Gaming
Pokémon Unite WCS India Qualifier 2025 kicks off with a $37.5K prize bait
MUMBAI: This April, India’s Pokémon pros have one mission: catch that ticket to Anaheim. The Pokémon Company and Skyesports have officially unleashed the Pokémon Unite World Championship Series (WCS) 2025 India Qualifier—with a juicy prize pool of $37,500 up for grabs and a chance to fight for glory on the world stage.
The winner of the India Qualifier will represent the nation at the Pokémon Unite World Championship 2025 in Anaheim, USA. There, teams from around the world will battle for their share of a $500,000 prize pool and the coveted global title.
Registrations close on 4 April, so if you’ve got the reflexes of Pikachu and the brains of an Alakazam, you’d better move fast. The qualifiers begin 5 April in a single-elimination format, with the top eight teams advancing to Playoffs on 6 April. The Playoffs will follow a double-elimination bracket, and every match will run best-of-three (BO3), ensuring enough drama to keep trainers on the edge of their Poké Balls.
Skyesports will livestream the entire playoff action on its official Youtube channel, giving fans a front-row seat to the adrenaline-pumped spectacle.
“After the immense success of the ACL India League 2025, which garnered more than 1.3 million views, we are proud to bring the Pokémon Unite WCS 2025 India Qualifier to our players. This tournament reaffirms our commitment to nurturing grassroots esports talent and providing a clear path to international glory. I wish the best of luck to all the participants,” said Skyesports founder & CEO Shiva Nandy.
With Pokémon Unite now announced as a medal event at the Asian Games 2026, India’s esports scene is levelling up—fast. WCS 2025 becomes the second major international route for Indian players after the ACL, which already sent Revenant XSpark and GodLike Esports to Japan earlier this year.
This April, only one team will evolve into India’s Pokémon Unite elite. Will yours be the one?
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.
