Gaming
Welt Esports win debut 4TR Winter Premier League
NEW DELHI: Winter warmed up quickly for India’s esports faithful as 4TR Esports wrapped up its first Winter Premier League 2025, a high-octane BGMI tournament that mixed fierce competition with big ambition. After weeks of action, Welt Esports emerged champions, with Genesis Esports and Team Roman securing first and second runner-up spots.
The tournament marked a landmark moment for 4TR Esports, doubling as its first full-scale event series streamed on YouTube. With a prize pool of Rs 4 lakh and bragging rights firmly on the line, the league drew attention well beyond the core gaming crowd.
The road to the finals was anything but short. Starting December 1, the Winter Premier League featured group stages, quarter-finals, semi-finals and a gripping grand finale across the fan-favourite maps of Rondo, Erangel and Miramar. While 64 teams battled it out in the main event, a staggering 1,024 teams took part in the qualification rounds, underlining the scale of interest.
Big names added extra sparkle to the competition. Teams such as iQOO SOUL, iQOO RNTX, HeroXtreme Godlike, iQOO 8BIT and OnePlus Gods Reign all joined the fray, turning the league into a who’s who of Indian BGMI talent.
Reflecting on the milestone, 4TR Esports director and CEO Sidharth Agarwal, said the organisation is playing a long game. He emphasised a focus on discipline, growth and real opportunities for players and creators, calling the Winter Premier League an important first step in building what he sees as a lasting 4TR era.
4TR Esports also put its own squad to the test, reaching the semi-finals while competing against the country’s best. Looking ahead, the organisation plans to contest all official BGMI tournaments in India, with an eye on representing the nation on the global stage.
Beyond trophies and titles, 4TR has its sights set on growing the wider ecosystem. Plans are underway to host two to three tournaments for underdogs and girls, create pathways for young talent from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and offer aspiring players the chance to compete alongside established professionals.
In its very first winter outing, 4TR Esports has shown it means business. If this debut is anything to go by, the coming seasons could be even hotter.
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.
