Prior to the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL), Ashneer Grover, the former co-founder and managing director of BharatPe, released a new fantasy sports app called CrickPe. The application aims to compete with industry behemoths like Dream11 and the Mobile Premier League (MPL). Grover referred to CrickPe as the “biggest revolution in cricket since IPL” in a tweet because it is the only fantasy sport that compensates cricket players. Any funds received for a contest, whether it be public or private, will be subject to a 10% platform fee by the app. CrickPe enables users over the age of 18 to assemble a digital cricket team and participate in paid competitions to win cash prizes.
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According to its Google Play Store description, it is the only fantasy cricket app in the world where actual playing cricketers, cricketing organizations, and real team owners win cash prizes with each match in addition to the fantasy game winners. Dream11 currently controls the Indian online fantasy sports market, but Grover’s Third Unicorn aims to take a share of the expanding market. A report by the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) and Deloitte estimates that the Indian fantasy sports market will increase by a CAGR of 38% from Rs 34,600 crore in FY21 to an estimated Rs 1,65,000 crore in FY25. India has the world’s largest fantasy sports market, with over 13 crore users. According to a recent LinkedIn post by Ashneer, Grover’s most recent endeavor, Third Unicorn, is “bootstrapped” and “without limelight.”
The Grovers registered the new company last year with a total paid-up capital of Rs 10 lakh and an authorized share capital of Rs 20 lakh. Grover had previously declared his intention to launch his own business without seeking out investment capital. CrickPe is an interesting new player that could give the fantasy sports industry a different point of view. It will be interesting to see how CrickPe performs against its more seasoned rivals in the upcoming IPL 2023 season.
