<ul><li>The <keyword id="6370199" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-Federation-of-Sports-Gaming">Indian Federation of Sports Gaming</keyword> (IFSG) is the country’s only self-regulatory industry body.</li><li>It has appointed former <keyword id="137646" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Supreme-Court-judge">Supreme Court judge</keyword> <keyword id="798960" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="AK-Sikri">AK Sikri</keyword> as its Ethics Officer. </li><li>The Indian <keyword id="6370198" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="fantasy-gaming">fantasy gaming</keyword> market is projected to touch $5 billion in the next two years with players like Dream11, Mobile Premier League leading the industry.</li></ul>As the fantasy gaming market grows in India, The Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG), which is the country’s only self-regulatory industry body, has appointed former Supreme Court judge AK Sikri as its Ethics Officer. Sikri, as the Ombudsman, will be responsible for investigating queries/complaints raised by users. “The sports gaming industry provides an untapped opportunity for sports lovers to showcase their sports knowledge and come closer to their favorite sport. As the industry prepares for the next wave of sports enthusiasts, as a self-regulatory industry body it is important to protect and educate operators and users about the industry and its best practices,” said Justice A K Sikri, Ombudsman, IFSG. IFSG currently has 32 members across fantasy sports operators and sports analytics firms. The Indian fantasy gaming market is projected to touch $5 billion in the next two years and has players like Dream11, Mobile Premier League leading the industry. Dream11, which has over 60 million users is associated with major cricketing events like the Indian Premier League and the ICC World Cup. MS Dhoni is its brand ambassador. Dream11 also became India’s first gaming unicorn in April 2019. Another player in the same field is Mobile Premier League which gained 20 million users within seven months of its launch. It also raised $35.5 million from Sequoia India. MPL has Indian skipper Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador.

Indian regulatory body for fantasy gaming appoints former Supreme Court judge AK Sikri as its Ethics Officer

<ul><li>In an interview with Business Insider, co-founder of <keyword id="7087972" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="mobile-premier-league">Mobile Premier League</keyword> Sai Srinivas Kiran G. talks about how they raked up 20 million users in just 7 months. </li><li>The platform has raised a series A funding from <keyword id="563136" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sequoia-India">Sequoia India</keyword>, Times Internet, and GoVentures, along with participation from existing investors. </li><li><keyword id="6354486" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="virat-kohli">Virat Kohli</keyword> is the brand ambassador of the platform.</li></ul>Mobile Premier League, the <keyword id="3351303" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gaming-startup">gaming startup</keyword>, has raised a series A funding of $35.5 million led by Sequoia India, Times Internet, and GoVentures. And what’s more, the just 7-month old startup also has Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador. In August 2017, Sai Srinivas Kiran G. and Shubham Malhotra started the gaming platform when they realised three things they call the “holy trinity of the internet” – the price of data today is almost zero, the price of a device is extremely cheap and the third but the biggest factor, people now have an accessible and very convenient method for payments. “That’s when we thought why can’t we build a platform where people come together, pick a game of their choice and compete in tournaments across the country and hopefully one day, across the world. That’s how the Mobile Premier League came about,” Sai told Business Insider. MPL is a horizontal mobile eSports platform where every day about 25-30 online gaming tournaments are held. Every day for some of their tournaments, 150,000 to 300,000 are competing to win, said Sai. While MPL doesn’t develop the games themselves, it works with third-party developers and then publishes the game on the platform. “The platform today is not mature enough to be open for all developers, but the eventual goal is to make it a platform where any developer can create and then publish a game for all users,” said Sai. However, it also has a large competitor in the fantasy gaming space – Dream11, the gaming unicorn which already has MS Dhoni as its ambassador. Dream11 has over 50 million users and aims to have 100 million by the end of the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/dream11-is-eyeing-the-unicorn-tag-riding-on-ipl-and-cricket-world-cup-in-2019/articleshow/68458528.cms"> year.</a> And Sai, too, rightfully credits Dream11 to have built the fantasy gaming industry in India. But, the horizontal Indian online gaming industry today has over 200 million users and the numbers are expected to grow to 50 million by 2022. MPL too hopes to have a piece of that cake. “In just 7 months, we have had great traction as we already have about 25 million users,” he said. Helping them in their quest for growth, is Virat Kohli. Kohli’s appointment as a brand ambassador was strategic – to help introduce the brand to the millions of people who know and follow the cricketer. While Kohli too saw potential in the product to sign it up, Sai said “there was a little bit of luck mixed into the whole thing.” When it comes to funding, Sai and Malhotra are actually one of Sequoia’s favourites. Their previous startup was Creo, which built the streaming media dongles called Teewee, was also funded by Sequoia. Creo was acquired by Hike last year. Their current funding will help them grow faster by hiring the right talent to build out their product infrastructure and build not just an India centric product but a global one. They are currently making revenue from paid tournaments, sponsored tournaments, and advertising. However, Sai says that being so new in the gamef, their focus remains on user growth. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/mobile-premier-league-signs-virat-kohli-as-brand-ambassador/articleshow/68266803.cms">It’s Virat Kohli Vs MS Dhoni in the Indian e-gaming space</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/dream11-enters-the-unicorn-club-brings-on-board-steadview-capital/articleshow/68788418.cms">Dream11 becomes India’s first gaming unicorn</a>

