Dark Reality of Fantasy Sport Apps

If you are a fan of cricket and watch the sport, you surely have heard of fantasy sports apps and many of you may be playing it. Whether you are watching television or youtube videos, you can see the advertisements of lot of fantasy sports apps and top cricketers and celebrities are involved in these advertisements. Not only this, these apps also sponsor the teams of the IPL and you can see that the jersey of IPL teams having branding of these apps. During the IPL, you can see these advertisements repetitively and almost after every over of the match. This is to influence people to spend their money on these apps and start playing. In this blog, we will try to understand more about fantasy gaming and try to understand that should we invest our time and money into it or not.

Rise in Popularity of Fantasy Sports Platforms

Fantasy gaming have seen a huge rise in its popularity in recent years and one of the main reasons for it is the decrease in the internet cost in India. A lot of these apps have came into existence in recent years and became popular in very short time. You may have seen a lot of people around you who are playing fantasy sport or maybe even you yourself play it. Many companies are making their own fantasy platforms as it is a highly profitable business and doesn't require a lot of creativity and have a good success rate. These new companies are just following the methods of other companies which have became successful in these field and are earning a huge profit. So its not a big deal for a company to come with their own fantasy apps if they have enough funds and due to this the reason we can see tons of companies which are coming in this field.

Business Model of Fantasy Sports Apps

In fantasy gaming, a player have to make a team by choosing players from the two teams which are playing the game. The team should be made according to the rules of the game and the fantasy platform in which you are making a team. After a team is made, the player has to add money in the app and join a desired contest. Each player is ranked in the contest according to the performance of his fantasy team which is based on the fantasy points system of the platform. A reward is given to the player on the basis of this ranking. These platforms charge a platform fees for each contest earn huge profits. Once people made a team and joined a contest, these platforms earn the money, no matter what anyone wins or losses in the game. These companies didn't have to do much effort generate a revenue, they just make a contest and put it on their platforms after which people spend their money in the contest and these platforms start earning money. These companies don't have to spend any money in improving the quality of their products and services, neither do they have to buy any raw material for making the product and nor do they have to spend any money in research and innovation. This is the reason why these companies spend a huge amount of money in marketing and sponsorship as they don't have to spend a lot of money in other areas. These companies see this as an investment because know that if they hire top cricketers and celebrity in their ads, the usage of their apps will surely increase which will increase their revenue.

Game of Skill or Gambling?

The performance of the fantasy team of a player depends on the performance of that player in the actual game which raises the concern of gambling. These companies call their platforms as game of skill rather than a gambling platform as gambling is illegal in India. These companies have the capability of hiring the biggest lawyers of the country who can defend them and justify their platforms in the court. They give the argument that a fantasy player should have the knowledge of the players, playing conditions, rules of the game, etc. in order to win the contest which make it a game of skill. But the fact is even in gambling, a player should have some knowledge of the game in order to win. The truth is that the winning in fantasy contest depends solely on the players which you have picked in your fantasy team and you have no control over what would happen on the field. The power of banning these apps is in in the hands of state government and the government of few north-eastern and southern states have already banned it in their states. The government of rest of the states don't ban these apps as fantasy gaming is a booming market and state governments earn huge amount of taxes from these companies.

Should You Play Fantasy Sports?

If you are a regular player of fantasy game then there is a huge probability that you have made a loss in these apps. These apps are highly addictive and you fall in the trap once you start playing it. Once you win in a contest, you keep playing more in order to win more money and if you lose. you keep playing in the hope of recovering your losses. Due to this you end up losing large amount of money in these platforms and wasting so much of your time in it. You could have spend all this time and money in developing yourself as a person and learning some new skills which would be surely useful for you in your life. Even if you decide to put your money in these apps, always put small amounts considering the fact that you may end up losing this money. These apps are sort of legalized gambling platforms and you should avoid them if you are not already playing on these platforms. Don't fall for the illusory advertisements of these platforms and remember that these companies are able to give big prize money and earn profits only because a lot of people are losing their money on it. Instead spend your time in doing productive things which will take you forward in your life and make you a successful person.