'See you in our second innings': Dream11 shares emotional post after halting real-money gaming business

India’s largest real-money gaming platform, Dream11, recently shut down its real-money operations after Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, earlier this week.

Advertisment

While announcing the decision, Dream11 said it has “stopped all paid contests” and pivoted entirely to a free-to-play social game. The company emphasised it has always operated as a law-abiding business and will “fully comply” with the new legislation.

“When we started this journey 18 years ago as a sports tech company, we were not even 1% of the size of the USA fantasy sports industry. Dream11’s Fantasy Sports product was our way to ‘Make Sports Better’ for all of India,” the company wrote in a social media post.

“With this passion, belief, and the spirit of Made in India, for India, by Indians, we became the largest fantasy sports platform in the world.”

Read Dream11's post

The company added that it would continue to grow its broader portfolio, which includes FanCode, DreamSetGo, Dream Game Studios, and the Dream Sports Foundation. These businesses, it said, will continue to support its vision to “Make Sports Better” and contribute to India’s ambition of becoming a global sporting superpower.

Dream11 joins a growing list of gaming platforms, including MPL, Zupee, Probo, My11Circle, and GamesKraft, that have shut down their real-money businesses following the bill’s passage.

The bill, which now awaits President Droupadi Murmu’s assent, prohibits real money gaming companies from accepting user deposits for games where players could lose money. Violations would be punishable by up to three years in prison and fines of as much as Rs 1 crore.

Repeat offences attract enhanced penalties, including three to five years' imprisonment and fines up to Rs 2 crore. Banks and financial institutions facilitating such transactions would also face penalties.

“The money-gaming addiction is like drug addiction. The powerful people behind online money games will challenge the decision in courts. They will run social media campaigns against this ban. We have seen the impact of games and how the money is used to support terror,” Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.