This 7-month old startup has $35.5 million funding from Sequoia and Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador

<ul><li><keyword id="6214644" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dream11">Dream11</keyword> founders tell Business Insider that they expect a huge spike in users this year </li><li>Two big sporting events-- the IPL and the cricket world cup-- in 2019 may drive boost user interest in the country’s biggest fantasy gaming site. </li><li>The business prospects got a big fillip after the country’s cricket regulator, BCCI, declared Dream11 as the official partner for the upcoming cricket league. </li><li>Reports suggest Steadview Capital may invest another $100 million in the company this year to make it India’s first gaming unicorn. </li></ul>Bhavit Sheth and Harsh Jain used to spend a lot of their time playing fantasy games for the English Premier League. And when the Indian Premier League began in 2008, the two 22-year olds realised that it was time to turn their obsession into a business – and the fantasy gaming site Dream11 was born. Today, 11 years later, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has declared Dream11 as the official partner for fantasy games during the upcoming season of the IPL, and arguably the country’s biggest sports icon right now, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is their brand ambassador. Now, the founders are gunning for the coveted tag of a unicorn – a company that is worth at least a billion dollars. With the IPL and the cricket World Cup lined-up over the next three months, 2018 may be a big year for Dream11. “We expect to have 90 million users by the end of the World Cup and 100 million by the end of 2019.” Sheth told Business Insider. The Indian fantasy gaming industry is projected to be a ₹118.8 billion market by 2023. While cricket holds the majority of the market share, other games too are picking up. At Dream11, 85% of their users play fantasy cricket while other sports like Kabaddi, basketball and hockey are picking up. The startup last raised $100 million in a Series D round at a valuation of a reported $750 million. Its investors include Tencent, Kalaari Capital and private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management. In <a href="https://www.vccircle.com/steadview-capital-may-make-dream11-india-s-first-gaming-unicorn/">March 2019</a>, there have been reports about Steadview Capital looking at infusing $100 million into the startup taking its valuation to over $1.3 billion and making it India’s first gaming unicorn. Dream11 has 52 million users who compete with each other on the site. The users assemble players from different teams to create a virtual line-up of their own, alongside an actual match. Based on the performance of their chosen players on the field, the virtual gamers are ranked on the virtual leaderboards. “We started off as a free-to-play site, trying to get revenue through ads. Three years into the business, we saw that with a niche product like ours which doesn’t have millions of page views, ads were just hampering the user experience on our app,” said Sheth. So, they changed the format. They allowed users to select their players not for the entire season at one go but only for daily matches. But they still hadn’t solved the question - how do they make money? That’s when they came up with the idea to ask users to pay and then they would pool in the money and award the winner. “But we weren’t sure if it was legally allowed in India. After consulting with many lawyers and one-and-a-half years of research, we knew that since this was a game of skill, there were no legal issues,” said Sheth. The Punjab and Haryana high court declared the Dream11 format of fantasy sports as legal and one that requires considerable skill and judgment. This judgement was further ratified by the Supreme Court When in 2014, Dream11 raised its first round of funding they still had just 300,000 users. But thanks to the popularity of IPL, today they stand at 52 million users. In fact, after signing former Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni as their brand ambassador, just during the 2018 IPL their user base went from 20 million to 40 million. Their initial 10 million users were dominated by Tier 1 cities but now 50% of their traffic comes from Tier 2,3 and 4 cities. “As 22-year-olds we started this business, engineers who didn't know anything about business. We didn't even in our wildest imagination think that we will have over 52 million users in such short time, with only a team of over 200 managing them and be at this scale,” said Sheth. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/gaming-startup-dream11-strikes-gold-as-the-official-partner-of-ipl/articleshow/68426121.cms">Gaming startup Dream11 strikes gold as the official partner of IPL</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/mobile-premier-league-signs-virat-kohli-as-brand-ambassador/articleshow/68266803.cms">It’s Virat Kohli Vs MS Dhoni in the Indian e-gaming space</a>

