Fantasy Sports, Game of Skills or Game of Chance

In the last couple of years, fantasy sports have been evolved in a bigger way and the market of fantasy gaming picked growth. In the last one year, some new fantasy platforms launched, and competition to gain more users have been increased. Dream11 was the only king in this market but some other companies have taken this race to a higher level.

Fantasy sports started in India when the English Premier League’s fantasy game picked growth among Football fans and slowly slowly fantasy become a brand in India. There is a big question on fantasy! Is it a game of skill or a chance? Well, there are various types of fantasy sports game. We’re not including sports here, even we’re talking about the presentation. 

Basics of the game through FPL and other fantasy platforms 

Let’s understand this through Premier League’s fantasy game. In FPL, you have to pick a team according to the match week, and at the end of the week, your rank gets updated. It’s like different users participate as the clubs and it becomes a mega fantasy tournament. In India, when fantasy cricket online came in, platforms started the same pattern.

Create your fantasy cricket team on online fantasy cricket app using eleven players. Every player has his own credit according to the performance. 11 players are divided into four sections, wicketkeepers, batsmen, all-rounders, and bowlers. They have set a limit on each section. Like you have to pick at least one keeper, three batsmen, one all-rounder, and three bowlers. Platforms updated the fantasy points in almost every six months and it raised in the intensity of the game. Now, the user picks two players as his captain and vice-captain. Captain’s points will be multiplied by two and the vice-captain’s points will be multiplied by 1.5. 

Skills taking charge in fantasy 

So, we understood the basics of the game. Can we call it a chance if we crack it? We don’t think if you follow a similar pattern and use your cricketing knowledge, you can win here. A good team requires some knowledge of sports. Like in cricket, the match is happening in spin favorable pitch, you will pick spinners more and you can pick your one of the spinners as caption or vice-caption.

If you’re playing ODIs, you may pick middle-order batsmen and when it comes to T20I, you will avoid them because the top-order will face more balls. So, fantasy is somehow a game of skills and we can call it a chance if you take a risk on any big player, and he scores big. If you want to play safe and win a decent amount, then your skills will be enough to master it. 

Few fantasy sports platforms even changed the pattern. They allowed users to make a team for only 5 overs or play with two players. It means, they are trying to keep this short. Users cannot wait for long to avail his money. Skills will be more impactful either the game is short or the game is long.
In a Test match, you can defeat your opponent after one innings but who knows, your opponent pulls off a comeback in the next innings. We believe fantasy is a game of skill. If we call it a chance, it’s not fantasy, its betting which is illegal in India. 

Skill or chance? Matter of opinions 

Let’s learn what Supreme Court thinks about fantasy. The SC classified Fantasy Cricket as ‘Games of Skill’, where skill takes the charge over the chance. Your result will be dependent on your skills, not other things. Betting is a different thing. You feel the game and watch your favourite player performing on the ground, calculate the equation and with the use of all information, you create a team and win some amount which proves that fantasy has no relation with betting.

Well, opinions might be different and in India, there are few states which believe, fantasy is not the game of skills. Sikkim, Assam, Odisha, Telangana, and Nagaland prohibited fantasy in their states but other parts of India play fantasy on regular basis.