India’s sweeping new gambling law has triggered a major upheaval in the country’s online gaming industry, with a fantasy sports giant pulling out as lead sponsor of the national cricket team just weeks before a key tournament.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that representatives of Dream11, a company valued at about $8bn, informed the chief executive that they could not continue their sponsorship in light of the new legislation.
“Dream11 visited the BCCI office and informed CEO Hemang Amin that they won’t be able to continue… As a result, they won’t be the team’s sponsors for the Asia Cup. The BCCI will float a new tender soon,” a senior official told the Indian Express. Another board member told the outlet that the company would not face penalties, as the contract allows sponsors to withdraw if government laws directly undermine their core business.
The exit follows Indian parliament’s approval of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which prohibits any online games involving monetary stakes.
The law, awaiting presidential assent, also outlaws advertising and payment processing for such services. Companies or individuals offering these games could face up to three years in prison or fines of Rs10m (£92,000). Celebrities promoting them may also be punished, reported Tech Crunch.
The government argues the move is essential to curb financial losses, psychological distress, money laundering, and even terrorism financing linked to online gambling.
“Unchecked expansion of online money gaming services has been linked to unlawful activities including financial fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion and in some cases, the financing of terrorism, thereby posing threats to national security, public order and the integrity of the State,” the bill states.
Federal IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while introducing the bill, told parliament that the measure was designed to prevent “a big evil that is creeping into society”, citing reports of suicides by individuals who had lost money online.
India’s real-money gaming sector was worth an estimated $3.8bn (£2.8bn) in 2024, according to a report by gaming-focused venture capital firm Lumika. It was forecast to grow to more than $9bn (£6.68bn) by 2029, reported the Business Standard. Hundreds of companies now face shutdowns, with industry bodies warning of job losses on a massive scale.
Three trade groups representing major players including Dream11, MPL, and Gameskraft wrote to prime minister Narendra Modi before the passage of the bill earlier this month, urging him to reconsider, warning that the ban could force more than 400 firms to close and put at risk over 200,000 jobs.
They also argued it would drive players toward illegal offshore gambling sites.
Despite the outcry, leading companies have signalled they will comply. Harsh Jain, co-founder and chief executive of Dream Sports, which owns Dream11, said the firm would not mount a legal challenge.
“When our business model was constitutionally protected, we ran it. Now that the law has changed, we’ve complied immediately – even before the ban was formally signed. And I can say clearly: Dream11 will not challenge this law in court,” he told Storyboard18.
Mr Jain admitted that 95 per cent of the company’s revenue had “disappeared overnight” but said no layoffs were planned among its 500 engineers and staff.
Instead, he pledged to redeploy them to new ventures such as sports content, commerce, merchandising and fan engagement, while cutting marketing and partnership spending. Dream11 has become synonymous with India’s sports landscape since its founding in 2008.
It has been a major sponsor across cricket, football, kabaddi, basketball and hockey. The company has held tie-ups with the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Caribbean Premier League, New Zealand’s Super Smash, Australia’s Big Bash League and even the International Cricket Council. Star players including Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah have served as its ambassadors.
In 2020, it became the IPL’s title sponsor when Chinese mobile brand Vivo pulled out. Last year, it replaced education technology company Byju’s as the national cricket team’s lead sponsor in a three-year contract worth Rs3.58bn (£34m). That agreement is now effectively defunct.
BCCI officials told Sportstar said they are “exploring other options” to find a replacement sponsor before the Asia Cup, which begins in Dubai in early September.
The loss of Dream11 is the latest in a series of sponsorship setbacks for Indian cricket, after Byju’s scaled back its involvement last year and Vivo’s exit in 2020 amid geopolitical tensions.
India’s prohibition stands in sharp contrast to approaches in the US and the UK.
Britain has not outlawed online gambling but tightened safeguards. In April, it introduced maximum stake limits for online slot machines — £5 per spin for adults and £2 for those aged 18 to 24. The UK’s online gaming industry generated £6.9bn between April 2023 and March 2024, according to the Gambling Commission.
The US has no nationwide ban, with states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania licensing online casinos while others, including Utah and Hawaii, imposing total prohibitions. Enforcement largely focuses on restricting payment channels for illegal sites, reported the Business Standard.
Mr Jain said Dream11 would now move into what he called “3.0” – a third phase focused on free-to-play fantasy sports and global expansion. He acknowledged that the industry failed to adequately self-regulate in past years but vowed to make fantasy sports “more engaging and find a sustainable business model”.
Other firms, including Bengaluru-based Gameskraft, have echoed that sentiment. “As a responsible and law-abiding corporate entity, Gameskraft has no intention of pursuing any legal challenge to the legislation,” a spokesperson told the Hindustan Times, adding that all balances on its RummyCulture app were safe and could be withdrawn.
Yet analysts say the new law could backfire by weakening domestic platforms while leaving players exposed to illegal and offshore operators. Meghna Bal, director at Delhi think tank Esya Centre, told Tech Crunch that the measure “dismantles compliant onshore companies while opening the door wider for illegal offshore betting platforms that are the real source of financial harm”.
