Fantasy sports’ popularity in India is increasing day by day. Till 2016, there were just a couple of companies operating in the fantasy sports industry with Dream11 holding 80-90% market share. With cricket being India’s most favourite and popular game, fantasy sports companies banked upon fantasy cricket to set up their market place. With the passage of time fantasy football, fantasy kabaddi, hockey, basketball and volleyball are also gaining popularity, mainly because of leagues like the Pro Kabaddi, UEFA Champions Leagues, ISL, NBA and many more. However, fantasy cricket remains the first choice and most popular fantasy sports in the country.  

Now, if we look at the bigger picture, the pundits have estimated that the fantasy sports industry will be generating approx—$ 20 billion by the end of this year, i.e. 2020. Hundreds of new ventures are entering in the industry daily, and the growth is not only limited to the developed countries, but significant proportions of users are actively participating from the developing countries as well. 

So, we thought to find some fundamental reasons behind this growing popularity of fantasy sports in comparison to other online sports games-

  • Enhances your decision making capability:

Fantasy sports offers you to analyze a particular spot and make an accurate decision. For example, in Fantasy cricket prediction you have to decide different combinations of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounder depending upon the surface of the pitch, boundary size, etc. while in fantasy football you have to choose the forwards and the backwards accordingly. Besides, if you fail, you get to know where you went wrong or what mistakes you made while making a decision. 

Moreover, this experience that you obtain here is useful in both private and professional life.

  • Strengthens your research game:

Fantasy sports is all about proper research and making accurate decisions. To make a winning dream team of any sports, you need to research a lot about the players, ground conditions, stats of both the sides, etc. You can look for the sources of information over the internet, journals, print media, television media. You can also look for the today match prediction over the internet for that particular game. 

This habit or experience of checking different sources of information comes handy when you are probing other subjects as well.

  • Offers the opportunity to win real big money:

Almost every fantasy sports give you an option to play for both cash and free. Playing cash games offers you a chance to win real big money. Also, many fantasy sports websites offer the freebies, coupons and other exclusive prizes on their leagues.