Gaming
ESPNCricinfo & Twitter tie up to take #CricIQ social for #SLvInd
MUMBAI: ESPNCricinfo and Twitter have walked out to the middle together to take #CricIQ social for the series deciding third test between Sri Lanka and India.
Cricket fans around the world can now play CricIQ, which is ESPNCricinfo’s flagship cricket trivia game, by simply Tweeting their answers to @ESPNCricinfo.
They will then get an auto-reply as an acknowledgment of their answer and fans who Tweet the right answers the fastest climb up a leaderboard which is announced on every day of the test match. Three daily winners and the Top 3 fans at the end of the test match win exciting prizes.
Twitter India head of sports partnerships Aneesh Madani said, “Twitter is the mobile microphone for sports fans around the world when they have something to say. We have consistently worked to bring more for the cricket fan and our partnership with ESPNCricinfo, who have built one of the largest audiences in the world for cricket on the platform, is another step in that direction . With this innovation to bring #CricIQ to Twitter, we’re delighted that ESPNCricinfo is giving cricket fans another fun reason to Tweet.”
ESPNCricinfo director – business development Gaurav Thakur added, “ESPNcricinfo CricIQ has evolved to become one of the finest cricketing quiz destinations for ardent cricket fans and quizzers across the country. With the on-going India v SriLanka Test series, we decided to take the quiz social. This partnership with Twitter for #CricIQ gives fans a chance to play the quiz, and have fun with the uniquely real-time and interactive nature of the experience.”
Gaming
Dream Sports sees 100 plus exits after gaming ban forces overhaul
Company splits into eight units as real money gaming law hits revenue.
MUMBAI: For a company built on fantasy leagues, reality has suddenly rewritten the rulebook. More than 100 employees have exited Dream Sports, the parent of Dream11, after the company reorganised its operations following India’s ban on real money online gaming. The shake up came after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 came into force in August 2025, prohibiting games where users deposit money expecting winnings. The regulation struck at the heart of the fantasy gaming industry and dramatically affected Dream Sports’ core business, wiping out about 95 percent of its revenue and all of its profits.
In response, the Mumbai based company shifted into what chief executive officer Harsh Jain described as “startup mode”, splitting its operations into eight independent business units in December.
Around 700 employees were reassigned across these newly formed ventures based on their experience and interests. However, roughly 15 percent opted to leave the company.
A spokesperson for Dream Sports said many of those who exited were experienced professionals accustomed to running scaled businesses rather than early stage ventures.
“Since some of these employees were experienced with running high scale businesses and not startups, around 15 percent chose to leave and join other scaled companies or start ventures of their own,” the spokesperson said.
Despite the departures, the company noted that the attrition rate is only slightly higher than its earlier level of around 10 percent before the ban. Dream Sports now has close to 950 employees and is not currently hiring, choosing instead to focus on stabilising its existing workforce.
The restructuring has transformed Dream Sports from a fantasy gaming company into a broader sports entertainment platform. The eight units now operate independently, each focusing on different segments of the sports and technology ecosystem.
These include Dream11, sports streaming platform Fancode, sports travel service DreamSetGo, mobile game Dream Cricket and artificial intelligence initiative Dream Sports AI, which includes sports analytics platform Dream Play.
Other ventures include fintech product Dream Money, open source initiative Dream Horizon and the philanthropic arm Dream Sports Foundation.
As part of cost saving efforts, Dream Sports also relocated its headquarters from Bandra Kurla Complex to Worli earlier this year. The new office, called Dream Sports Stadium, brings teams from its various brands together under one roof to improve collaboration and operational efficiency.
Jain had earlier said the company removed bonus lock in timelines for employees hired in recent years, allowing those who wished to leave to exit with pro rata payouts.
“We want people who are fully into the startup mode and willing to work for it, and we will share that reward if it comes,” he said.
Founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream Sports was last valued at 8 billion dollars after raising 840 million dollars in 2021 from investors including Falcon Edge Capital, DST Global, D1 Capital Partners, RedBird Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, TPG and Footpath Ventures.
The new gaming law has forced several companies in the fantasy gaming sector to either shut down or pivot their business models, signalling a significant reset for one of India’s fastest growing digital entertainment industries.
