Fantasy sports, where fans create their own virtual teams made up
of real sportspersons, have been growing in popularity in India.
Krishan, 28, has a
new favourite sports star. It’s Franklin Session, a professional basketball
player with Taiwan’s Super
Basketball League (SBL). With most of the popular sporting events cancelled
in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, fantasy sports fans like
Krishan, who is from Karnal in Haryana, have started putting their money on the
few sports leagues that are still active, including the SBL, Belarus Premier
League (BPL) and Nicaragua's top division football league, Liga Primera.
Fantasy sports,
where fans create their own virtual teams made up of real sportspersons, have
been growing in popularity in India. Apart from cricket and kabaddi, fantasy
sports titles are designed for many other sports such as football and
basketball.
“With most of the
popular leagues and sporting events having either been postponed or cancelled,
some of the smaller leagues are gaining popularity amongst fans of fantasy
sports,” says Sudhanshu Gupta, chief operating officer, at gaming platform Paytm
First Games. “However, the total number of users showing interest in these
leagues is fractional compared to the more popular leagues.”
The unique game
play model of fantasy sports is central to their popularity. Typically, fans
create their own team made up of real-life players from upcoming matches. These
virtual teams garner points based on the actual performance of the players
during the real matches. Users whose teams perform well are given points, and
those who feature at the top of the list, win actual cash rewards.
The key to success
in fantasy sport lies in selecting the right players. This is where
technologies like big data and analytics come into play. The gaming platforms
feed information about the teams, and players’ performances are evaluated on
various metrics with the help of the open source and paid software available in
the market.
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