Gaming
Revenant Xspark levels up to worlds glory
MUMBAI: Talk about a supercharged respawn! Revenant Xspark has blasted its way into the Brawl Stars World Championship 2025, marking another milestone moment for Indian esports.
After a power-packed performance at the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) held in São Paulo, Brazil, from October 10–12, the team secured one of only four golden tickets to the world finals. Led by India’s Ashmit “Sergeant Clash” Raj Singh, along with Singapore’s Jayden “x9Jay” Wong and Jerome “Response” Kuek, a former world champion, Revenant Xspark proved that strategy, synergy and sheer skill can bridge borders.
This triumph makes it just the second time an Indian team has qualified for the global Brawl Stars stage, further cementing India’s growing might in competitive gaming. In their debut season back in 2023, Revenant Xspark had already made waves with a Top-8 finish at the World Championship, and this year, they’ve truly powered up.
“Our victory at the LCQ in São Paulo is not just for Revenant Xspark, but for Indian esports as a whole,” said Revenant Esports founder Rohit N Jagasia. “The players showed world-class skill, discipline and resilience. Representing India at Worlds will be a huge honour.”
For team captain Ashmit Raj Singh, the journey was anything but easy. “We had a tough bracket with some of the best in the world, including two-time world champions Crazy Raccoon, yet we were called dark horses,” he said. “We put in the most effort into both draft and gameplay. Now, we want to show the world that our region can’t be underestimated anymore.”
From clinching their first LPL Monthly Finals title in March to dominating the Subregional Grand Finals and now finishing Top-4 at the LCQ, Revenant Xspark’s 2025 has been nothing short of a highlight reel.
With this achievement, Revenant Esports, founded in 2021 and home to over 45 athletes across eight rosters, continues to prove that India’s esports scene is no longer playing catch-up. It’s in it to win it.
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.
