34% of urban Indians claim to have played online fantasy sports

A third of urban Indians claim to have played online fantasy sports for money in the past one month, out of which, the participation of female players has been almost equal to men (35 per cent men vs 32 per cent women), a report said on Friday.

According to data by YouGov's Gambling Profiles, nearly three in 10 (28 per cent) urban Indians said they are likely to play fantasy sports for money in the next 30 days, with just above a quarter of women saying this (26 per cent).

"Gambling is such a major industry that brands and partners deserve to have accurate and always-on data at their fingertips," Oliver Rowe, YouGov's Global Sector Head of Leisure & Entertainment, said in a statement.

"With the advances in technology, seismic impact of Covid-19, and the contrasting changes in regulation around the world, YouGov Global Gambling Profiles represents the most comprehensive, in-depth and valuable dataset in the market," Rowe added.

Apart from fantasy sports, online casino slot games and online poker seem to be popular among urban Indian women, with roughly a quarter of them saying they played these games for money in the past month (23 per cent for each).

When asked about the online gaming apps used in the past week, Dream11 emerged as the most used app by women to play money games online.

Usage of the app is almost equivalent among men and women (43 per cent vs 39 per cent).

However, compared to men, consumption of apps such as Spin Casino, Spin Samba and Casino Midas is more among women.

In India, on average, a third of the female fantasy gamers spend smaller amounts (up to Rs 1,000) on fantasy sports games every month (33 per cent).

Almost one in five (21 per cent) said they spend between 1K-10K, while only 16 per cent claim to spend more than 10k on online fantasy gaming.

The data is built upon more than 500,000 interviews per year, with new data collected and updated monthly.