Dream Sports-owned FanCode looks to double user base

Live content, sports statistics,  and e-commerce firm FanCode is looking to double its user base to 100 million in the next quarter on the back of the upcoming India’s cricket tour of West Indies in July  which it has the rights to stream in this market, said  the company’s co-founders Prasana Krishnan and Yannick Colaco. This will be the first-ever India tour on the platform, they said. The company, owned by Dream Sports, also has tie-ups with the Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe cricket boards, with the Bangladesh board for the Bangladesh Premier League and the ICC Pathway Events. It has rights to live stream some football and baseball leagues too. 

“There is a lot of focus in covering tier-1 sporting events like the Indian Premier League and World Cups in cricket and football. However, the content available around tier-2 and below sports events remain very limited and largely inaccessible to fans, despite the significant growth of sports fandom in the country over the last decade or so. We are focused on providing sports fans access to these underserved events by expanding the coverage and depth of content for them,” said Colaco who was formerly managing director India for the National Basket Ball Association. 

Colaco said in India, the experience for sports fans has been “broken” even though the fans are increasing in numbers. “About three or four years ago, fan experiences around following their favourite events or teams were largely fragmented. They had to go to a TV channel to watch live, digital platforms for highlights, newspapers for the latest news, and scour retail outlets for merchandise. We’re aiming to solve this problem of a broken experience for fans by integrating all of this on FanCode and by using the power of technology to curate experiences and journeys for each sports fan” he said.  

During a sports events, the fan can now take control and be able to customise his own live viewing experience by getting real time access to detailed player and team performance statistics,  real time highlights etc all overlaid onto the live stream, providing an immersive experience of cricket, explained Colaco. 

The company said it began as a provider of live sports scores to viewers followed by live streaming. That has now been expanded to offering sports news, analysis before, during and after a sporting event and also providing live videos. “Our user base has grown significantly and we continue to see exponential growth in consumption and engagement from sports fans who see tremendous value in the integrated services that we are offering. We have focused on tier two, three and four events, which have been underserved; from cricket at various levels to Major League Baseball and J-League (Japanese football) etc,” said Krishnan. 

In 2021, the digital sports platform had raised $50 million from parent Dream Sports’ investment arm, Dream Sports Investments (DSI). The company’s founders said their business model was centred around content, a lot of which is free for users. But the monetisation is either by charging users for some premium content and through video on demand. The company also accepts advertising for some sports events and generates revenue from selling products through its sports commerce vertical.  

The Indian sports sector, a $27 billion market, would clock a 21% CAGR to $100 billion by 2027 with double-digit growth expected across sub-sectors, said a recent report by Anand Rathi Advisors Limited, an investment consultant. The sub sectors include sports media rights, sports management, sports apparel and merchandise, sporting goods and equipment and online gaming etc.