As we bid adieu to 2025, for the next few weeks, The Outline by Inc42 will look back at the hits and misses of India’s top tech startups and trends this year. Here’s the first special edition as part of our 2025 In Review series.
“It’s a big score to chase in the second innings, but our team has padded up and is ready to take the field,” said Harsh Jain, CEO and cofounder of Dream11, earlier this December.
The metaphor was deliberate. Jain was referring to Dream11’s most consequential pivot yet: transforming India’s largest fantasy sports platform into a second -screen sports entertainment product. Long synonymous with fantasy cricket, Dream11 now wants to sit alongside the live broadcast, offering creator-led watchalongs, real-time fan reactions, banter, and free-to-play fantasy formats that, according to the company, can deepen engagement and enhance viewership.
This reinvention did not come by choice. It followed the Indian government’s decision to impose a blanket ban on real money online gaming effective October 1, 2025, citing user protection and money laundering risks. For an ecosystem defining company like Dream11, the fallout was immediate, and its response closely watched.
Yet the pivot to a second-screen platform is only the latest chapter in what has been one of the most turbulent years in Dream11’s nearly 18-year journey. To understand how the year truly unfolded, it is essential to step back and connect the dots between regulatory pressure, diversification attempts, cost recalibration, and an all-in strategic reset.
In short, here’s what defined 2025 for Dream 11: Each of these moves was interconnected, reflecting both defensive measures and longer term strategic intent.
From the outside, it may appear that Dream11’s leadership scrambled after the August ban. In reality, diversification had been brewing well before the ban was formally announced.
Since the beginning of the year, Jain and his senior leadership had been actively seeking avenues to reduce the company’s near total dependence on fantasy cricket, a product that not only drove the bulk of revenue and also concentrated regulatory and tax risk. Internal discussions around new formats, products, and monetisation levers began gaining urgency as GST scrutiny on online gaming intensified.
The context is critical. Dream Sports, the parent entity has reportedly been facing GST demands north of INR 28,000 Cr. These claims followed a strong FY23, when the company reported a 32% YoY increase in net profit to INR 188 Cr and a 66% surge in operating revenue to INR 6,385 Cr. Crucially, the GST disputes span multiple financial years, including FY24 and FY25, numbers the company has yet to disclose.
Against this backdrop, diversification was less about growth and more about survival. One of the first visible outcomes of this strategy was the launch of Dream Play, which introduced casual skill-based games such as carrom and pool. Additional formats like ludo and archery were explored, inspired by monetisation models proven by platforms like WinZO and MPL.
Dream Play benefited from Dream11’s massive existing user base, driving strong initial downloads through cross-promotion. In parallel, the company also launched CRIQ, an app focused on real-time match predictions and advanced statistics, aimed at deepening engagement without staking cash.
However, these initiatives failed to achieve strategic insulation. When the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 was passed, prompting an outright ban on all real-money games, including casual formats, Dream Play’s monetisation potential collapsed overnight. Post the ban, the company has now pivoted Dream Play to an AI analytics platform focused on Padel games.
Secondly, investing $50 Mn in acquiring a stake in CrickBuzz, a cricket information platform, which also ran a Cricket fantasy platform. The idea behind this transaction was to feed Dream11’s fantasy cricket platform to around 400 Mn hardcore Cricket fans who came to Cricbuzz’s website, but it backfired.
“In hindsight now, this deal didn’t make any sense now,” said an industry insider wishing not to be named.
The online gaming ban landed abruptly, with little to no formal consultation, and was widely described by industry insiders as a “death knell” for real-money operators. Most large players, including Gameskraft and WinZo, responded by lobbying ministries, exploring legal remedies, or preparing court challenges.
Dream11 stood apart. It chose not to challenge the ruling.
Instead, Jain took to social media to state the company would comply, and shut down the real money gaming vertical. He also stressed that the company will not undertake any restructuring, even as layoffs swept across the sector and more than 1,000 employees lost their jobs. Dream11’s approach was pragmatic: cut burn, preserve runway, and reposition the business quickly.
These moves signalled a shift from aggressive brand building to liquidity preservation.
Moving the domicile back to India, even before the ban, helped reduce some of the burden. The company has also indicated that it has a runway of two to three years, giving it breathing room to test, iterate, and refine this model.
At a time when several online gaming peers forayed into short-video content, Dream11 chose a different path. Just a day after the real-money gaming ban became law, the company announced its entry into investment technology with the launch of Dream Money. While the product remains light on details, the move is telling.
In parallel, Fancode, Dream Sports’ sports streaming arm, was elevated from a peripheral bet to a strategic cornerstone. With real-money gaming effectively wiped off the table, FanCode is now expected to carry a disproportionate share of the group’s revenue and growth expectations
FanCode has been tightening its operating focus. Instead of aggressive rights acquisition, it has leaned into AI-driven efficiencies to bring down product costs and improve reach. The shutdown of FanCode Shop due to low margins reinforced a clear shift away from loss-making experiments.
Regional language commentary has emerged as another lever. By Using AI-assisted workflows, FanCode aims to reach deeper into India’s hinterlands while keeping commentator and infrastructure costs in check. Internal expansion is also underway. The company is planning launches in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, followed by Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam.
In parallel, Dream Sports open sourced its decade old technology engine through HorizonOS, offering developers and startups access to its backend stack. While unlikely to generate material revenue in the near term, the move positions Dream11 as a foundational tech player rather than just a consumer app company.
The most transformative step in 2025, however, was the overhaul of Dream11 itself.
The fantasy platform has been reimagined into a second-screen sports entertainment app, drawing inspiration from Twitch and similar creator-led ecosystems. The offering includes live watch parties hosted by creators, real-time fan interaction tools, reaction feeds, and free-to-play fantasy games.
The bet, however, is far from risk-free.
First, it assumes that sports viewers are willing to split attention between the primary broadcast and a parallel creator stream. While this particular kind of engagement has grown, most such consumption still happens post-match, not during live play.
Second, Dream11 is entering a space dominated by Twitch, YouTube, which already offer identical functionality, massive distribution, and proven monetisation mechanics. Bringing creators to the Dream11 platform will be a challenge.
Third, monetisation through microtransactions remains untested in live sports contexts. While small-ticket payments have worked in audio and short form video, there is little evidence that Indian audiences are willing to pay even INR 3 – INR 10 for live sports shoutouts. The model hinges heavily on Gen Z behaviour that has yet to be validated at scale.
The platform is currently free, monetised only through advertising. Over time, Dream11 plans to introduce microtransactions, starting with paid “shoutouts” that allow fans to interact directly with creators for small fees.
Jain publicly declared early traction during India vs South Africa’s third ODI, pointing to a creator’s watch that crossed 1 Lakh views within 15 minutes.
Dream11 is banking on its over 250 Mn users, a scale few Indian consumer tech platforms can match, though there’s little clarity on how many users continue to use Dream11 after late August when the app had to shut shop.
But these are still early days and one cannot say that the Dream11 brand is not a big pull for users. In fact, with the IPL 2026 season not far off and a Men’s T20 World Cup being cohosted by India, there are legitimate opportunities for Dream11 to cash in on.
Can Harsh Jain pull off the turnaround after what seemed like an existential crisis?