When Formula One announced that 6.7 million spectators had attended races during the 2025 season, the numbers reinforced what sports executives have long maintained: there is still no substitute for watching elite competition unfold in person. Nineteen of the season’s 24 race weekends sold out, Silverstone welcomed half a million spectators over four days, and promoters continue to raise ticket prices without denting demand. For the 2026 season, average F1 ticket prices have risen by almost 10%, according to an annual analysis by GDP Destinations, while hospitality packages at marquee races such as Las Vegas can exceed $25,000.
Yet, even as fans spend thousands of dollars to experience the sport from grandstands, another audience is participating without leaving home, or paying anything at all. Formula One’s official fantasy game, where players build teams of drivers and constructors under a virtual budget cap, attracted 2.7 million fantasy teams during the 2025 season and is set to cross 3 million this year.
The contrast reflects one of the biggest shifts underway in the global sports business. Rather than competing with live events, gaming, fantasy leagues and interactive digital experiences are expanding how fans engage with their favourite sports. The stadium remains the emotional centrepiece, but it is no longer the only place where fandom is expressed. Increasingly, sport has become a year-round economy in which supporters move seamlessly between physical events, streaming platforms, gaming communities, creator content and social media.
The trend cuts across disciplines. Fantasy Premier League now has more than 11 million managers worldwide. Fantasy cricket platforms account for more than 130 million active users in India. Tennis, traditionally slower to embrace digital participation, launched its first official ATP Fantasy Game this year, while Formula One has transformed fantasy racing into one of the fastest-growing extensions of its fan ecosystem. “Virtual sports experiences are increasingly complementing live sports rather than competing. Digital experiences enable fans to engage with a sport before, during and long after the game,” says Manish Agarwal, board member, Game Developers Association of India (GDAI).
He believes India’s growing gaming population presents a significant opportunity. “India has 500 million gamers, 20% of the world’s gaming population. As sports have become increasingly digital, they have created demand for original games, interactive content, technology platforms and sports-based intellectual property. The opportunity for India is to build these experiences, not just consume them.”
Football illustrates how rapidly digital fandom is evolving in India. While cricket remains the country’s dominant sport, industry executives believe football’s younger, globally connected audience makes it particularly suited to gaming-led engagement. Aditya Mani, IDGS-CII Delhi State Panel Chair and founder of YOLOgram Style, says the next phase of football gaming will look very different from traditional console experiences. “Football gaming in India is entering a very interesting phase. While global franchises such as EA Sports FC and eFootball have created familiarity with the category, the next wave in India will be far more mobile-first, social, creator-led, and short-format. India remains a cricket-first market, but football has three advantages: global aspiration, youth fashion culture, and easy short-format play. This is where Indian football gaming can evolve beyond full-match simulation into penalty shootouts, street football, campus rivalries, creator leagues, and avatar-led competition.”
Value of showing up
If digital participation has become more accessible, attending live sport has become increasingly exclusive. Formula One ticket prices have risen by an average of 9.6% this season, with Sprint weekends such as Singapore and Canada recording increases of more than 22%. While China remains the cheapest race on the calendar, most European Grands Prix now cost several hundred dollars for a standard three-day pass.
Despite higher prices, demand remains resilient. Nearly every Formula One race sells out months in advance, reflecting the championship’s transformation into a premium entertainment product fuelled by global tourism, celebrity culture and the success of Drive to Survive.
Football tells a similar story at a different scale. The English Premier League attracts more than 15 million spectators across a season while maintaining stadium occupancy above 98%. Official match tickets generally range between 30 euros and 100 euros, but marquee fixtures often command several hundred pounds on resale platforms. The expanded 2026 FIFA World Cup, featuring 48 teams and 104 matches,attracted more than 7.5 million live spectators, making it the most attended sporting event in history.
