The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday announced fantasy sports company Dream11, as the official partner for the VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL). The four-year exclusive partnership will begin with the IPL 2019 season of league. Additionally, the ‘Official Fantasy Game’ of IPL will also be powered by Dream11.

This collaboration will provide a platform for fans to create their own fantasy cricket teams thereby deepening their engagement with the sport and the league. There will also be several Dream11 brand integrations and on-ground activations at various touch-points during the Vivo IPL matches.

Harsh Jain, CEO, and Co-Founder, Dream11 said, “We are very excited to partner with the BCCI and provide an engaging cricketing experience for the IPL, which is the pinnacle of sports leagues in India. Dream11 is deeply integrating with the IPL, which is set to grow from its 1.4 billion TV impressions and 200 million online viewers in 2018, to achieve our goal of growing from 51 million users to 100 million users in 2019. It’s great to see how our dream of making fantasy sports intrinsic to sports fan engagement has come true.”

Committee of Administrators (CoA) of BCCI said, “The online viewership of IPL is growing each year and it’s essential for us to engage with the fans on digital platforms as well. Partnering with the biggest fantasy sports platform in India, Dream11 will help us in further increasing the popularity of the IPL amongst cricket fans.”

Over the last few years, the fantasy sports industry has grown exponentially in India. As per the 2018 IFSG-AC Nielsen report, India has approximately 800 million sports fans, of which 300 million sports fans consume cricket online. According to the 2019 IFSG - KPMG report, fantasy cricket is the most widely played (71 per cent respondents) online fantasy sports game and the primary motivation (72 per cent respondents) for playing fantasy sports is fun and excitement.