More than 100 employees have exited Dream Sports, the parent company of fantasy sports platform Dream11, after the firm reorganised its operations following the ban on real-money gaming in India.
The restructuring was initiated after the government’s online gaming law came into force in August 2025, prohibiting games where users deposit money expecting winnings. The move significantly affected Dream Sports’ core fantasy gaming business, erasing about 95 percent of its revenue and all of its profits.
As part of the overhaul, the Mumbai-based company split its operations into eight independent startup-style units in December. At the time, Chief Executive Officer Harsh Jain said a large portion of Dream11’s workforce had been redistributed across these units.
Dream Sports said about 700 employees were assigned to the new ventures based on their experience and interest areas. However, roughly 15 percent chose to leave the company.
“Since some of these employees were experienced with specifically running and growing high-scale businesses, and not startups, around 15 percent of them chose to leave and join other scaled up companies or start ventures of their own,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson added that the company’s attrition rate is only slightly higher than the roughly 10 percent seen before the ban.
Dream Sports said it currently has close to 950 employees and is not hiring new staff for now, focusing instead on retaining its existing workforce.
Company pivots after gaming ban
Following the regulatory shift, Dream Sports repositioned itself as a sports entertainment platform rather than a fantasy gaming company.
The company also moved into what Jain described as “startup mode”, restructuring its operations into eight business units operating independently.
These include Dream11, sports streaming platform FanCode, sports travel platform DreamSetGo, mobile game Dream Cricket and artificial intelligence initiative Dream Sports AI. The AI division includes sports analytics app Dream Play and cricket prediction platform RushLine.
Other units include fintech offering Dream Money, AI software initiative Dream Horizon and the philanthropic Dream Sports Foundation.
Following the regulatory shift, Dream Sports repositioned itself as a sports entertainment platform rather than a fantasy gaming company.
The company also moved into what Jain described as “startup mode”, restructuring its operations into eight business units operating independently. These include Dream11, sports streaming platform FanCode, sports travel platform DreamSetGo, mobile game Dream Cricket and artificial intelligence initiative Dream Sports AI. The AI division includes sports analytics app Dream Play and cricket prediction platform RushLine.
Other units include fintech offering Dream Money, AI software initiative Dream Horizon and the philanthropic Dream Sports Foundation.
As part of its cost-saving efforts, Dream Sports shifted its headquarters from Bandra Kurla Complex to Worli earlier this year. The company said the new Dream Sports Stadium office brings employees from its various brands together for the first time to improve collaboration and operational efficiency.
Earlier, Jain said the firm had removed bonus lock-in timelines for employees who joined in the past few years, allowing those who wished to leave to exit with pro-rata payouts.
“We want people who are fully into the startup mode and are willing to work for it, and we’ll share that reward if it comes,” he said at the time.
Founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream Sports was last valued at $8 billion after raising $840 million from investors including Falcon Edge, DST Global, D1 Capital, Redbird Capital, Tiger Global, TPG and Footpath Ventures in 2021.
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, passed in August last year, banned online real-money gaming platforms where users deposit money with the expectation of winning cash rewards. The law effectively halted fantasy gaming formats that relied on paid participation, forcing several gaming companies to shut down or pivot their business models.
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