Cricket combines mass accessibility with moments of extraordinary scarcity. Group-stage ICC tickets begin at a few hundred rupees, but India-Pakistan clashes and IPL finals can see resale prices surge sharply. More than 3.5 million spectators attended IPL matches this season, with games at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium drawing crowds of over 90,000. Tennis offers perhaps the widest range of price points, from affordable qualifying-round tickets to championship seats costing several thousand dollars, while attendance continues to hit record levels, including 1.36 million spectators at the Australian Open and more than 727,000 at Roland-Garros.
Yet organisers increasingly recognise that the live event is only one part of a much broader fan journey.
Anurag Choudhary, Founder and CEO of Felicity Games, believes gaming is extending rather than replacing live sport. “I don’t think they’re competing with live sports. If anything, they’re expanding what it means to be a fan. Traditionally, fandom was limited to the duration of a match. Today, fans want to engage before the event, during it, and long after it’s over through fantasy sports, prediction games, simulation titles, creator communities and interactive experiences.”
“We’ve seen this pattern in gaming. The strongest products don’t replace existing entertainment. They deepen participation around it. The opportunity isn’t taking viewers away from sport. It’s creating more moments where fans can actively participate instead of simply watching.”
Spectators to participants
Fantasy gaming has emerged as one of the clearest expressions of sport’s digital transformation. What began as a niche activity for dedicated fans has evolved into a powerful engagement tool, encouraging supporters to think like selectors, managers and strategists rather than passive viewers. For leagues and publishers, it has become a way to keep audiences invested throughout a season rather than only on match days.
The model has spread rapidly across sports. Formula One’s official Fantasy game allows participants to select five drivers and two constructors within a virtual $100 million budget. Fantasy Premier League gives managers a £100-million transfer budget to build a 15-player squad whose values fluctuate with real-world performances. In India, fantasy cricket platforms such as Dream11, MPL and MyTeam11 collectively account for more than 130 million active users, while tennis entered the space this year with the launch of the ATP’s first official Fantasy Game, allowing players to draft eight professionals using a 100-credit budget.
For publishers, these platforms are less about gaming than about extending the life of a sporting event.
As Choudhary puts it: “The biggest behavioural shift isn’t that younger audiences watch less. It’s that they expect to participate more. From a publisher’s perspective, major sporting moments are no longer just media events. They’re engagement moments where fans predict outcomes, compete with friends, unlock limited-time content, discuss moments with creators and stay involved long after the final whistle.”
Football’s fantasy ecosystem illustrates how participation can evolve alongside viewership. As global leagues become more accessible through streaming, industry executives say gaming is helping convert casual followers into more engaged fans.
Chandrashekhar Mantha, partner and media & entertainment sector leader at Deloitte India, says several trends are driving that shift. “Increased accessibility to global football through streaming platforms, the rising popularity of European leagues among younger audiences, and the growing adoption of sports gaming are helping expand the football fan base. Fantasy operators are also leveraging marquee events such as the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, and domestic competitions to attract users. In addition, gamification features, social leaderboards, micro-contests, and real-time player statistics are enhancing user engagement and creating more immersive experiences.”
He believes the next phase of growth will depend on adapting products to Indian consumers rather than replicating global models. “In India, the long-term opportunity lies in converting football’s growing digital audience into active fantasy users through better product innovation, localised experiences, and stronger integration between live viewing and participation.”
The broader shift is reflected in gaming behaviour itself. Rajan Navani, chairman of JetSynthesys, believes sports gaming has moved well beyond a niche audience. “Sports-led gaming has moved from a niche digital pursuit to a mainstream extension of fandom over the past few years. While cricket and football remain important drivers in India, the engagement is becoming far more diversified.”
Research from the Indian Esports Report, produced by JetSynthesys in collaboration with YouGov, found that 62% of esports players participate in sports titles such as Real Cricket, FIFA and EA FC, while 66% play racing games including F1 Mobile Racing. The findings suggest sports gaming is expanding well beyond cricket as younger audiences embrace multiple disciplines. “What is particularly significant is that fandom is no longer confined to live sport events. Fans increasingly move between watching matches, playing video games, following creators and engaging with digital communities,” says Navani.
