Cheering for fantasy sport: Gaming platforms see growth amid lockdown

Krishan, 28, has a new favourite sports star. It’s Franklin Session, a professional basketball player with Taiwan’s Super Basketball League (SBL). With most of the popular sporting events cancelled in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, fantasy sports fans like Krishan, who is from Karnal in Haryana, have started putting their money on the few sports leagues that are still active, including the SBL, Belarus Premier League (BPL) and Nicaragua’s top division football league, Liga Primera.

Fantasy sports, where fans create their own virtual teams made up of real sportspersons, have been growing in popularity in India. Apart from cricket and kabaddi, fantasy sports titles are designed for many other sports such as football and basketball.