Dream11 ex VP on the Online Gaming Invoice

The Indian authorities has formally handed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming invoice, 2025, within the Lok Sabha, marking a watershed second for the nation’s digital leisure panorama.

Introduced by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the laws lays out a dual-purpose framework: whereas encouraging the expansion of e-sports and academic gaming, it imposes a blanket ban on all types of real-money on-line gaming (RMG) – no matter whether or not they’re skill-based or chance-based.

The transfer has despatched shockwaves throughout India’s gaming ecosystem – none extra evident than in a strong put up by Smrita Singh Chandra, former Vice President of Policy Communications at Dream11.

Chandra, who spent 9 years constructing the fantasy sports activities platform right into a family title, mentioned she was writing with a “heavy heart” after the federal government’s sweeping ban on real-money on-line gaming (RMG), which outlaws platforms like Dream11 in a single day.

“A Vibrant Industry Criminalized”

Chandra described the transfer as “deeply unjust,” stressing that fantasy sports activities had grown “brick by brick, regulation by regulation, court order by court order,” with Dream11 at all times making certain compliance and moral conduct. “Declaring a platform illegal after years of validation, taxation, and judicial recognition isn’t just wrong – it is deeply unethical,” she wrote.

She argued that the federal government didn’t acknowledged the distinction between fantasy sports activities and playing, regardless of a number of High Court and Supreme Court judgments affirming that fantasy sports activities contain talent, not likelihood.

Chandra additionally warned of the broader financial affect. India’s fantasy sports activities market is valued at USD 1.82 million in 2025 and projected to progress to USD 5.05 billion by 2030 (CAGR 22.6%), she mentioned. That progress represented not simply enterprise revenues but additionally jobs, livelihoods, sports activities innovation, and digital fan engagement.

Her put up argued that by criminalizing the sector, the federal government dangers “undoing years of progress and harming millions of users, partners, employees, and the broader Indian sports ecosystem.”

Chandra, who signed off her be aware as a “proud ex-Dreamster,” urged policymakers to acknowledge the distinction between fantasy sports activities and playing and known as for equity, dialogue, and an ecosystem that fosters innovation moderately than penalizes it.