Gaming
Stanfest to bring Ashish Chanchlani, Fukra Insaan and 200 more creators
Mumbai: Stan has announced India’s biggest creator gathering, “Stanfest 2024”. The upcoming event on 24 November 2024 at Phoenix Palassio Courtyard, Lucknow, features a lineup of over 200+ creators attending from different genres like Lifestyle, gaming, music, comedy, motovloggers,sports among others. Fans can look forward to seeing Ashish Chanchlani, Abhishek Malhan aka ‘Fukra Insaan,’ Round2Hell, UK07, Mortal, and Anurag Diwedi.
The event is set to offer a wide range of activities designed to connect and engage attendees with their favorite creators including fun-filled engagement sessions with creators, a mini tournament hosted by the title sponsor of Stanfest, Zupee, and the semi-finals and finals of Esports LAN tournament with the winner getting a Trip to Thailand. The Zupee mini tournament offers fans to play with their favorite creators and get rewards. The event will also celebrate excellence in gaming and esports through an award ceremony. Towards the end, a live music performance would wrap the event on a musical note.
The event will also offer multiple themed areas designed to offer an immersive experience for attendees.The event sponsors, Bingo and GetRizzed, will have dedicated experience to actively engage the audience with exciting competitions and attractive rewards. Additionally, the Stan arena and Ludo arena will feature multiple interactive booths, offering a variety of gaming activities and immersive experience zones designed to captivate and entertain attendees in the event.. Audiences can participate in tournaments, games to win goodies and rewards including a Royal Enfield Bullet. The event will also feature a cosplay arena where award winning artists will be joining showcasing their talent.
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.