2019 may be the biggest year for this 11-year old Indian gaming startup

<ul><li>BCCI has announced <keyword id="6214644" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dream11">Dream11</keyword> as the official partner for the <keyword id="6354831" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-premier-league">Indian Premier League</keyword>. </li><li>Dream11 will also take over <keyword id="6354312" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="IPL">IPL</keyword>’s official fantasy game. </li><li>The startup which is on the brink of becoming India’s first <keyword id="7430106" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="gaming-unicorn">gaming unicorn</keyword> has 51 million users currently.</li></ul>The Indian Premier League is just around the corner and Indian gaming startup Dream11 has hit the ball out of the park. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has announced Dream11 as the official partner for the IPL. In a four-year exclusive contract, Dream11 will also take over the official fantasy game of IPL. Dream11 has IPL to thank for, for increasing its users over the years. The startup has grown from 300,000 users in 2004 to 51 million users today. Just during last year’s IPL, the gaming startup gained over 20 million users, Bhavit Sheth, COO and co-founder of Dream11 told Business Insider. Now, with the official partnership the numbers are only set to grow. “Dream11 is deeply integrating with the IPL, which is set to grow from its 1.4 billion TV impressions and 200 million online viewers in 2018, to achieve our goal of growing from 51 million users to 100 million users in 2019,” said Harsh Jain, CEO and co-founder of Dream11. The startup which is on the brink of becoming India’s first gaming unicorn has been around for 11 years, although it saw its popularity reach the peak with last year’s IPL. The startup also brought on board former Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni to be its brand ambassador. According to the 2019 IFSG - KPMG report, fantasy cricket is the most widely played (71% respondents) online fantasy sports game and the primary motivation (72% respondents) for playing fantasy sports is fun and excitement. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/heres-why-indian-brands-can-no-longer-ignore-the-countrys-women-during-ipl-matches/articleshow/68153213.cms">Brands can no longer ignore Indian women during the country's most popular sporting event</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/mobile-premier-league-signs-virat-kohli-as-brand-ambassador/articleshow/68266803.cms">It’s Virat Kohli Vs MS Dhoni in the Indian e-gaming space</a>

Gaming startup Dream11 strikes gold as the official partner of IPL

<ul><li>Amid the <keyword id="6354312" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="IPL">IPL</keyword> season, <keyword id="6356755" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="iit-madras">IIT Madras</keyword> end-semester exam asked students “What should Dhoni do if he wins the toss?” </li><li>The picture of the question paper went viral on social media, grabbing the International Cricket Council (ICC) attention. </li><li>The ICC praised IIT Madras and its professor Vignesh Muthuvijayan for making the learning experience relatable to real life issues.</li></ul>In the backdrop of the ongoing <keyword id="6354831" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-premier-league">Indian Premier League</keyword> (IPL) season, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras asked its students “What should Dhoni do if he wins the toss?” In its recent <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/iit-madras-stumps-students-with-its-csk-googly/articleshow/69226597.cms">end-semester examination</a>, the test for Material and Energy Balances (MEB) included a case study asking the students whether <keyword id="13886" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chennai-Super-Kings">Chennai Super Kings</keyword> (CSK) Captain M.S. Dhoni Should be batting or fielding in his next match. Listing the pre-assumed weather conditions, the question asked to calculate if the water droplets would affect the team’s performance. The question paper was set up to enhance student learning experience by taking up relatable examples Soon, the screenshot of the question paper went viral on social media. Taken by the effort and relatability of the content with daily lives of students, the International Cricket Council (ICC) tweeted the question, praising the professor, Vignesh Muthuvijayan and the prominent institute for engaging students with real life issues. 
 
