Dream Sports, the parent company of India’s leading fantasy sports platform Dream11, has undertaken a major strategic restructuring by splitting its business into eight independent startups. The move comes amid regulatory changes that disrupted the company’s core fantasy gaming model and wiped out nearly all of its revenue and profits
📌 Why the Split Happened
In August 2025, the Indian government passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, which banned real-money gaming activities in the country. This law effectively halted paid contests on fantasy platforms like Dream11 — a revenue stream that accounted for about 95% of Dream Sports’ business.
With its main revenue model no longer viable, Dream Sports has repositioned itself as a broader sports-entertainment company — an evolution reflected in its decision to decentralise operations into distinct, focused entities.
🧩 The Eight New Startups
Under the new structure, Dream Sports has reorganised into eight independent “startup-style” units, each with its own leadership, workforce, and funding potential. Key units spun out of the parent company include:
- Dream11 — The core fantasy platform remains as a standalone entity.
- FanCode — Sports content and engagement platform.
- DreamSetGo — Sports experiences and travel platform.
- Dream Cricket — Cricket gaming and interactive formats.
- Dream Sports AI — AI initiatives, including analytics and predictive tools like Dream Play and RushLine.
- Dream Money — Fintech arm offering products like fixed deposits and gold investments
- Dream Horizon — Open-source technology unit.
- Dream Sports Foundation — Philanthropic and community-facing initiatives.
Each startup will be run autonomously with its own CEO and team, allowing focused product development and the possibility of attracting external investor funding in the future.
📈 Workforce Realignment and Leadership
As part of the restructuring, Dream Sports has redistributed roughly 800 out of its 1,000 employees across the eight units, reflective of Dream11’s streamlined post-ban operations. Top executives from the parent group have moved into leadership roles within the new startups — for example, the Dream Sports CTO now heads the Dream Sports AI division.
🔄 Strategic Shift Toward Sports Entertainment
The split is more than just organisational change. Dream Sports is actively shifting focus from fantasy gaming to a broader sports-entertainment ecosystem that includes content, experiential engagement, and technology-driven fan interaction. This repositioning builds on earlier efforts to enhance the Dream11 app as a hub for live match insights, creator-led watch-alongs, and community engagement, expanding beyond its original gaming roots.
📍 What This Means for the Industry
Dream Sports’ move highlights how regulatory shifts can reshape business models in the digital economy. By diversifying into multiple verticals, the company aims to mitigate risks from legal and market changes, while tapping into new revenue streams in content, AI, fintech, and fan experiences.
Experts believe this restructuring could spur innovation in India’s sports technology space, potentially creating more specialised startups that excel in their niches. As these units grow independently, they may also attract venture capital and strategic partnerships that were previously harder to secure under a single monolithic structure.
