Kae Capital, Nazara Games invest in fantasy sports platform HalaPlay
, ET Bureau|
Updated: Nov 02, 2017, 11.47 PM IST
BENGALURU: Kae Capital and Nazara Games have invested an undisclosed amount in HalaPlay, a daily fantasy sports platform.
The platform uses data analytics and machine learning to help gamers draft teams, analyse their playing behaviour and enable them to improve their fantasy skills and earn money.
“It is an emerging trend of interactive entertainment, currently we have 2 lakh registered users and about 30,000 to 40,000 of these users are active on a monthly basis,” said Swapnil Saurav, co-founder of HalaPlay. “For each match, an average user spends Rs 300 to Rs 400 and we take a 10-15% cut from every league.”
The cash-based game enables the end user to draft their own teams with existing players across different sporting leagues from football to cricket and kabbadi. After the team is drafted for each individual match, the user places a fixed amount of money and can then earn points based on the actual statistical performance of the players in real-world competitions. If the end user is in the winning criteria of the league, they end up earning real money.
“Most of these users are 20 to 26 or 27-year-olds,” added Saurav. The gaming platform will include different types of leagues in all international, domestic ODIS, T20s, test matches in cricket, English Premiere League (EPL), La Liga, Champions Trophy, World Cup, Euro Cup, Copa America in football and all Indian domestic leagues in Kabaddi.
According to Shubhankar Bhattacharya, venture partner at Kae Capital, fantasy sports is a large market with proven consumer demand and acceptance. “We found much to like in how HalaPlay achieved product-market fit as a bootstrapped venture, through the sheer force of hustle and execution,” added Bhattacharya.
Nazara Games has been pursuing opportunities in the interactive virtual sports category and has invested in gaming startups including Mastermind sports, Moong Labs and HalaPlay. The Mumbai-based gaming company has also partnered with local and global mobile game developers like Stick Sports to create entertaining mobile games around physical sports.
“We will help them boost user acquisition and distribution across global markets where the game will be a right fit,” said Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Games.
The platform uses data analytics and machine learning to help gamers draft teams, analyse their playing behaviour and enable them to improve their fantasy skills and earn money.
“It is an emerging trend of interactive entertainment, currently we have 2 lakh registered users and about 30,000 to 40,000 of these users are active on a monthly basis,” said Swapnil Saurav, co-founder of HalaPlay. “For each match, an average user spends Rs 300 to Rs 400 and we take a 10-15% cut from every league.”
The cash-based game enables the end user to draft their own teams with existing players across different sporting leagues from football to cricket and kabbadi. After the team is drafted for each individual match, the user places a fixed amount of money and can then earn points based on the actual statistical performance of the players in real-world competitions. If the end user is in the winning criteria of the league, they end up earning real money.
“Most of these users are 20 to 26 or 27-year-olds,” added Saurav. The gaming platform will include different types of leagues in all international, domestic ODIS, T20s, test matches in cricket, English Premiere League (EPL), La Liga, Champions Trophy, World Cup, Euro Cup, Copa America in football and all Indian domestic leagues in Kabaddi.
According to Shubhankar Bhattacharya, venture partner at Kae Capital, fantasy sports is a large market with proven consumer demand and acceptance. “We found much to like in how HalaPlay achieved product-market fit as a bootstrapped venture, through the sheer force of hustle and execution,” added Bhattacharya.
Nazara Games has been pursuing opportunities in the interactive virtual sports category and has invested in gaming startups including Mastermind sports, Moong Labs and HalaPlay. The Mumbai-based gaming company has also partnered with local and global mobile game developers like Stick Sports to create entertaining mobile games around physical sports.
“We will help them boost user acquisition and distribution across global markets where the game will be a right fit,” said Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Games.