 
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 To make the learning experience fun, "I had set this question as a way to test students' understanding of psychrometric charts and dew point calculation, professor Muthuvijayan <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/tn-dalit-man-recounts-brutal-assault-and-humiliation-two-arrested-101418">reportedly</a> said. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/mobile-premier-league-signs-virat-kohli-as-brand-ambassador/articleshow/68266803.cms">It’s Virat Kohli Vs MS Dhoni in the Indian e-gaming space</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/gaming-startup-dream11-strikes-gold-as-the-official-partner-of-ipl/articleshow/68426121.cms">Gaming startup Dream11 strikes gold as the official partner of IPL</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/dream11-is-eyeing-the-unicorn-tag-riding-on-ipl-and-cricket-world-cup-in-2019/articleshow/68458528.cms">2019 may be the biggest year for this 11-year old Indian gaming startup</a>

An IIT Madras exam paper asked students if ‘Dhoni should go for batting or fielding if he wins the toss’

How do VCs answer the question-“Should I invest in this Startup?” 
 Before I get to that, I’ll quickly digress to share the story of a remarkable sporting achievement that gave more impetus to a hitherto, underused method for evaluation of <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword>. 
 
Back in 2002, the Oakland Athletics baseball team created history by finishing first in their division. 
 
No mean feat, especially when you are an underdog, with severe financial limitations and having lost 3 of your best players to the elite teams. And then to top it all, going on to set an American League record for the longest win streak with 20 consecutive wins. 
 
More interestingly, the way in which the Oakland A’s achieved all of this was so incredible and unique at the same time, that it inspired a <a href="http://www.amazon.in/Moneyball-Art-Winning-Unfair-Game/dp/0393324818">book</a> (which went on to become a bestseller) and a Hollywood <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210166/">movie</a> starring <keyword id="3557" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Brad-Pitt">Brad Pitt</keyword> that received 6 Academy Award nominations including one for Best Picture. The movie’s screenplay, was written by no less than <keyword id="377733" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Aaron-Sorkin">Aaron Sorkin</keyword> (of The Social Network and Steve Jobs fame). 
 The book details how <keyword id="784180" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Billy-Beane">Billy Beane</keyword>, Oakland Athletics’ General Manager, and the brain behind what came to be known as the ‘<keyword id="248886" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Moneyball">Moneyball</keyword>’ strategy catapulted them to unprecedented success with 4 more division crowns. 
 
Moneyball in a nutshell 
In sports, the Moneyball model is about finding undervalued (or under-the-radar) players and buying them on the cheap to put together a competitive team. 
 
It gets you the maximum bang for your buck using data and detailed analysis to identify value, which your non-moneyball competitors are yet to spot. They do this by measuring in-game activity of players to make cost-effective purchase decisions through comparison and heavy use of statistics. 
 
It has been used extensively in baseball, basketball and football, with remarkable success. 
 
Moneyball and Consensus 
In his recent article titled, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/The-Selection-Dilemma/articleshow/55028022.cms">The Selection Dilemma</a>, Kae Capital’s Shubhankar Bhattacharya, talks about Indian skipper, MS Dhoni, getting selected into national team despite non-consensus amongst selectors (such scenes play out quite often in the movie Moneyball as well). 
 
In the context of Dhoni’s selection, it could be argued that it might not have been entirely, an emotional decision. Perhaps, those selectors who pushed his case for inclusion were playing Moneyball in their heads. 
 
