National Fantasy Cricket Championship (NFCC), hosted on BalleBaazi, was started with an objective to boost the fantasy sports landscape in India. It concluded on a high note with Aakansha Gupta – a CA aspirant, hailing from Madhya Pradesh being crowned the ultimate champion with 783.5 points. With BalleBaazi’s only one per cent userbase consisting of women participants, the achievement stands unique. As #1 on the leaderboard, Gupta will take home the winning prize pool and an opportunity to travel Lord’s Cricket Ground – the Mecca of Cricket.
The 23-day long multi-tier tournament recorded over 1.8 lakh total entries from across the country and saw over 62 lakhs teams being made during the period of the tournament, finally resulting in 11 fantasy cricket players being crowned champions from nine different states (Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Haryana).
Commenting on the success of the tournament, BalleBaazi co-founder and CEO Saurabh Chopra said, “NFCC has truly outdone our expectations and has set the standards for the upcoming editions of the tournament which is scheduled to be organized alongside IPL 2022. Though, this was the very first edition the tournament, it has certainly set the tone for changing the perception about fantasy sports from “just about money” to “all about glory”. Further, I would want to congratulate Gupta and all other 10 winners on their achievement.”
All the 11 winners will soon meet BalleBaazi’s brand ambassador and the World Cup 2011 hero, Zaheer Khan along with legendary batsmen, S. Badrinath. While Gupta gets the ultimate glory, the ten other winners will be awarded with a golden bat along with exclusive leaderboard cash prizes.
Talking about her victory and experience, Gupta said, “NFCC was truly a unique experience for me. I have been indulging in fantasy sports since long but haven’t had the opportunity to compete in such a large-scale tournament where we felt that we are truly progressing in our own matchups as the tournament progresses. I would like to congratulate all the other winners and BalleBaazi.com for coming up with such a unique concept.”
The grand finale of National Fantasy Cricket Championship took place on the same day as the final of the T20 World Cup on 14 November 2021. However, due to a tie for the top spot, the winner couldn’t be decided on the same day. Gupta finally prevailed in a tough tiebreaker defeating Dayanidhi Sahoo from Gujarat for the ultimate crown in the third T20I between India vs New Zealand. Both the players played across different fantasy cricket formats on BalleBaazi.com. While Gupta won in Classic, Reverse and Innings Fantasy formats, Dayanidhi ruled the batting fantasy format. It was a tie between both the champions in Bowling fantasy.