Dream11 is the latest sponsor to end its big-money contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) prematurely. According to multiple reports, the Indian fantasy sports platform is set to exit its contract with the Indian Cricket Board following the Union government’s Online Gaming Bill, under which money-based online games are prohibited.
Dream11 had a Rs 358-crore jersey sponsorship deal with the Indian cricket team, but the Online Gaming Bill has ended of the multi-million dollar sponsorship. Dream11 have even suspended their money-based contests on their fantasy app and is only conducting free contests.
The Parliament passed a bill last week to ban online games involving money, while promoting eSports and online social gaming. Following this, the Dream11 authorities approached the BCCI seeking to exit the deal, but only a mutual agreement to end the contract will complete the process.
The potential exit of Dream11 comes after several other big companies faced the same fate of deal collapse after the jersey sponsorship. For any big company, becoming Team India’s main jersey sponsor is considered a massive achievement, but many of them have suffered the ‘jersey jinx’.
Dream11 latest to suffer the jinx after Sahara, Oppo, and Byju’s
Business conglomerate Sahara enjoyed a 12-year run from 2002 to 2013 before running into SEBI trouble over regulatory violations. In 2014–15, India’s very own mobile company, Micromax Informatics, bagged the title sponsorship rights for all international and domestic tournaments in India, but their cricketing journey didn’t last long amidst the start of the Chinese smartphone revolution in the country.
Star India joined the bandwagon between 2014 and 2017, but their collaboration with the Indian Cricket Board ended following a Competition Commission probe.
Star’s exit paved the way for Chinese giant Oppo, which paid Rs 1,079 crore for a five-year deal. But the deal only lasted for three years, from 2017 to 201,9, due to geopolitical tensions and anti-China sentiment.
Then came Byju’s, the ed-tech firm, which had a peak valuation of $22 billion at the time of sponsorship. The Indian start-up paid Rs 1,000 crore till 2023 to retain the sponsorship before it began to fall apart. In 2024, Byju’s filed for bankruptcy after its Byju Raveendran, faced regulatory probes.
Coincidence or striking pattern?
Brand Guru Harish Bijoor believes the sequence of BCCI sponsor deals’ collapse can’t just be a coincidence and is impossible to overlook. “Brands with a fair bit of money in the kitty and wanting immediate and big visibility find the cricket jersey the best thing to buy,” Bijoor told StoryBoard 18. According to Bijoor, the issue stems from the fact that the sponsors were mostly from volatile sectors and were “ill-prepared to withstand”.
Business tycoon Harsh Goenka posted a cheeky post on social media, which read: Want to test your brand’s survival skills? Forget the stock market. Try sponsoring the Indian cricket team jersey!
Want to test your brand’s survival skills? Forget the stock market. Try sponsoring the Indian cricket team jersey! pic.twitter.com/LnLt1ofKSb
— Harsh Goenka (@hvgoenka) August 24, 2025
BCCI are now hunting for a new sponsor after its secretary Devajit Saikia confirmed that the deal with Dream11 has ended.
“Our stand is very clear. With government regulations in place, the BCCI cannot continue its sponsorship relationship with Dream11 or any such other gaming company. Under the new restrictions, there is no scope, and we are facing a roadblock with Dream11,” Saikia told PTI on Monday.
“So we cannot continue with them and therefore trying to find some alternatives, and that process is now ongoing. The vacant position of the sponsor is something that we are trying to fill, and till now nothing has been completed. Once something happens we will let you know with a media advisory,” he added.
According to media reports, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, Toyota Motor Corporation and a fintech start-up have expressed their interest in bagging the sponsorship rights of the Indian team.