Fantasy cricket

This article has been written like an advertisement. Separation of this product from gambling is still debated.

Fantasy Cricket is a part of the Fantasy Sports genre. It is an online game where you create a virtual team of real cricket players and score points depending on how your chosen players perform in real life matches. To win a tournament, you must work towards attaining the maximum points and the No. 1 rank on the leader-board.e.g. ICC Fantasy league, IPL Fantasy league etc.

One of the new variation is real-time fantasy, where instead of picking a team before a match starts, you make predictions on how many runs will be scored in the next over or how many runs a batsman scores etc. and give points for correct predictions.

Fantasy sports gaming is a game of skill and is not related to sports betting or gambling in any manner since no user picks one team, but rather users / sports fans need to use their skill and sports knowledge to determine which athletes / players to choose to build the highest scoring team. So on fantasy games sites, users are NOT betting or gambling on any outcome of any match, an action that requires no skill. Instead users are choosing players that represent the user's own sports team, and competing against the teams of other sports fans to determine who has the highest skill and knowledge about which players will score the most points in a game.


User Involvement

Every cricket enthusiast looks for various ways and means to be connected with the game. Fantasy Cricket provides users an interactive medium to connect with their favourite sport. The game usually appeals to people who are avid cricket fans. Since the game requires sound knowledge of which cricketers are in form and knowledge of how they will perform in match conditions. Basically you are given the experience of an actual Cricket team selector with you having to choose your team from the best players on offer.

Fantasy Cricket Matches

A Fantasy Cricket Match is based on batting and bowling orders which are the most debated part of cricketing strategy. A little change in the order can change the course of the game. The concept involves selecting a team of 11 players and 3 substitutes from the pool of players who will play the match. There are no budget caps and player selection is not limited to a particular number of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders. A fantasy team can have any type of players. The main aim in a Fantasy Cricket Match is to out-score the opposition by as big margin as possible. Fantasy cricket matches can be played in all 3 international forms: One Day International, Twenty20 and Test Cricket. The limited over matches, namely ODIs and T20s, are played in 2 interesting formats- Daily Games and Rounds.

Fantasy Cricket in India

Fantasy Cricket is classified as a Game of Skill similar to Fantasy Sports in the United States. Fantasy Cricket for Cash is at the hub of three dynamic industry spokes, namely, Internet, Gaming and Cricket. In India, where cricket is almost the only sport enjoyed by its population of over 1 billion people and with industry projections putting Internet penetration at an encouraging $300mn and online gaming at $200mn by 2010, Fantasy Cricket in the country has great potential. Sites that cater to the daily fantasy cricket user are popping up daily.

Defining Skill: Supreme Court of India has explained skill in terms of superior knowledge, training, attention, experience and adroitness. The Supreme Court of India, in K.R. Lakshmanan v. State of Tamil Nadu, stated as follows: A game of skill, on the other hand – although the element of chance necessarily cannot be entirely eliminated – is one in which success depends principally upon the superior knowledge, training, attention, experience and adroitness of the player.

The relevant excerpt from the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in K.R. Lakshmanan v. State of Tamil Nadu, AIR 1996 SC 1153[1] is: There are few games, if any, which consist purely of chance or skill, and as such a game of chance is one in which the element of chance predominates over the element of skill, and a game of skill is one in which the element of skill predominates over the element of chance. It is the dominant element – “skill” or “chance” – which determines the character of the game.

The Court categorically stated the meaning of skill (in Paragraph 20 of the case), in the following terms: We, therefore, hold that the expression “mere skill” would mean substantial degree or preponderance of skill. In the above case, the Court was considering Section 11 of the Tamil Nadu Gaming Act, which excluded the application of the act to games of ‘mere skill’, and is in pari materia with Section 12 of the Public Gambling Act of 1867.[2] Interestingly, in that case the Court concluded that horse-racing was a game of skill.

According to law, it is completely legal to play fantasy cricket for cash in India(except for states of Assam & Odisha) and it is not classified as a gambling activity.

Fantasy Cricket in USA

In USA, where cricket is enjoyed largely by Indian Sub-Continent diaspora, Fantasy Cricket has tremendous potential. While Fantasy (American) Football is extremely popular, other sports including Cricket lack mass appeal due to subdued knowledge of the game in the country. According to law, it is legal to play fantasy cricket in USA, while being regulated both at national & state level, in line with other Daily Fantasy Sports offerings.

In USA, fantasy sports for Cash is defined and exempted by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). The act included an explicit provision noting that the law would not apply to fantasy sports games, educational games, or any online contest that "has an outcome that reflects the relative knowledge of the participants, or their skill at physical reaction or physical manipulation (but not chance), and, in the case of a fantasy or simulation sports game, has an outcome that is determined predominantly by accumulated statistical results of sporting events, including any single score, point-spread, team performance, or individual performance in such sporting events…"

Fantasy Cricket Leagues

A fantasy cricket league is a group which you can join and invite friends too. Each one can register individual teams and then compete against each other to see who wins the maximum fantasy cricket points and thereby the league. These leagues are very popular during major T20 events such as IPL and T20 World Cup. A fantasy cricket league can be further classified as a private league or public league.

Private Fantasy Cricket League

A private league is a league which a user/administrator creates and invites his friends or associates to participate in. Entry is strictly restricted to invitation only. People can join a league, create a team and follow the progress of their team and teams created by friends.

Public Fantasy Cricket League

A public league is a league generally created by an administrator of the website for a particular tournament and anyone is free to join by paying an initial fee. The fee is only applicable for a paid league. For a free league, there is no initial payment needed. Such kind of free leagues are very popular during big ticket international cricket events such as ODI World cup, ICC T20 world cup and other high profile series such as the Ashes

Fantasy Cricket Apps in India

There are a number of fantasy cricket apps in both App Store(Apple devices) & Play Store(Android Devices). Some of the popular ones are:

Fantasy Cricket API

Since Fantasy Cricket is dependent on real statistical data, a number of independent API services have come into being in an attempt to provide that data and increase the ability to use Fantasy Cricket as a wealth creation option.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1248365/
  2. ↑ http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1824663/
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