Betting Is Illegal In India But Fantasy Sports Platforms Aren't - Here's Why

We all know that betting is illegal in India. But what about immensely popular fantasy sports games like dream 11? Why are they not illegal despite involving the risk of losing money?

For the uninitiated, fantasy sports platforms allow users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, kabaddi, basketball etc. Players stand the chance of losing or earning money.

While the elements such as pooling of money from players, calculation and distribution of rewards based on amounts received/proposed and outcome of winning/losing are similar in betting and these fantasy games, let's have a look at why the former falls into the illegal category but fantasy game platforms don't, as per Taxguru.

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What Separates Sports Fantasy Platforms From Betting

Here are key differences that make fantasy sports platforms legal but betting illegal.

Betting involves putting money and getting rewarded purely based on the happening /non-happening of an event that hardly requires any skill. On the other hand, fantasy games are a game of skill and involve the selection of a distinct team of players at the choice of the participant.

The selection of a player will require analysis and judgement with respect to his past performance, pitch conditions and weather conditions and ability to perform against the opponent team etc. Whereas betting is all about chance and not dependent that much on skills or knowledge.

Other rules like the number of players in a team will consist of the number of players as playing in a real-life sports team (Like 11 for Cricket / Football, 7 in Kabaddi etc) The duration of all contests is at least one full sports match (unlike in betting, where it can be done even for a ball/over/player etc)

Credits for including a player in a team are usually the same for everyone (not differentiated to the advantage/disadvantage of any participant) and no change in credits allotted to any participant

Competition among participants in a contest can be tracked on a real-time basis and every player is generally allowed to view/download the details of all teams in a contest which provides utmost transparency

So, fantasy sports platforms are considered as a game of skill and therefore exempt from provisions of the Public Gambling Act, 1867 and hence a legitimate (legal) activity as per the Constitution of India

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