Brands
MyTeam11 acquires title sponsorship rights of the India Tour of West Indies 2019
MUMBAI: In a significant announcement, MyTeam11, one of India’s leading fantasy sports platforms, was announced as the Title Sponsors of the highly anticipated and upcoming tour of the Indian cricket team to the Carribean Islands, by Cricket West Indies. The tour will now be rechristened the ‘MyTeam11 International Series’ and actually begins in Florida, USA.
The tour commences on August 3, when the first of three T20 internationals between the two sides are scheduled for Florida and will see a total of three T20s and One-Day Internationals (ODIs) each as well as two Test matches in a five-week period.
Commenting on the development, Mr. Dominic Warne, Commercial and Marketing Director, Cricket West Indies said, “Cricket West Indies is delighted to welcome “MyTeam11’’ as the title sponsor of the forthcoming ‘MyTeam11 International Series’ between the West Indies and India. We know that sports fans and cricket fans in particular are exploring additional ways to grow their engagement with the sport they love. MyTeam11’s sponsorship gives fans a new means to get involved with all of the action throughout India’s tour of the West Indies. The Series will be full of excitement across all three formats of the game pitting the world’s most followed team, India, against every cricket fans’ second favourite team and the heartbeat of the Caribbean, the West Indies. This partnership demonstrates the appeal of the West Indies cricket brand far beyond Caribbean shores.”
Also giving a thumbs-up to the association was MyTeam11 Brand Ambassador and former India cricketer Virender Sehwag. He shared the following thoughts, “What makes me really proud is that MyTeam11 is the first fantasy sports company that has become the title sponsor of a cricket series. This shows their commitment towards the sport. I Congratulate MyTeam11.”
Vinit Godara, CEO, MyTeam11 also shared his views saying, “MyTeam11 is not only one of the largest fantasy sports platform and our dream project, but is more of a mode for users to achieve their dreams. The growing relationship between our users and the platform motivates us to always offer them something new and indispensable. After, multiple modes and multiple languages, we have another good news for our users, in terms of Title Sponsorship of India vs West Indies series. We believe that this collaboration will not just help us reach new milestones and uncover new potentials for the platform but will also make MyTeam11 a bigger Brand Name.”
Further, discussing about the partnership, Sanjit Sihag, COO MyTeam11, mentioned, “We always strive to be the first when it comes to the introduction of something innovative or unique. Through this tie-up MyTeam11 will become the first ever fantasy sports platform to become the Title Sponsors of a series, and targeting an international series in the first go will surely add another feather to MyTeam11’s cap of success.”
Brands
E-commerce growth rises, but profits come under pressure
Shop Culture flags rising costs, weak systems and a $5.38 billion quick-commerce boom reshaping global retail
MUMBAI: E-commerce is booming, but profits are thinning. A new report by Shop Culture warns that brands clinging to outdated, growth-at-all-costs strategies are being outpaced in a costlier, more complex 2025 landscape.
Global online retail is expected to cross $6.86 trillion this year, with 2.77 billion shoppers making at least one purchase. Yet returns are under strain: average return on ad spend has slipped to 2.87:1, exposing cracks in how brands chase scale without building sustainable margins.
Three shifts are rewriting the rules. First, retail media is getting pricier, with Amazon’s average cost per click rising 15.5 per cent year-on-year to $1.12. Second, while 77 per cent of e-commerce professionals now use AI daily, many see limited gains as weak systems blunt its impact. Third, geography is no longer expansion, it is strategy. The share of Shop Culture clients operating across multiple markets has more than doubled, from 30 per cent in 2024 to 65 per cent in 2025.
Subarna Mukherjee, founder and ceo, Shop Culture, is blunt: “The e-commerce industry has a nostalgia problem. In 2022, the playbook was simple: list aggressively, spend on ads, and ride the wave of post-pandemic digital adoption. It worked. Revenue grew rapidly. But by 2025, the industry is seeing the consequences of those structural shortcuts. E-commerce itself is not slowing down, the challenge lies in how brands are operating within it.”
Nowhere is the shift sharper than in India’s quick-commerce boom. The segment is set to hit $5.38 billion in 2025, growing 17 per cent and emerging as the fastest-growing globally. What began as a convenience play is fast becoming a margin buffer. In one case, quick commerce drove 70 per cent of a packaged food brand’s online revenue, delivering 130 per cent year-on-year growth. A beauty brand, meanwhile, saw selling prices rise 25 per cent higher than on traditional marketplaces.
Expansion, too, is being rethought. The report argues that brands chasing the largest markets first often stumble. Better outcomes come from sequencing entries based on efficiency, regulatory readiness and competition, with markets such as the UK and Germany offering smarter entry points than the United States.
Compliance has turned from a checkbox into a revenue lever, especially in Europe. Brands with ready frameworks can go live in 8 to 12 weeks, while others risk delays of six months or more due to listing and documentation hurdles.
AI, for all the hype, is no silver bullet. Across more than 1,500 listings, it improved conversion rates by 10 to 15 per cent, cut TACOS by 7 to 10 per cent and reduced stockouts by 20 per cent, but only when layered on strong foundations. As Mukherjee puts it: “AI is not a growth strategy, it is an amplifier. It enhances strong systems and exposes weak ones.”
The message for 2026 is stark. Growth alone will not save brands. Margins, discipline and smarter strategy will. In a market still expanding at breakneck speed, the real race is no longer for scale, it is for survival.
