Cricbattle.com: A Cricket Fantasy League

Simply put, cricket is an obsession in India! It seems as if everybody has an opinion about which players should be selected for a team. Most cricket buffs would love the idea of creating their own teams in a fantasy cricket league, and now they can.Florida based startup, Cricbattle.com, is offering a fantasy cricket platform that allows users to create and manage every aspect of their own team.

The platform was started by three ardent cricket lovers, after they conceived the idea in August of 2011.

Starting-up

According to the founders, it all began when they used to play fantasy cricket on the internet together without a proper platform. The problem was that certain winning combinations were copied by other teams because there was no restriction as to who could select which players. Further, there was no strategy or management agenda.

“This was contrary to American fantasy football, which allows proper league creation using a process called draft; this ensures that someone like Sahin Tendulkar isn’t on everyone’s team!” said Pragnesh Goyani, co-founder, Cricbattle.com. After perceiving these problems they followed up on their idea with strong research.

The close-knit cricket lovers ended up creating a platform that enables users to own, manage, and coach their own team. “We offer online and offline draft features, in which every league manager can fight to get the best players on their teams. Draft Day is the most interesting day of this fantasy format,” said Pragnesh.

Draft lets league managers work online or offline together to decide who is going to receive which players. The exciting Draft Day is when users fight with their buddies to create the best possible team that they will manage throughout the tournament.

Target Market and Revenue Model

Geographically speaking, Cricbattle is primarily targeting cricket enthusiasts in India, England, Australia, South Africa, Bangladesh, New Zealand, USA, and Canada.

“We are looking at roughly 20 million to 40 million active users based on current online activity across the globe. The market will expand dramatically as more Indians gain access to the Internet,” said Pragnesh.

Cricbattle’s revenue model is based on corporate sponsorship. Just like Sahara sponsors Team India in real life, a sponsor such as Pepsi will endorse a user’s fantasy team. “We keep the presentation in such a way that the user is aware of the brand and may interact with it closely,” said Pragnesh.

Apart from corporate sponsorship, Cricbattle also plans to raise revenue from contests and paid fantasy games that cater to hard-core fantasy players who would like more customizable features.

Moving Forward

CricBattle hopes to be the final destination for cricket and other sports-related fantasy and social games. They plan to add more meaningful fantasy games and features, as well as more technical platforms to achieve a higher reach.

“We are passionate cricket lovers trying to prove a point. The team has been working hard and we are dedicated towards releasing our first major milestone during the Indian Premier League in March. We are a close-knit group and we hope to continue this way!” said Pragnesh.