Dream11 CEO says 28% GST not a hurdle

The online gaming industry needs a balanced taxation and regulatory environment to ensure its growth in India, says Harsh Jain, CEO and Co-Founder, Dream11, India’s largest fantasy sports platform.
 
Speaking exclusively to Business Today TV’s Udayan Mukherjee, Jain welcomed the recent hike in the goods and services tax rate on online gaming companies from 18 per cent to 28 per cent, adding that the industry already contributes over a billion dollars of tax in India.
 
Underlining that online gaming can provide a lot of value to the exchequer, Jain called for adequate regulation to ensure and protect the rights of legal operators and gaming consumers.
 
Commenting on the revenue metrics, Jain said the business was not a cash-burning one. “We are actually a profitable company. We have been here for a few years now”, he said.
 
Last November, Dream Sports, the parent firm of Dream11, said it had been valued at $8 billion. 
 
Jain added that while it is fairly easy to enter the gaming ecosystem, creating a game that actually works is tough. “But when it does you have no logistics, no delivery, no warehouse, no shipping, and nothing offline. So your cost centers are pretty low. And that's what allows you to be profitable”, he said.
 
“When we look at our data, it says that over 99 per cent of all our users have never won or lost more than Rs 10,000 net in their lifetime,” he added. 
 
Talking about his entrepreneurial journey, Jain said,” I have been playing fantasy Premier League fantasy sports for the English Premier League for 20 years now. In 2007, I moved back from America after my engineering. And, there was this league starting at that time called the Indian Premier League. And, so I went looking to play fantasy cricket. And, there was none.”
 
“So, I pitched the idea to my friends and that is how it started. Just out of pure passion, solving a problem for ourselves, which we assumed would be like 100 million other Indians would like to use,” he added.

Also read: No decision on rationalisation of GST rates yet, say Finance Ministry sources