New Delhi: Consumer interest organisations and civil society actors have argued for tighter regulation of fantasy sports and opinion trading platforms to safeguard players’ interests as these activities gain traction during the cricket season.
The cricket season has commenced with the start of the ICC Champions Trophy and the IPL 2025 will start next month.
In a representation made to the Finance Ministry, Spandan Foundation, a civil society organisation, has expressed concerns regarding the regulatory vacuum, misleading advertisements and consumer harm relating to these activities.
Spandan’s appeal follows a joint representation by 10 organisations including New Indian Consumer Initiative (NICI) and PEN Media Literacy for urgent regulation on opinion trading platforms in India.
Citing some examples in the representation, Spandan Foundation said the loss in fantasy sports has led to financial distress and heavy indebtedness of players who are addicted to them.
To save people from getting into financial distress, it has requested the government frame some regulations.
“Fantasy sports and opinion trading platforms are nothing more than disguised gambling operations, misleading users under the pretence of skill-based gaming. They encourage individuals to stake their hard-earned money on illusions of reward that rarely materialize,” Spandan said.
NICI and other nine organisations in their joint statement said the rapid rise of opinion trading platforms in India is a cause of concern for consumers, where the lines between gaming, trading and investment are increasingly blurred.
It is also important to highlight that several Asian and Western countries have put in place a wide range of regulations and prohibitions on opinion markets in their respective jurisdictions, the joint representation said.
Opinion trading or predication markets allow users to wager on the outcomes of real-world events. Participants place monetary stakes on binary outcomes such as ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ on questions that range from elections and sports matches to economic trends and entertainment outcomes.
With venture capital investments and exponential growth in the last few years, opinion trading has gained rapid traction, with over 5 crore Indian users and estimated annual trading volumes exceeding ₹50,000 crore.
As regards Indian fantasy sports, the market has seen rapid growth in the last few years. An estimated 22.5 crore people in India play fantasy sports and the industry is growing at 30 per cent.
