Fantasy leagues have seen massive growth in India over the years and cricket has undoubtedly played a huge role in its success. People have started to invest their time in the cricket fantasy league and its popularity has grown at the same time as the global phenomenon, the Fantasy Premier League. And catching the latest trend and hopping on the fantasy bandwagon is an upcoming cricket fantasy league, BalleBaazi.com. BalleBaazi.com has entered this uber competitive market with a unique idea by launching India’s first National Fantasy Cricket Championship (NFCC) which is free for all competitions. The tournament is witnessing huge participation and has resulted in a huge increase in users on the platform.
Following the huge success of NFCC, Mr. Saurabh Chopra, CEO, BalleBaazi.com briefed CricketNext.com about the strategy to launch a free for all competition exclusively.
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“The idea behind the National Fantasy Cricket Championship (NFCC) was to offer a structure and a platform for fantasy sports and cricket lovers to connect with each other. With the novel free-to-play NFCC, we wanted to give an opportunity to all cricket fanatics in the country to showcase their skills and knowledge of the game as well as establish a formal structure for a national level fantasy tournament . NFCC is the world’s first fully structured tournament in fantasy sports. It is divided into qualifiers, quarter-finals, semi-finals and then a grand finale, all coordinated with the organization of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. There are a total of 33 matches in the ongoing tournament in which the first thirty qualifier chances are one, two and three. Eventually, the 11 final champions of the game will get a chance to meet Zaheer Khan and the 1 winner will get a chance to travel to the Mecca of cricket at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in England,” Saurabh told cricketnext.com.
He explained that NFCC was started to change the mindset of the people that online fantasy sports platforms are only for earning money. “Furthermore, we wanted to remove the stigma that often plagues online fantasy sports (OFS) platforms that it is “only about the money” and want to make it “about the glory” that no one wants to do with this game. We can earn by winning all kinds of tournaments. So far we have received tremendous response from the tournaments and the numbers are increasing.”
“NFCC also marks the beginning of the collaboration between Batting and their new brand ambassador Zaheer Khan. The top 11 winners of the tournament will also get a chance to meet Zaheer Khan and the 1st winner will be allowed to pay all the expenses at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Saurabh admitted that Khan would bring more trust and credibility to the fantasy league which happened with Yuvraj Singh as well.
“Zaheer is not only the face of NFCC but the entire brand of BalleBaazi.com. Zaheer is a legend of the game and his association with us is exactly the same as that of Yuvraj Singh earlier. This collaboration will bring more trust and credibility to BalleBaazi.com. Saurabh said, “Our association with Zaheer was announced just before the launch of NFCC and his representation in the tournament has been very good for us.
“We are in the middle of the tournament and have already created over 16.50 lakh teams by over 1,19,090 unique users. In addition to the existing patrons, we are seeing a lot of new players joining the league and I would say this is the beginning of bigger things to come.”
Saurabh also talked about bringing the former India pacer on board and said that the plan was to go from being a great batsman (Yuvraj) to one of the best fast bowlers India has ever produced.
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“When we sat down on our marketing strategy, one thing we were sure of was that we wanted to include someone who is a stalwart of the sport and who has made an impact in the World Cup. In the true sense, Zaheer Khan is one such cricketer. Earlier, we associated with Yuvraj Singh, who was an inspiration to billions of Indians in both the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 World Cup, and we wanted to continue the same legacy. We thought we were completing a cycle in the history of Indian cricket from a great batsman to one of the best fast bowlers of all time.”
Saurabh further talked about how T20 cricket has helped fantasy platforms expand their reach as he clarified his point with the NFCC report of India’s matches in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
“T20 has really helped fantasy sports platforms. It is neither too long nor too short, which helps the users to devise a better strategy while selecting their best performers for a particular match. India matches are a big attraction, for example, the ongoing NFCC India vs New Zealand match saw over 62,000 unique users and the India vs Pakistan match saw over 68,000 unique users across platforms, which is not only good for the tournament but also good for it. Overall engagement on the platform,” he said.
Saurabh, who is an ardent cricket follower, said that Ballebaazi.com has made fantasy leagues more enjoyable than other formats by giving the option of teaming up for different innings in all three formats of the game.
“While T20 remains the major attraction, we cannot ignore other formats. Since, our love for the game knows no bounds and to ensure that the original format i.e. Test also gets traction. We also offer Innings Fantasy in all 4 innings and mid-innings in ODIs and T20s. We also have batting and bowling fantasy formats to ensure traction across all formats of the game.”
The year 2021 was great in terms of back-to-back major cricketing events – IPL 2021 and T20 World Cup, but it will not happen in 2022. There will be a huge gap between tournaments and Saurabh is already done with his marketing. To counter it next year.
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“While 2021 has been a great year for the fantasy sports and online gaming sector, the sudden rush of major tournaments only happened because the pandemic took everyone off the schedule. We even had to rethink and rework our marketing as well as innovative strategy to match the new calendar of events, especially when it comes to IPL. Even during the interval period, there will be some important fixtures, especially when it comes to cricket. So, we will focus on that and as I said earlier, we will start building for the upcoming IPL as it will be bigger and better,” Saurabh said.
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