Indian fantasy sports platform Dream11 is now the most valuable online gaming company in India and among the biggest in the world after China’s tech giant Tencent invested more than US$100 million to acquire a significant stake.
According to a report by TechCircle, Tencent led a substantial round of investment in Dream11 which included current stakeholders Kalaari Capital and private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management, although Tencent was responsible for the vast majority of funding.
The company was known to be looking for investment opportunities within the Indian online gaming market, which is seen as one of the fastest growing markets in the world. TechCircle claims that Tencent is looking to invest at least another US$100 million in India with the goal of owning one-third of all Indian online gamers by 2020.
Dream11 currently has around 41 million users, its management claims, with the platform offering a range of fantasy sports options including fantasy cricket, football and basketball among others.
“Our goal is to create awareness around fantasy sport in the country and keep getting more of India’s 800 million sport fans to play fantasy sport on Dream11,” a spokesperson told TechCircle.
According to a report by the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) and market research firm AC Nielsen, around 100 million Indians will play fantasy sports in some form by 2019.
It is believed that Dream11 will use its U$100 million funding boost to significantly increase its marketing efforts.
Tencent, best known for its social media platform WeChat, is the world’s largest gaming company and the second largest company of any kind in China behind only Alibaba.
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