UK company launches StarPick India fantasy sports platform.
News on 28 Mar 2018
News on 28 Mar 2018
UK-based StarPick Limited launched StarPick India on Tuesday, India’s first international online fantasy sports platform, offering a wide game portfolio.
The venture was co-founded by Ulf Ekberg, Trigam Mukherjee and Rohit Nair with ace cricketers Jonty Rhodes and V V S Laxman as their advisors.
The company claims that StarPick will offer the widest game portfolio from across the world, including cricket, kabaddi, European football, hockey, basketball, Formula 1, golf and bicycle racing.
Leading names from the cricketing world, Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir have been signed up as brand ambassadors for the brands, with Sharma saying that he believes “fantasy sports are a natural extension to our industry.”
Nair said that last year the company won a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which ruled that playing fantasy sports online does not amount to gambling and involves a substantial degree of skill.
“We started looking at India in 2014 when fantasy sports exploded in the US. However, we were not sure about the legalities. But after the court ruling we thought the time is ripe for India, which is the next outpost for fantasy sports,” he said.