Gaming, he argues, is also becoming an entry point into sport itself. “Regular engagement with an esports title helps players become familiar with teams, athletes, tactics and rivalries, often encouraging them to follow live competitions and engage more deeply with the sport over time,” he adds.
That evolution has expanded the value of a sporting event beyond ticket sales and television ratings. Every Formula One race, IPL fixture or Champions League match now generates parallel conversations across fantasy leagues, gaming platforms, live streams, creator channels and social media. For rights holders and publishers alike, the opportunity increasingly lies in sustaining those interactions between competitions rather than relying solely on the event itself. The result is a sports economy where participation no longer begins with kick-off or ends at the final whistle. Instead, fans move continuously between watching, playing, discussing and competing, turning what was once a single event into a year-round engagement cycle.
Business of belonging
As fans spend more time engaging with sport beyond the live event, brands are reshaping how they invest in fandom. Sponsorship is no longer confined to logos on jerseys or advertising around stadiums. Increasingly, companies want to become part of a fan’s journey before, during and after an event through gaming challenges, creator-led campaigns, prediction contests and digital communities.
The trend is visible across sports. Formula One remains one of the world’s most valuable sponsorship properties, with title partnerships for leading teams estimated at around $100 million annually. Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari triggered record demand for team merchandise, demonstrating how narratives around athletes can influence consumer spending long before race day. Tennis continues to attract luxury brands such as Rolex and Richard Mille, while cricket’s commercial ecosystem stretches far beyond broadcasting through franchise sponsorships, licensed merchandise and equipment sales. Football, meanwhile, remains one of the world’s largest merchandising businesses, generating billions of dollars through shirt sales, licensing agreements and commercial partnerships.
But for marketers, visibility alone is not enough. Manoj George, founder of Scara Gaming, says brands are increasingly succeeding by becoming participants in fan culture rather than interrupting it. “One thing I’ve noticed is that the best brands don’t try to interrupt fan culture, they become part of it. The most successful campaigns have been the ones where fans actually participate instead of just watching an ad. Whether it’s gaming challenges, prediction contests, creator engagements, fan tournaments or reward-led experiences, people want to feel involved.”
The same philosophy is reshaping live events. Stadiums are no longer expected to deliver only a match or a race but a broader entertainment experience that combines fan zones, gaming activations, creator appearances, food and merchandise.
For publishers, however, audience size is only one measure of opportunity. What matters equally is whether a sport generates stories that keep fans engaged between competitions. As Choudhary explains: “Football is a natural fit because its ecosystem never really switches off, with domestic leagues, international tournaments, transfers, fantasy discussions and creator content driving year-round engagement.” He adds: “One way we evaluate opportunities is by looking at the strength of the narrative, not just the size of the audience. The strongest gaming ecosystems emerge around sports with persistent stories instead of peak events. If fans continue talking about a sport between matches, publishers have far more opportunities to build meaningful engagement over time.”
While football, Formula One and basketball continue to build digitally connected audiences, Agarwal believes India also has an opportunity to create gaming experiences around indigenous sports rather than relying solely on imported intellectual property.
“Football is attractive for scale, given the size of the existing player base for football titles in India, but the IP is almost entirely foreign-owned, so the opportunity there is more about esports and community infrastructure than original game development. Kabaddi, wrestling and regional sports are far more interesting from a studio standpoint as they have passionate, underserved fan bases and virtually no existing gaming catalogue.”
Navani believes India’s long-term opportunity lies in becoming a creator, not merely a consumer, of sports gaming intellectual property. “The biggest opportunity lies in building long-term sports entertainment ecosystems rather than standalone titles or one-off tournaments.”
For all the growth in gaming, none of the executives believes digital participation will replace live sport. Instead, they see the two reinforcing each other, with gaming extending the emotional and commercial life of every sporting event.
George believes the distinction between physical and digital fandom will continue to blur. “The lines between digital and physical will continue to blur. People are discovering sports through memes, creators, gaming, school competitions, niche communities and social media long before they ever attend a live event. The next generation of sports fans won’t fit into one category, they’ll follow multiple sports, consume content across platforms and engage in many different ways,” he adds.