Online gaming ban to wipe off 25% of IPL ad revenue worth Rs 1,500 crore

Online gaming ban

The online gaming ban will erase 25 percent of Indian Premier League (IPL) advertising revenue, said an analyst.

The Promotion & Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025 has banned around a $4 billion real money gaming (RMG) industry by revenue, erasing its Rs 1,500 crore of Indian Premier League (IPL) ad revenue of Rs 6,000 crore, said Karan Taurani, Executive Vice-President, Elara Capital.

Elevated advertising rate will cool off, due to the absence of the aggressive bidding by RMG platforms, he added. "The post ban white space could be chased by new-age platforms from e-commerce, consumer tech, legacy paan masala firms and discount stockbrokers."

On the overall advertising revenue, he noted that RMG firms' advertising revenue stood at around Rs 10,000 crore out of which 80 percent was spent on digital. The category accounted for 11 percent or Rs 8,000 crore of the Rs 70,000 crore digital ad market and 7-8 percent of overall ad revenue.

RMG had been a high-growth vertical, he said.

For Liner TV, the ad outlays by RMG offset FMCG ad dilution in spend and were growth drivers. "With their exit, digital ad industry growth could moderate 300 basis point to 7.5 percent CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) during 2024-25 with an estimated 10 percent CAGR for RMG. Broadcasters would be hit, as fantasy platforms are the most aggressive advertisers in IPL and world cricket."

Recently, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia confirmed that the cricket board has ended its partnership with Dream11.

The decision came after the Parliament cleared the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill last week, prohibiting all online real money games.

“BCCI and Dream11 are discontinuing their relationship after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, was passed. BCCI will ensure not to indulge with any such organisations ahead in future," Saikia was quoted as saying by ANI.

Even for sports sponsorship, fantasy sports category has been one of the fastest-growing advertising segments in recent years.

A ban on fantasy sports would strip the Indian Premier League (IPL) and many smaller leagues of vital funding, compress their marketing budgets, and likely curb the steady uptrend in sponsorship revenue, an analyst noted.