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Even as IPL franchise owners continue to face the heat from income tax authorities amid allegations of financial irregularities, netizens are making quick bucks after buying their favourite teams in the virtual world.
Online T20 games launched by prominent gaming portals like zapak.com, indiagames.com and dream11.com, have become popular this season with cricket fever on a high fuelled by the ongoing IPL and the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Bidding farewell to popular online games such as 'Mafia Wars' and 'Farmville', cyber addicts are now enjoying the thrill of owning a cricket team, choosing their preferred players and even making some quick bucks with their team's win.
Fantasy cricket gaming portal Dream11.com, which has over 4.5 lakh registered users, has seen a considerable jump in web traffic even days before the IPL extravaganza began.
"Cricket lovers are making one team every second on an average on our website. Even before the IPL began, we had around 9 million page views a month," Harsh Jain, CMD, Dream11 Gaming Pvt Ltd told PTI.
Dream11.com offers cricket lovers an opportunity to create their own dream 11 team from over 180 Indian and international cricketers and win a total of Rs 5 lakh in cash and that too without investing any money. The gamers have been allocated virtual money worth Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) to choose their dream team. Interestingly, the results of the real-time matches played in the IPL are used to decide the points earned by the gamers.
"So if a gamer has bet on a player, who performed well in this IPL matches, he will earn more points and will be among the contender to win Rs 10,000 worth daily cash prizes," says Jain adding that it took them nearly ten months to develop the game.
The Reliance ADAG group owned gaming portal, Zapak has launched zapakcricket.com with over 30 games themed on cricket, including fantasy ones. "On an average, the portal sees 15-20 million page views a month.
During the last season of IPL, Zapak recorded 40 million page views, which is is expected to grow by at least 25 per cent this time," says Arun Mehra, COO of Zapak Digital Entertainment. They have also launched a multi-player cricket tournament called 'Cadbury 5 Star Howzat Cricket League', which is purely an online tournament wherein prizes worth Rs 10 lakh are up for grabs.
Indiagames, which has bought the official gaming rights of the IPL tournament, offers 'T20fever', a 3D multi-player game that integrates with your Facebook account.
The game allows you to create your own team with your Facebook friends and play against any other IPL team. "While cricket has always been popular among gamers, IPL is adding to its popularity and the launch of 3G in India will take gaming to the next level," says Vishal Gondal, CEO, Indiagames.
Targeting Twitter users, the UTV-owned company will soon launch a simpler online cricket coaching and simulation game called 'IPL 140 Cricket', which is based on 'Cricket Manager' concept. According to industry experts, online games offer consumers the unique advantage to interact they can literally touch, feel and play with their icons on this space, making it a far richer experience.
"There is immense potential in the gaming sector with the IPL. It acts as an interactive and engaging tool for the franchisee fans to be a part of the team 24/7 for 365 days," says Gondal. The owner of dream11.com says games, particularly fantasy cricket ones, are addictive in nature.
"It is because it gives you the platform to prove the validity of your opinion on which player should be there in the team and what strategy should be adopted. People love making teams with real players and when it comes to them free of cost and with a chance to win prizes, there's no looking back," says Jain.
According to a recent KPMG study, the Indian gaming market is growing at 32 per cent, which will become a Rs 32 billion industry by 2014 from the present Rs 8 billion. On whether a chunk of the gamers interest will be lost after the IPL and T20 World Cup, industry players refuse to throw in the towel.
"We believe that we will retain a substantial portion of gamers. Zapakcricket.com offers much more than games on the sport. Users log on to the website for live scores, news related to tournaments and cricket in general etc," says the Zapak official.
When so much of cricket is already happening on the field, then what is that attracts gamers to play the sport in the virtual world?
"Gaming provides a gateway to escapism. People forget their school or college tensions, office problems and issues with their girlfriend as they get the power to do whatever they want to do in the virtual world. So gaming will always remain popular," says the Indiagames CEO.