Let me elaborate… 
 
Although conventional wisdom suggests relying on batting averages or runs scored to determine who the better batsmen is, the Moneyball approach would not consider it to be an effective metric at all. Depending on the format of the game (test/ ODI/ T20), it would consider other, more effective metrics, given the team’s requirement or objective for a particular position. In this case, that happened to align with the stated reason by then captain Sourav Ganguly for Dhoni’s inclusion over fellow wicketkeeper-batman, Dinesh Karthik (who had scored more runs than Dhoni in domestic matches that season). 
 
Ganguly mentioned that he needed a batsmen who could perform under pressure on a bigger stage. In Moneyball terms, that probably maps to higher strike rate, runs scored and partnerships stands specifically in the slog/ death overs or while batting second in internationals. Did Dhoni’s stats better Karthik’s in that regard? Unfortunately, I do not have the data. But, his inclusion was justified when he consistently finished tight games for the national side, filling in a precise requirement. 
 
The Game VCs play – Selection or Moneyball? 
Coming back to the article, Shubhankar, goes on to elaborate on how the job of a VC is akin to that of the selector, in identifying promising startups that have been overlooked or misunderstood and hence passed on by other investors. He further illustrates via a 2x2 matrix on how the most successful bets come from non-consensus investments that are not necessarily backed by data or even common sense. 
 
But, if data can really provide actionable decisions, then why do VCs still largely rely on their ‘gut feeling’ or go by their ‘instinct’ before investing? 
 
The Moneyball Dilemma 
That’s because you cannot solely rely on statistics to tell you everything about a startup. Some things cannot be measured statistically or accurately — like a founder’s grit, or for that matter, the craziness of an idea! 
 
Just like sometimes, the only way a coach/ manager/ selector can assess certain qualities of a player, is to watch him/her play, VCs like to assess founders too, over several months and many meetings before they take a bet. 
 
Data scientists, however, would argue that everything can be measured — if you can see it and discriminate it based on those values, a stat can be made for it. According to them, a stat being unavailable only means that the stat doesn’t exist, yet! 
 
They might have a point. 
 
Given the massive advances in machine learning, the Moneyball approach can not only throw data points, but also help find the narrative in that data and its impact (there’s already <a href="http://www.theaivc.com/">AIVC</a> — the world’s first Venture Capital fund powered entirely by Artificial Intelligence). 
 
Coming back to the first question… 
How does a VC answer the question, “Should I invest in this Startup” 
 
I believe the answer will always be a mix of the emotional and the rational. 
 
The emotional ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ determines the faith the VC has in the team and the idea; and the rational will always be a percentage that goes something like, 
 
“There’s a 72.8% chance that the startup will attract follow-on funding” 
 
or 
 
“a 48.2% probability that this startup gets acquired” 
 
or 
 
“a 12.9% chance this startup will list publicly in the next 8 years.” 
 
The latter, in fact, is based more on the evaluation of business models and traction gained. And in that, it aligns with those startups in the [Successful + Consensus] quadrant, which will almost always give less than ideal or maximum returns. The reason is because investors make a beeline to invest in those companies that seem to have everything going right. Thus providing diminishing returns as their value is driven up. 
 
Having said that, investors and founders alike, need to move towards an increasingly advanced set of statistics and make it a bigger part of public discussion when it comes to determining performance of startups. That would mean the media would need to play an active role in the process by not glorifying vanity metrics such as GMV or number of app downloads or number of items sold. A case in point being the recent <a href="http://qz.com/274278/the-real-reason-why-indias-shopping-websites-are-at-each-others-throats-this-week/">war</a> <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Companies/BhnTNmAinnOChvZLwMe86M/Indias-ecommerce-war.html">of</a> <a href="http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/now-flipkart-and-amazon-fight-over-no-1-spot-in-terms-of-diwali-sales-264705.html">words</a> between the CEOs of Flipkart and Amazon India over Dussera and Diwali sales figures. 
 
Such efforts can also help reign in valuation bubbles. Overvaluing and over-investing, in startups or business models, that are fundamentally broken or flawed, can be thus controlled when the industry moves towards a ‘gold standard' for evaluation via metrics. 
 
Also, such complex metrics would also help overcome the conundrum posed by <a href="http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/Goodharts-law.html">Goodhart’s Law</a>, as these metrics will be hard to game. 
 
