Dream11 has decided to shut down its core real money gaming business, which reportedly contributed to two-third of its revenue, a report said. The decision has reportedly been shared in an internal town hall on Wednesday, after the Centre introduced the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, and managed to get it passed through both Houses.
The popular fantasy cricket app now plans to shift focus to expanding its ventures that do not involve real-money like Fancode, Sportz Drip (formerly Sports Rhythm). Reports say it also has investments in Cricbuzz and Willow TV, and it may plan to boost that too.
The company may also explore new areas to try its might including in abroad, something that Mobile Premier League (MPL) adopted, the Entracker report mentioned.
It further said that the company’s revenue saw a sharp uptick and rose to Rs 6,384 crore in FY23 from Rs 3,841 crore in FY22. The profit that Dream11 made during this period also shot up by 32% to Rs 188 crore.
Ex-Dream11 executive calls overnight ban ‘heartbreaking’
Smrita Singh Chandra, former Vice President of Policy Communications at Dream11, called the Bill “deeply unjust” and “unethical”, adding that what happened is more than “just wrong”. In a long LinkedIn post, she criticised the union government’s sweeping ban on real-money online gaming (RMG), hours after the Lok Sabha passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025.
“I am writing this with a heavy heart…Declaring a platform illegal after years of validation, taxation, and judicial recognition isn’t just wrong—it is deeply unethical,” Chandra said.
She said in her nine years at the company, she has watched it grow “brick by brick, regulation by regulation, court order by court order”, while ensuring compliance and ethics.
Chandra said despite this, the government had chosen to “criminalise a vibrant, skill-based industry overnight” without recognising the difference between fantasy sports and gambling.
Parliament clears online gaming bill
The parliament on Thursday passed The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, after Rajya Sabha cleared it. The Bill made it through Lok Sabha on Wednesday, amid the sloganeering by the opposition parties. The bill seeks to ban all forms of online money games and promote eSports and online social gaming.
Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw tabled the bill in the upper house and said it will ban online money games, which have become a big problem for society, especially middle-class youth.
“There is addiction. The family’s savings are lost. It is estimated that 45 crore people have fallen victim to it. More than Rs 20,000 crore of our middle-class families’ hard-earned money has been destroyed,” Vaishnaw said, quoted PTI. He said the World Health Organization has declared it a gaming disorder.
“The International Classification of Diseases, ICD-11, has declared it a gaming disorder. Online money gaming has become a public health risk — psychological disorders, compulsive behaviour, withdrawal symptoms, violent behaviour…are being caused by this,” he told the House.
Apart from this, the bill also prohibits advertisements related to online money games, as well as bars banks and financial institutions from facilitating or transferring funds for any of such games.