Tough times for the Online Gaming Industry! especially for the Real Money Gaming Platforms. However, one big player of the industry has decided to make a turnaround after the setback received from the passing of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025. Dream Sports, which is the parent company of the popular gaming platform Dream 11, has decided to enter the wealth management industry with the Dream Money App.
What is the Online Gaming Bill?
Government of India, through the Online Gaming Bill, aims to completely ban the online money gaming platforms that encourage online betting and gambling in the form of fantasy sports, rummy, and Poker. Additionally, this bill would promote and recognise E-sports along with online social games, which the government says is the ethical form of online sports.
The bill has completely caught big Online Money Gaming platforms like Dream 11 and My 11 Circle off guard since India has been the biggest market for these platforms. Moreover, the digital gaming industry is a pivotal contributor to the growing unregulated and illegal digital economy. The downfall of platforms like Dream11 will also rob the government of the rightful indirect taxes, which, according to the officials, is a figure estimated to be about 2 billion dollars annually. For these platforms, the bill means a significant loss of revenue estimated in billions, and significant job losses.
What is Dream Money?
Dream Money is a brand new platform that will be launched by Dream Sports, which allows users to invest in Gold and Financial instruments like FDs. The app will also assist individuals in keeping a track of their investments. According to a news report, this app will work together with Augmount, which is a platform for trading Gold.
Other features of the platform include allowing users to make small investments in Fixed Deposits which could be as low as Rs. 1,000. Additionally, it will also enable users to make withdrawals of these investments at their own convenience, and allow FDs without an account in the bank. Multiple small finance banks have reportedly partnered with this app, which include Slice Small Finance Bank, Ujjwal Small Finance Bank, and even Suryoday Small Finance Bank. The list also includes some NBFCs. Interestingly, this feature of FD's will be made possible through a collaboration between a finance startup upswing.
Sigfyn, an AI platform that is registered with the regulatory authority SEBI teams up with Dream Money. The reason behind this users will link their Bank accounts and other investment portfolios to the Dream Money app through Sigfyn.
Why Switch from Online Gaming to Fintech?
The primary reason that Online Gaming Platform Dream Sports is switching from Real Money Involving games to Fintech platforms is multifaceted. The obvious one first being the increasing government regulation of the online gaming industry involving money. Other than that, since Dream Sports already has a lot of data of its users from the Dream 11 Platform, it can leverage it to convert those users into potential users of its money management platform.
Since, Dream Sports already has a bit of experience in the Fintech sector, that will come in handy. The company launched a UPI payments app, which was later banned by SEBI due to its co-branded nature. Lastly, the question to be asked is will this venture be successful? Time will surely answer that; however, Dream Sports diversifying its focus on other businesses will encourage investors and motivate other online gaming platforms to follow, if not a similar path, then something other than gaming.