UK-based StarPick Limited today launched StarPick India, the country's first international online fantasy sports platform,to offer a wide game portfolio.
It has been co-founded by Ulf Ekberg, Trigam Mukherjee and Rohit Nair with their advisor and ace cricketers Jonty Rhodes and V V S Laxman.
StarPick will offer the widest game portfolio from across the world, including cricket, kabaddi, European football, hockey, basketball, Formula 1, golf and bicycle racing, to name a few.
Speaking to reporters, Muhkerjee said this platform was a digital extension of the sport where people not only watch, but actually get in and play it.
"The people get to create their own team, get phantom money and start playing the virtual game, where the cost of the player depends on his past performance," he said.
Sports fans would be able to choose their teams at a variable management fee from the pool of players based on their understanding and analytics of the game and win or lose based on the actual performance of these players in the IPL series, Mukherjee added.
Leading names from the cricketing world, Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir have been signed up as brand ambassadors for the brands, he said.
Sharma said he believes that "fantasy sports are a natural extension to our industry and StarPicks vision to grow this is remarkable."
To a query on the possibility of online gambling charges in future, Nair said last year the company last year won a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which stated that playing fantasy sports online does not amount to gambling and involves a substantial degree of skill.
"We started looking at India in 2014 when fantasy sports exploded in the US. However, we were not sure about the legalities. But after the court ruling we thought the time is ripe for India, which is the next outpost for fantasy sports," he said.
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