Final thoughts 
In the end, both approaches try to find value where it is not immediately apparent. However, many questions remain to be answered as one system cannot completely replace the other. To choose one, would be ill-advised and plain foolish. 
 
Perhaps, if VCs can evaluate their bets in retrospect and share the data, it could merit a follow-up article. If you had like to reach out in that regard (or even otherwise), I’m on <a href="https://twitter.com/prajaret">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveenrajaretnam">LinkedIn</a>.

Playing Moneyball with Startups — the Metrics Dilemma

<ul><li>Dream11 has won the <keyword id="7463791" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ipl-2020">IPL 2020</keyword> sponsorship. </li><li>For the <keyword id="6370198" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="fantasy-gaming">fantasy gaming</keyword> startup Dream11, IPL has always been its money making machine. </li><li>Earlier, Indian Premier League had suspended the contract with Chinese giant Vivo.</li></ul>India’s first gaming unicorn Dream11 bags IPL sponsorship for ₹222 crore, IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel told news agency PTI . Earlier, Indian Premier League had suspended the contract with Chinese giant Vivo. This year, the IPL is set to take place in UAE. Four companies — Tata Group, Dream11, Byju's and Unacademy — had bid for the title sponsorship rights for IPL 2020 after Vivo withdrew earlier this year. In 2019, the Board of Control for Cricket in India had declared Dream11 as the official partner for fantasy games for IPL. The 12-year old startup founded by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth had become India’s first gaming unicorn in April 2019. Its investors include Chinese giant Tencent, Kalaari Capital, private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management and Steadview Capital. IPL has always been Dream11’s lucky charm For the fantasy gaming startup Dream11, IPL has always been its money making machine. When in 2014, Dream11 raised its first round of funding they still had just 300,000 users. But thanks to the popularity of the IPL, today they have over 75 million users. In fact, after signing former Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni as their brand ambassador, just during the 2018 IPL their user base went from 20 million to 40 million.Their initial 10 million users were dominated by Tier 1 cities but now 50% of their traffic comes from Tier 2,3 and 4 cities. Until 2019, Dream11 claimed that its user base grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 230% over three years. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/its-not-just-tiktok-its-clone-apps-in-india-too-have-a-beeline-of-investors/articleshow/77606019.cms">It's not just TikTok, its clone apps in India too have a beeline of investors</a>

Dream11 wins IPL 2020 sponsorship – India’s first gaming unicorn bags the rights for ₹222 crore

Home-grown regional language social media platform <keyword id="3358959" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShareChat">ShareChat</keyword> on Wednesday announced that it had to let go of 101 of its employees, or about a fourth of the company's total workforce, due to the COVID-19-induced uncertainties in the advertising market. The Bengaluru-based company's cost-saving measures were announced in an email to employees by Ankush Sachdeva, Cofounder and CEO of the five-year-old firm which competes against the likes of Facebook and TikTok. "... today with the market uncertainties due to COVID-19, we are compelled to take a relook at our business. We have had to make a few decisions that would allow us to become leaner and position the company better for the future," Sachdeva said in the email. A ShareChat spokesperson later confirmed the decision to lay off 101 employees. "The global pandemic along with various local market uncertainties have had an impact on our business plans. This has pushed us towards certain tough decisions including a revised leaner structure while we continue to grow," the spokesperson said in a statement. "We've had to let go of 101 of our employees who've been part of our start-up journey. This was not an easy decision to make." ShareChat said it will provide a comprehensive severance package and extend assistance to the impacted associates with their outplacement support. The Twitter-backed firm started monetisation through advertisements only last year. But the COVID-19 brought uncertainties to the ad market. "We have to focus on our core product and feed recommendation driven growth levers while scaling back on the others. We need to go back to our fundamentals in terms of only picking bets that move the needle for growth," Sachdeva said. "We believe the Ad Market would remain unpredictable this year. We are streamlining our revenue teams to these new expectations yet will keep working towards building the necessary technology infrastructure," he said. In another big change, which is in line with Twitter's decision to allow some employees to work from home forever, ShareChat said that it would be partially remote at all times in the future. "We have adapted well to the remote working environment. Hence, we have relooked at the requirement of physical office spaces. We would be partially remote at all times in the future," Sachdeva said in the email. ShareChat, which has over 60 million monthly active users, raised $100 million in a new round of funding in last August. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/ms-dhoni-backed-khatabook-adds-to-its-line-up-of-star-investors-sequoia-and-tencent-get-more-stake-in-indias-largest-small-business-app/articleshow/75842295.cms">MS Dhoni-backed Khatabook adds to its line-up of star investors ⁠— Sequoia and Tencent get more stake in India's largest small business app</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/faisal-siddiquis-tiktok-acid-attack-video-is-adding-to-the-growing-list-of-problems-for-the-platform-in-india/articleshow/75800571.cms">Faizal Siddiqui’s TikTok acid attack video is adding to the growing list of problems for the platform in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/tiktok-gogole-play-ratings-fall-to-1-3-stars-after-4-million-comments/articleshow/75842653.cms">Tiktok got 4 million comments on Google Play Store dragging down its rating to 1.3⁠ — but it may not disappear yet</a>

