The fifteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), is being played from 26 March 2022. The two-month-long tournament is entirely played in the state of Maharashtra, with Mumbai and Pune hosting the matches. According to Inc42, 29 startups are participating in Tata IPL 2022, as sponsors and partners. 

While fintech companies dominate the sponsor list, gaming companies have also made their presence felt. Indian gaming unicorn Dream11 sponsors 7 teams, the largest among all the sponsors. My11Circle acts as a principal sponsor of the new team Lucknow Super Giants. MPL which became a unicorn last year is the sponsor of Royal Challengers Bangalore. Earlier, MPL acted as a principal sponsor for Kolkata Knight Riders. 

Dream11 which was the title sponsor in 2020 now acts as one of the official partners of the tournament. Gaming companies turned out to be the most aggressive advertisers in the IPL after Covid19. 

As per a news report, fantasy gaming platforms alone spent nearly Rs 200 crore just on TV and digital ad campaigns during the IPL 2021 while some platforms spent as much as 70 percent of their promotional budget during the league. According to a report from KPMG, the number of online gamers in India is expected to rise from 360 million in 2020 to 510 million this year. Last year, the industry generated revenues of $1.8 billion and that figure is likely to increase to $3.84 billion over the next five years.

The government through ASCI has made it compulsory for gaming platforms to have proper disclaimers in their ads regarding the financial risks involved. While these warnings appear along with the ads on TV, such disclaimers seem to be missing when logos of these companies appear on team jerseys.

According to report on Indian Express, 50 former and current players – from legends like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli to relative newcomers like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rahul Tewatia, and even BCCI president Sourav Ganguly – are associated with real-money gaming platforms