Online betting on sports has become a lot more popular in India with a lot of Bollywood stars and famous cricketers like Virender Sehwag and Nargis Fakhri endorsing the betting brands in India.
Since Bollywood and Indian cricketers are really famous among Indian people, betting sites operating in India prefer to use these popular faces to attract more customers. These brand ambassadors either promote the betting campaigns or the welcome bonuses on betting sites in India. The growing market of fantasy cricket also realized the influence and has reaped benefits by involving cricketers like Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly as their brand ambassadors.
Fantasy sport simply refers to a type of game where the players are expected to make a team of their own. This craze for virtual gaming is now trending and more and more celebrities are getting involved in the promotion. Just like betting sites with a welcome bonus the fantasy gaming platforms also promote the joining bonus using some of these popular faces.
Here is a list of Indian celebrities and cricketers who do not shy away from endorsing fantasy sports or gaming platforms.
1. Virat Kohli for MPL: Virat Kohli has been associated with the online gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) since 2019. MPL has also been the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team after Nike. During 2021 MPl launched a campaign where fans could see Leander Paes and Geeta Phogat as their brand ambassadors. However, in their fantasy cricket promotion you can still see Virat as their prime ambassador.
2. Shah Rukh Khan for A23 – This very year A23 one of India’s premier online gaming portals. Announced Shahrukh Khan as their brand ambassador. Shahrukh promoted the brand a lot through advertisements during the IPL. Their ad campaign “Chalo Saath Khelein”, features King Khan promoting responsible gaming across the online gaming platform.
3. Sourav Ganguly for My11 Circle – A couple of years back, fantasy gaming platform My11Circle roped in ex-cricketer and former Indian Team captain Sourav Ganguly as their brand ambassador for their super-popular cricket fantasy platform. My11Circle is owned by Play Games24x7, a company that also has several rummy, Teen Patti, and poker platforms. Sourav Ganguly, known to his fans as Dada – the Prince of Calcutta, and the God of the OffSide now endorses My11 Circle.With the Cricket World Cup 2022 coming up he is promoting an offer where you could win up to INR 1 crore.
4. MS Dhoni for Dream 11: MS Dhoni along with many other famous cricketers has been the brand ambassador for Dream 11 for a long time. This year Dream11 has announced actors Kartik Aaryan and Samantha Prabhu as its newest endorsers. It is the first time Dream11 will have celebrities outside of sports as ambassadors.
5. Suresh Raina for Fantain Sports: Suresh Raina has been the brand ambassador for Fantain sports since 2019. Fantain is a Fantasy sports and fan engagement company and had done a collaboration with Suresh Raina but due to Covid the company’s operations are on hold.
Conclusion
The active engagement of celebrities and famous cricketers will play a major role in the future potential of fantasy sports in India. Fantasy sports have plenty of gaming choices to offer already, and it is expected that they will attract a wider range of players in the coming years.
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