Indian partnership investing in daily fantasy sports venture
News on 4 Nov 2017
News on 4 Nov 2017
The Indian publication Economic Times reports that venture fund Kae Capital and social gaming specialists Nazara Games have invested an undisclosed amount in HalaPlay, a real-money daily fantasy sports platform that 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 (200,000) 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, we take a 10-15 percent cut from every league.”
“Most of these users are 20 to 26 or 27-year-olds,” added Saurav, revealing that 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.
Shubhankar Bhattacharya, venture partner at Kae Capital, said that 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,” he said.
Mumbai-based 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.
CEO Manish Agarwal said that his company will help boost HalaPlay user acquisition and distribution across global markets wherever the product is suitable and relevant.
