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 The gross gaming revenue of fantasy sports during the ongoing IPL season is likely to reach Rs 2,900 - Rs 3,100 crore, a report showed on Thursday.

According to the report by Redseer Strategy Consultants, the average revenue per user is expected to grow from Rs 410 in IPL 2022 to Rs 440 per user in IPL 2023.

Transacting users during IPL season is expected to grow by 25-30 per cent in 2023, with nearly 60-65 per cent of users coming from tier-2 cities and beyond.

"Steep growth in fantasy sports gaming will come from tier 2 cities driven by increasing adoption of fantasy platforms and cross-migration of users from other games," said Ujjwal Chaudhry, Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants.

Increased Internet accessibility will give a push to the IPL economy.

Since its inception in 2008, IPL has predominantly been a televised sporting event with an audience of around 100 million viewers.

Over the years, its viewership peaked at 460 million.

While the live game in the stadiums is where the real action is, its offshoots spread deep into the virtual world in the form of fantasy leagues.

Fantasy cricket is an online game where fans can create virtual IPL teams of real cricketers playing in the season.

The fantasy game requires users to play strategically, knowing the records of each player, and making their own estimations.

Points are earned based on the performance of their players in actual matches, with the platforms offering lucrative prize money to the users.

According to the report, the encouragement from the government in the form of formalised rules and regulations regarding GST for real money gaming (RMG) platforms, and Google allowing fantasy platforms on the Play Store, will further increase transacting users during IPL 2023.

"Measures like RNG certification, secure payment gateways, and fraud security, increase user trust in the platforms, and subsequently build confidence in the users to spend higher amounts on gaming," said Saurav Kumar Chachan, Director, Redseer Strategy Consultants