How Fantasy Sports Have Revolutionised Spectating in Cricket?

Cricket has always been more than just a sport in India since time immemorial—some have hailed it as a religion, a pathway leading to a multitude of cults, a way of life. Cricket stadiums might not be able to accommodate the sea of cricket enthusiasts in the country, but Fantasy Cricket surely has made the sport not just more accessible to a wider range of audiences, but has also revolutionised the way cricket is spectated. Online sites are flooded with members who vividly express their opinions about the most minuscule of strategies exercised on field. People are always at a high-stakes cogitation when they express their odds and betting on the IPL at 10cric, thereby making the entire community active year after year. Fantasy Sports have changed the way audiences look at the game, and it has entered a territory of observation and rigid calculation rather than just entertainment, and this is how. 

Making Cricket More Accessible

Gone are the days of the previous decade when families used to sit at their common rooms, modulating their obsolete televisions and switching back and forth between channels to everybody’s whims and fancies. In this modern day and age of smartphones, and more importantly, easy access to the internet with data plans so ubiquitous, one is just a simple click or two away from watching the latest, jaw-dropping, eye-popping, exhilarating matches that have rapid momentum shifts. With the advent of such technology, not only has cricket become more accessible to a wider range of audiences, but it has also paved the way for Fantasy Leagues to enter into our phones and thereby into our lives. 

Fantasy leagues are also designed in such a way that it is least taxing on one’s device, no matter how powerful. Occupying negligible space in one’s phone, Fantasy League quite ironically occupies a major space in the lives of appropriate audiences. With their easy to use UI and simple interface, Fantasy Leagues have ensured that even the most technologically fragile individuals know their way around the applications. 

This has been rather pivotal in revolutionising how cricket is spectated. Being accessible to a wide range of audiences, Fantasy League has changed the way people look at the game. Viewership is not just confined to the walls of enjoying the game, but has also made people more analytical about the intricacies of it. What was previously considered as a means of respite to watch one’s favourite batsman hit sixes right off the park has slowly transitioned into a viewership experience so immersive that one possibly assumes position in the field, at least so in the figment of their imagination. 

Revolutionising via Rewards

If you can correctly guess whether the Mighty Dhoni will smash a particular ball out of the park, or whether the ferocious Mitchell Johnson will knock all stumps out to eternity, there is always a reward system that is active in Fantasy Leagues. This revolutionises spectating cricket in a way that it makes viewership a more enriching experience. What was previously considered a banal set of events taking place that one generally chose to avoid, like a particular test series, has now been replaced by reward system that Fantasy Leagues provides.

For instance, predicting a particular set of events before lunch has a certain reward system; predicting the most efficient player before tea would have yet another reward system, and so on. This has not only exponentially increased the viewership of matches that would otherwise be crumbled upon by the marketing big giants of the IPL, but also instilled a sense of love and passion towards the core nature of the game when it comes to viewership of test matches, which were otherwise overshadowed by the gargantuan marketing gimmicks of commercial tournaments like the IPL. 

Business Ramifications

Although not a direct result of Fantasy Cricket but more of a ramification, a boost in online business ventures has been observed, and that too at a time parallel to the booming age of Fantasy Cricket—surely there has to be a correlation between them. A major rise in online transactions, exchange of products, and merchandise selling has been observed as a direct result of an increase in Fantasy League’s businesses. 

This specific branching further aids in more branches like a cascade—small advertisements noticed in these Fantasy League applications lead to further businesses in a multitude of websites—essentially functioning as a chain reaction. Although this is not a direct or innovative pathway that Fantasy League applications have generated, it certainly has been revolutionary in ways such as increasing and flourishing the amount of business in the online marketing world. Businesses that have fragmented due to Fantasy League have been rather promising in proving to be the future of online businesses.