The Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), announced the winners of India’s first Fantasy Sports Awards at its Annual Conference – GamePlan 2020, hosted virtually this year. Recognizing the outstanding work done in the Fantasy Sports industry, FIFS announced four winners across four categories. Fancy11 won the ‘Best Debutant’ award, Faboom was felicitated with the ‘Best Product Innovation’ award, MyTeam11 received the ‘Best Marketing Award’ and Dream11 was recognised with the esteemed ‘Excellence Award’. The winners were shortlisted by an eminent jury consisting of FIFS strategic advisor Amrit Mathur, Professional Volleyball League CEO Joy Bhattacharjya and GoSports Foundation managing trustee and Principal Lawyer at LawNK Nandan Kamath.
Themed as Good for Sports, Good for India, GamePlan 2020 was graced by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, as the keynote speaker. In his address, he spoke about the immense potential of the Indian fantasy sports industry. The annual report industry report on Indian fantasy sports was launched at the event by FIFS in collaboration with KPMG, ‘Business of Fantasy Sports’. The event witnessed two highly engaging panel discussions on “Fantasy Sports Fuels Sports Growth” and “Rapid Growth of the Fantasy Sports Ecosystem”. Some of the key speakers at the event included Games, AWS, Worldwide Technical Leader Nari Gopala, Dream11 and Dream Sports co-founder and CEO Harsh Jain, MyTeam11 co-founder and COO Sanjit Sihag , Delhi Capitals CEO Dhiraj Malhotra, Rotowire co-founder and president Peter Schoenke, and LaLiga India MD José Antonio Cachaza Pereiro. The event was attended live by over 1500 delegates.
Kant said, “I have very keenly followed the growth of the fantasy sports industry as a supporter of technology and good governance. I am a long term believer that India must become a global champion of the fantasy sports industry. Due to the looming COVID-19 threat, in the foreseeable future, digital fan engagement will be at the forefront as most of the mainstream sports are being held today in closed-door stadiums, without an audience. Online fan engagement platforms like fantasy sports will take centre stage in such situations. I am sure we will witness new and innovative ways of engaging with sports fans in the online space in the next few months.”
Talking about GamePlan 2020, John Loffhagen, Chairman, FIFS, said, “The 3rd edition of FIFS GamePlan, witnessed some of our firsts. We went virtual for the first time and launched India’s first fantasy sports Awards. At GamePlan 2020, we deep-dived into the economic impact of Indian fantasy sports via employment creation, paying taxes, creating newer micro-economies around itself, and much more. We also discussed the growing need for FS platform to evaluate avenues including analytics, content, digital, transactions, and other imperatives in order to further improve and sustain the user engagement on all the platforms. FIFS is proud of the innovation & passion demonstrated by the Indian fantasy sports operators. I want to congratulate all the winners who have done exceptional work in the industry.”
GamePlan 2020 has garnered attention and support from some of the best brands in the industry. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the ‘Title Sponsor’. FSS and Dream11 have joined as the Gold Sponsors; MyTeam11 is the Silver Sponsor and SBI General, TransUnion are the Bronze Sponsors.
Categories and Winners in the Indian OFS industry 2020:
- Best Debutant: Fancy11
- Best Product Innovation: Faboom
- Best Marketing Award: MyTeam11
- Excellence Award: Dream11