Gaming ban deals a $1 billion blow to India’s ad industry—and cricket sponsorships

India’s digital advertising industry may be set back by nearly ₹10,000 crore if leading real-money gaming (RMG) apps such as Dream11, Games24x7, and MobilePremier League pull back their sponsorships and advertising expenditures, according to industry stakeholders.

Already, fantasy sports giant Dream11 has informed the Board of Control for Cricket in India that it won’t be able to continue with the title sponsorship of the Indian cricket team. It had signed a three-year deal worth a reported ₹358 crore with BCCI in 2023.

Companies such as Dream11, MPL, and RummyCulture had established a near year-round advertising presence across sports leagues, video-streaming platforms, and social media, aggressively acquiring and retaining users. The Indian Premier League, one of the world’s largest cricket tournaments in terms of viewership and value, was a major benefactor of this.

But real-money gaming companies are staring at a dead end with the government ushering in the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 last week. The legislation bans platforms that allow users to pay entry fees or wager money on games such as fantasy sports, poker, and rummy.

The impact on India’s ad industry would be significant. Dentsu’s digital media report in February estimated India’s net advertising budget to touch $15.9 billion this calendar year. The gaming ban would thus reduce the estimated revenue by over 7.5%.

“The ban on real-money games’ promotional activity will severely affect sports advertising and local social platforms, two sectors that relied heavily on its spending and media agencies andcreative talent,” said Vinay Hegde, chief executive of investments at media agency Madison World. “The dent to advertising expenditure is estimated to be around ₹10,000 crore, forcing them to look for alternatives.”

Dream11, Gameskraft, Games24x7 and MPL did not immediately reply to emailed queries.

No lives left

Advertising agencies are now urgently scrambling to fill the resulting gap in billings.

“Not only media platforms that relied heavily on real-money games for sponsorship but also all intermediaries—including social media platforms, influencer agencies, BCCI, and franchise owners—will now seek alternatives to fill the gap left by RMGs,” Hegde said.

“This shift may lead to increased negotiation power for other sectors that have traditionally found sponsorship challenging, such as FMCGs (fast-moving consumer goods), e-commerce, and the automotive industry, which are likely to be among the first [to be] approached as replacements,” he added.

The uncertainty resulting from the new law has frozen ad campaigns from companies pivoting away from real-money games.

“We have put a few campaigns on hold for now until we receive clearer directions from the authorities,” said Chaitanya Rath, vice president at influencer marketing agency Confluencr. “We hope the government issues detailed guidance soon, because as long as this remains a grey area, it becomes challenging for brands, agencies, and influencers to decide whether signing a deal might risk violating the rules.”

The impact on the gaming sector looks irreversible.

A government official, speaking with Mint on condition of anonymity, said the law will be notified imminently, and an authority to monitor the sector and approve games that would be permitted to operate “would have to be [brought into effect] at the earliest possible—without any delay”.

Gaming companies remain cautious. A senior executive with one of the top five gaming firms, requesting anonymity, said that “even if we pivot, we’re not sure if we would be automatically banned for our previous titles”.

“We remain unclear on how and when the authority will start operating, and how its understanding of this sector would be. We’ve seen multiple parties interpret each and every game in their own way, and the law has done nothing to clearly define which game is legal and which isn’t. Until these issues are cleared, we can’t market our services even if we would want to,” the executive added.

Surrogate advertising?

The process of implementing the new law may take years to streamline.

In 2023, the Centre’s efforts to establish a self-regulatory structure for the online gaming sector failed to materialize after over three years of consultations and applications. While establishing a government-backed authority may be easier in principle, industry stakeholders warn that unless a steady process is seen in action, their marketing budgets will remain uncertain.

Real-money gaming platforms accounted for $2.4 billion of the overall Indian online gaming industry’s $3.8 billion revenue in 2023-24, according to gaming investment firm Lumikai. Dream11, Gameskraft, and Games24x7 alone accounted for $1.36 billion of the revenue.

“While we can pivot to ad formats, regulatory clarity will be key to us raising more capital—and, therefore, run hefty sponsorships,” a second online gaming industry executive said.

All of this is changing the brute force approach that India’s money gaming firms had to advertising. Madison’s Hegde said gaming companies are now considering surrogate advertising tactics—much like alcohol and tobacco brands.

“The immediate effect is that some of the biggest sporting events in India will get directly impacted,” Hegde explained. “We are looking at an ecosystem where RMGs were the most aggressive investors in this genre and their withdrawal as a consequence of regulatory imposition being left with a huge hole to fill.”