ShareChat sacks 101 employees due to  'market uncertainties' amid COVID-19

If you follow cricket or the Indian Premier League (Yes, ‘or’ is the right conjunction here), you already know that the latest season is underway. As is the case with every other season, much of the pre-tournament hype was centered around the millions of dollars spent by teams to acquire certain players. This time around, it was <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsports.ndtv.com%2Findian-premier-league-2017%2Fipl-auction-ben-stokes-becomes-most-expensive-foreign-player-ever-no-takers-for-ishant-irfan-1661525" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">Ben Stokes’ turn to become the expensive player at the auction, for the sum of Rs. 14.5 Crore ($2.1 Million)</a>. As <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FProfDeano%2Fstatus%2F833538309175517184%3Fref_src%3Dtwsrc%255Etfw%26ref_url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.crictracker.com%252Ftwitter-reactions-ben-stokes-fetches-14-5-crores-in-the-ipl-2017-auction%252F" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">Dean Jones half-correctly pointed out</a>, Ben Stokes’ price is nearly twice the salary cap of entire teams at the <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBig_Bash_League" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">Big Bash League</a>. The rationale for this generous price tag appears solid. After all, Ben Stokes is amongst the best All-Round players in international cricket today.
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
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 Let’s start off with a look at how the players fared in <keyword id="6354312" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="IPL">IPL</keyword> 2016. Approximately <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.espncricinfo.com%2Findian-premier-league-2016%2Fcontent%2Fstory%2F1021917.html" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">Rs. 441.8 Crores </a>(~$68 Million)were spent by franchises on building their teams that season and a total of <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iplt20.com%2Fstats%2F2016%2Fplayer-points" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">30285 MVP points</a> were earned by players. This implies that, on average, franchises spent Rs.1.46 Lacs (~$2260) per MVP point earned. This allows us to actually calculate in-match contributions of each player and evaluate <keyword id="6355120" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="investment">investment</keyword> performance. 

	
	
	
	
	
	
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 The fact that <keyword id="6354486" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Virat-Kohli">Virat Kohli</keyword> tops this list is hardly a surprise. A record-breaking 973 run season deserves no less. To earn the Rs. 14.3 crores through in-match performances, the <keyword id="12643" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Royal-Challengers">Royal Challengers</keyword> Bangalore franchise had spent Rs. 12.5 Crore on Virat Kohli for a net return of Rs. 2.3 Crore (Or an ROI of 18.4%). So, if not Kohli, which players actually ended up being the investments of IPL 2016 ? 
	
	
	
	
	
