Dream11 has shut down its core real-money gaming operations and pause its paid contests due to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which outlaws cash-based gaming in India. Harsh Jain, co-founder of Dream Sports, the parent company of Dream11, said that the new law came 'completely out of the left field'. In his interview with MoneyControl, Jain spoke about the business model and said that Dream11's oferings never harmed any user or caused any financial strain. He mentioned that 99 percent of the Dream11 userbase has never won or lost more than Rs. 10,000 in their lifetime.
Jain said that the ticket size on Dream11 was at an average of about Rs. 51 or Rs. 52, meaning that the risk was very little. Furthermore, the company's business model relied on a real world match, hence it wasn't necessarily addictive as it couldn't be played again and again.
"Fantasy Sports can't be played again and again. It has to be based on a real life match., Our ticket sizes were also very small. It was about on avarage about Rs. 51 to Rs. 52. Over 99 percent of Dream11's user base has never won or lost more than Rs. 10,000 in their lifetime. So it was very much a popcorn to your movie. It was just a sports fan engagement tool," Jain. He urged that regulation would be the way to go and that banning anything could give rise to a black market.
Jain also gave an example on how Tamil Nadu introduced regulations for RMGs that included time limits., KYCS, money limits, and more. This, he said, will help good operators to grow, and the bad ones to not gain as much.
Opening up about his initial response to the ban, Jain said, "We were shocked that the business model was asked to shut down. We understand that this is not something that the government wants. We want to abide by the law. Before the President even signed the bill, we removed all our cash-driven business models and flipped to a free-to-play, ad-driven business model."
Furthermore, he revealed that 95 percent of the group's revenue and 100 percent of their profit has been wiped out. But he also added positively that this doesn't mean that Dream11 is dead, it just means that our business model is dead.
"There are over 260 million users on Dream11. Looking forward to a regulator being appointed and finiding a new business model that can bring in the revenue. Going forward we will focus our energy on Sports AI, Jain adde. He also shut down all rumours of mass layoffs, claiming that the talent is their biggest asset and they will divert employees to build tools of the future.
Dream11 has decided to not go to court against the real money gaming ban.
