Dream 11
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Dream 11
Dream 11
At the midway point of IPL 2025, that’s how the points table would read if we were to enumerate the principal sponsors of the top five franchises as a proxy metric. Three out of the five teams that Dream 11 has backed, Gujarat Titans (GT), Punjab Kings (PK) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), have had a tremendous start to the 18th edition of the tournament and have secured 10 points (until Monday’s KKR-GT match). One of the other two teams, the Kolkata Knight Riders, is at the sixth slot with six points, with their performances oscillating heavily every game; whilst the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are struggling at the bottom despite some record-breaking, explosive batting at the top.
Dream 11, an Indian fantasy sports platform, a venture that has been around for 17 years, was last valued at $8 Billion and given their inherent adjacencies with the category of sports, they have built their brand and fan base through multiple sporting partnerships. Across 2017-18, they stitched partnerships across the Indian Super League (ISL), Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the men’s & women’s edition of the Big Bash League (BBL).
In November 2018, Dream 11 struck a five-year deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to become the ‘Official Fantasy Game Partner’ and that helped the venture deepen its tentacles across international cricket. To further strengthen its base in the Indian market, Dream11 forged a four-year deal with the IPL in 2019, to come-on board as an Official Partner and was entrusted to run the tournament’s fantasy league. By then, with over a decade under its belt as the premiere sports-entertainment property in India, the IPL already attracted nearly 300 million eyeballs and was the ideal avenue for Dream11 to surpass a 100 million userbase for itself.
To activate their brand, they signed up seven marque players alongside MS Dhoni, and that included legends such as AB de Villiers, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Ajinkya Rahane, Rashid Khan and Ravichandran Ashwin!
They made a tactical master move in April 2020, when they bagged the title sponsorship rights for the year for Rs 222 Crore (US$30M), after Vivo pulled out of the deal due to the then ongoing strains between the governments of India and China. This further enhanced its stature, credibility, reach and engagement.
The cricketing associations clearly had an impact on its top and bottom and lines, as they turned green for the first time in FY 2020, with profits of Rs 181Cr, which scaled up to Rs 329Cr in the following year. By this point in time, Dream11 was a household name and given their rapid financial growth, they managed to raise a whopping $840 million in funding from globally reputed venture capital firms such as DST, TigerGlobal, Falcon Edge and Redbird Capital, which incidentally picked up a 15% stake in the Rajasthan Royals in the very same year.
The new funding round valued the venture at $8B and provided the founders additional ammunition to double their userbase to 200 million and to attain this, cricket and Bollywood, the crore ingredients of the IPL, were the ideal channel. Dream11 onboarded a roster of superstars such as Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan, Kartik Aaryan, and Samantha Ruth Prabhu as their brand ambassadors and they struck gold, when they acquired the lead journey sponsorship rights of the Indian national cricket team for three years, just ahead of the 50-over ODI World Cup!
No sporting journey is ever a smooth one and neither is that of their sponsors. Alongside the funding winter, legal battles pertaining the categorisation of fantasy sports, the impact of GST on the bottom line, Dream 11 faced yet another setback, when they were out-bidded by My11Circle, a direct competitor, by about Rs 110Cr, for a five-year deal, starting in 2024. This meant that My11Circle will now be managing the official fantasy league app for the IPL!
To counter this move, Dream11 had to think, dream and act big to implement a marketing coup and they did this at three levels. They bagged the principal sponsorship rights for five franchises, negotiated official partnership rights with the Mumbai Indians (MI), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Delhi Capitals (DC), Rajasthan Royals (RR).
Essentially, barring the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), they are the Tier 1 or Tier 2 sponsors for every other franchise! Additionally, their subsidiary, FanCode, is the Official Licensing, Merchandise or Streaming Partners for MI, SRH, KKR, RR, PBKS, LSG, and GT.
To top it all, Dream11 launched the mega star studded “Aapki Team Main Kaun Hai?” ad campaign across television and digital channels, which took the nation by storm. The main advertisement has garnered over 200 million views on YouTube alone in less than a month whilst the remaining 14 visuals have collectively amassed over a 486 million views and counting!
Whilst this campaign is dedicated to the 74-day IPL window, Dream11 plans to keep it relevant and engaging throughout the year through supplementary content-led campaigns.
According to Vikrant Mudaliar, their CMO, through these initiatives, Dream11 intends to double its userbase to over 500 million users, which is nearly 57% of India’s adult population, a feat very few consumer brands in India have achieved.
So, whilst My11Circle maybe the official fantasy league partner for the TATA IPL, Dream11 may still be snatching users and market share through its holistic and guerilla tactics, reminding one of the legendary surrogate marketing approach adopted by Pepsi, through its “Nothing Official About It!” campaign, in 1996, when they lost the official sponsorship of the Cricket World Cup to Coca Cola! Dream11 has dreamt big and dreamt smart for IPL 2025 — irrespective of who lifts the trophy, they are likely to emerge as the big winners.
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