Dream Sports, the parent firm of online fantasy gaming platform Dream11, has established an investment arm to help create and scale numerous sports-technology startups.
Dream Sports Investment is aiming to invest in both internal and external platforms that are not related to Dream11’s core fantasy game business. To begin, Dream Sports’ investment arm has invested $50 million in its in-house sports content & commerce platform, FanCode.
FanCode, founded in 2019 by Yannick Colaco and Prasana Krishnan as a parent business, provides sports data and information to its 20 million subscribers. It intends to use the additional money to grow its user base to 100 million by July 2022, as well as extend its sports programming and commerce beyond major cities. The majority of its current users are men between the ages of 25 and 34.
The investment is part of Dream Sports’ larger drive to become a one-stop-shop for sports, and it shows the company’s ambition in diversifying outside its fantasy gaming business. It also corresponds to what Dream Sports CEO Harsh Jain said to ET in March.
“We have no intentions to go public… As a sports technology firm, we aim to go public. For that, we need non-fantasy sports to account for a significant percentage of our revenue,” Jain had stated.
Plans of FanCode
FanCode’s Colaco informed ET that the firm intends to expand its subscriptions at a faster rate than its user base, which is expected to rise by five times. Live sports content, official sports goods, as well as sports analytics, and insights are the company’s three income streams. Users may also purchase memberships that allow them to watch athletic events and competitions live.
In an exclusive interview with ET, Krishnan stated that FanCode aims to utilize the funds to expand its merchandising platform and include new teams, sports, and clubs. “We want to grow it to a more comprehensive sports licensing and merchandising platform, and the IPL was the first step in that direction,” he added.
It is now the only marketplace where all eight IPL teams’ official apparel is available.
The money will also go toward building the world’s largest sports demand aggregator platform.
FanCode intends to expand its workforce to 200 people, as well as increase its engineering and product development teams in different roles and leadership positions. The National Football League, Cricket West Indies, New Zealand Cricket, the NBA, and numerous IPL clubs are among its partners. Nearly 30,000 hours of sports material have been live-streamed.
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