the Parliament in India. Under this law, all forms of games dealing with real money will be banned. The spotlight will be on betting apps/websites and fantasy gaming platforms that have been ruling the roost in the market. The latter in particular has made rapid strides with their market leader Dream11 also the official sponsor of the Indian men's and women's cricket team. The organization released a statement shortly after, announcing the end of their fantasy gaming operations in the country.
It was in June 2023 that Dream11 became the official sponsor of the Indian team, succeeding Byju's after the latter had an economic crash of the highest order. Dream11 secured a three-year deal with the BCCI that runs till March 2026, which means that the contract has another seven months left in it. However, with the gaming bill set to crack the whip on real money gaming, Dream11 could not only lose out on the sponsorship but a lot more as the bigger picture. A business shutdown is in the offing, with the bill reportedly set to make this a criminal offence in the country.
While the exact details of the gaming bill will be known in the near future, this potential mishap points at a weird pattern of BCCI sponsors who have all started their relationship with the Board on a high, only to end in shambles.
ITC Limited
Any memory of Indian cricket in the 1990s will be incomplete without the Wills logo on the jersey and in the tournaments. ITC Limited were the sponsors of the national team from 1993-2001, with their Wills brand hogging the limelight. However, in 2001, the Union Government's stance against tobacco advertising meant that ITC Limited's bond with the BCCI had to end. Subsequently, the brand completely stopped sports sponsorships till 2013 after which they resumed, albeit on a smaller scale than before.
Sahara India Parivar
After ITC Limited had to stop their association with Indian cricket, it was the turn of Sahara India Parivar to take over. It resulted in a 11-year bond with the BCCI, including owning an IPL team in Pune Warriors India. All that came to an end in 2012 due to a combination of events. In 2010, a fraud case was filed against the company and after a two-year trial, the Supreme Court directed Sahara to pay a compensation that was estimated to be ₹24400 crores. During the same year, Sahara ended their association with Indian cricket, citing the BCCI's cold stance on a variety of matters as the main reason. While it was a separate deal altogether, this development also brought about the unfortunate end of Pune Warriors.
Star TV
Following the exit of Sahara, broadcasting giants Star TV got into the act and with their sports channels already ruling the market, it seemed a match made in heaven. They not only had the BCCI sponsorship deal in their hands but were already having rights to broadcasting of matches in India - a double whammy. However, this boon soon became a bane for the company as conflict of interest inevitable came in, forcing them to forego the sponsorshop of the national team in 2017.
Oppo
A booming mobile phone company in the 2010s, the Chinese-origin brand Oppo entered the sports market in a big way by gaining the sponsorship rights of the Indian cricket team in 2017. It seemed like the next step to a massive business upgrade but instead, the dreams crashed in two years as Oppo wasn't able to manage the business equations properly. Consequently, they had to step down from their association with the BCCI in 2019.
BYJU's
After the Oppo mishap in 2019, in came another booming business brand in BYJUs who were making waves in field of learning through their apps. While the combination seemed an unconventional one, not many expected it to end the way it did. Financial crisis hit BYJU's hard, tearing apart the financial structure in a such away that it had to shut down. It obviously meant an end to the sponsorship with the BCCI and a tragic end to what initially seemed like a sensational educational brand.
For Dream11, the road may not be over just yet as they do have other streams of businesses like the streaming front in Fancode and investments in the major cricket website Cricbuzz as well. While their major source of revenue from fantasy gaming is now over, interesting days lie ahead for the company about whether they have the financial clout to maintain their contract with the BCCI.