Ashneer Grover’s Third Unicorn Launches Cricket Fantasy Sports App CrickPe Ahead of IPL 2023
Written by Sanjay Kumar
BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover’s Third Unicorn on Thursday (March 23) launched a cricket-focused fantasy sports app called CrickPe. This launch comes just before the highly anticipated Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament, which is scheduled to commence next week.
Grover revealed the news on his official Twitter handle on March 23 and shared the Google Play store and Apple store links to download the app.
CRICKPE !
Biggest revolution in Cricket since IPL – only fantasy game paying cricketers for performance !
Where you win – cricketer wins – cricket wins !!https://t.co/virVGj27DThttps://t.co/Jl0mu4lFXO@crickpe_app pic.twitter.com/uQuxXEnk4c
— Ashneer Grover (@Ashneer_Grover) March 23, 2023
CrickPe aims to compete with rivals such as Dream11, Mobile Premier League (MPL), and Games24x7’s My11Circle.
CrickPe is open to players over 18 years of age, who can create a virtual team of cricket players and enter paid contests to win cash prizes based on the performance of their chosen players in real-life matches. Additionally, users can participate in contests to win rewards and create private groups to play with a limited group of friends. CrickPe will levy a 10 percent platform fee of the total funds received for any public or private contest.
The platform will also offer free contests for users to practice and enhance their skills. A key feature that differentiates CrickPe from its competitors is the ability for users to send cash rewards to their favourite cricketers, similar to people tipping their favourite creators on different creator platforms. Users can currently send cash rewards ranging from Rs 100 – Rs 100,000 per cricketer per financial year.
If the cricketer accepts the cash reward, CrickPe will take a 10 percent fee from the transaction beginning in June 2023. If the cricketer refuses the cash reward or doesn’t claim it within 90 days, it will be returned to the user’s CrickPe account.
In its terms, CrickPe however notes that they are not acting as “agents of cricketers” and are “not under a binding contract to collect any money on their behalf”. Crickpe shall “solely be acting as your agent in offering this cash reward”, it said.
According to a report by gaming and interactive media venture fund Lumikai, revenue in India’s gaming sector increased from $2 billion in FY21 to $2.6 billion in FY22 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27 percent to $8.6 billion in FY27.
Real-money games continue to be the largest revenue source for the industry, accounting for about 57 percent of the industry’s FY22 revenues. Currently, Dream11, the flagship brand of sports tech firm Dream Sports, dominates the fantasy sports segment in India with over 90 percent market share, according to industry estimates.