	
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 Whoa !<section> Except for <keyword id="60604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="David-Warner">David Warner</keyword> (who, at 5.5 Crores was much ‘cheaper’ than Virat Kohli for nearly the same output), none of the top performers make the list of top investments. If we were to exclude David Warner as an outlier, every other top investment was priced either in the vicinity of Rs.2 Crores (Which, <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Findianexpress.com%2Farticle%2Fsports%2Fcricket%2Fits-nothing-rs-2-crore-is-peanuts-ravi-shastri-backs-team-indias-reported-demand-for-pay-hike-4598048%2F" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">in the words of Ravi Shastri, is “Peanuts”</a>) or significantly lower. In particular, look at no. 2 on the top investments list — Yuzvendra Chahal. His price of Rs. 10 Lacs returned an 82.6X multiple on the investment ! But this isn’t the first time “cheap” players outperformed at the IPL. In fact, <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.espncricinfo.com%2Fiplcountdown%2Fcontent%2Fstory%2F1090031.html" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">it happens rather often</a>. For example, <ul class="postList"><li class="graf graf--li graf-after--p">Shane Watson was bought in the second of two auctions in the inaugural IPL in 2008 for a sum of Rs.50 Lacs ($125,000) and ended up as the Player of the Tournament.</li><li class="graf graf--li graf-after--li">Shaun Marsh was purchased for his base price of Rs. 12 Lacs ($30,000) in 2008 and ended up as the highest run-getter of the season.</li><li class="graf graf--li graf-after--li graf--trailing">Andre Russel, no. 3 in the list of best investments of IPL 2016, finished as the Player of the Tournament in 2015, at the price of Rs. 60 Lacs ($97,000)</li></ul></section><section>And which players represented the worst investments in last year’s IPL ?</section><section> </section><section>
	
	
	
	
	
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</section><section> With the exception of Pawan Negi (What might have been the rationale that appeared to justify a Rs. 8.5 Crore investment in Pawan Negi ?), each of the worst investments — David Miller, MS Dhoni, Mitchell Johnson &amp; Suresh Raina represents a proven international star worthy of the price tag. In fact, for all the star power in the IPL, only two teams returned a meaningfully positive return on investment in 2016, the two finalists — Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore.</section><section> </section><section>
	
	
	
	
	
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 <section>Turns out that investing in IPL player auctions is just as risky and the outcomes are(dare I say it) just as difficult to predict as VC investing. </section><section>What might the best VC investments of all time have in common with successful IPL bets ? </section><section> Lets take a look at the snapshot below:</section><section> </section><section>
	
	
	
	
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</section><section> Each of these companies (Tencent, LinkedIn, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Google, Facebook, Juniper Networks, and Alibaba) represents an excellent investment because they all ended up as large standalone firms or acquisitions. The most recent of these examples is how <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.in%2Fhow-snapchats-first-investor-found-snapchat-when-it-had-less-than-100000-users%2Farticleshow%2F56945155.cms" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">Lightspeed Venture Partners’ benefitted from being the first investor in Snapchat</a>. How much of a difference does acting early on a successful investment make? A timeline representation of AppDynamics fund-raise journey up until its $3.6 Billion acquisition answers that question:</section><section> </section><section>
	
	
	
	
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 </section><section><section>Lightspeed yet again gets to be one of the first investors here and the value of the $5.5 Million investment ($572 Million) is greater than the appreciated value of any subsequent round at the time of the acquisition by Cisco. The following extract from <a href="https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.recode.net%2F2017%2F4%2F12%2F15274220%2Fjeff-bezos-amazon-shareholders-letter-day-2-disagree-and-commit" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" target="_blank">Jeff Bezos’ 2017 shareholder letter </a>appears particularly relevant in this context: </section><section></section> </section></section>

You Searched For "ms dhoni startups" and got 9 results

Indian regulatory body for fantasy gaming appoints former Supreme Court judge AK Sikri as its Ethics Officer

Sanchita Dash

This 7-month old startup has $35.5 million funding from Sequoia and Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador

Sanchita Dash

2019 may be the biggest year for this 11-year old Indian gaming startup

Sanchita Dash

Gaming startup Dream11 strikes gold as the official partner of IPL

Sanchita Dash

An IIT Madras exam paper asked students if ‘Dhoni should go for batting or fielding if he wins the toss’

Prerna Sindwani

Playing Moneyball with Startups — the Metrics Dilemma

Praveen Rajaretnam

Dream11 wins IPL 2020 sponsorship – India’s first gaming unicorn bags the rights for ₹222 crore

Sanchita Dash

ShareChat sacks 101 employees due to 'market uncertainties' amid COVID-19

Prabhjote Gill

What the IPL can teach us about Investing

Shubhankar Bhattacharya