Sports tech firm Dream Sports posts Rs 181 crore profit in FY20

Mumbai-based firm reported its revenues for the financial year 2019-20 as Rs 2,130 crore, a 166 per cent jump since last financial year

Sports tech firm Dream Sports reported a profit of Rs 181 crore in FY2020. This makes it one of the few Indian consumer-tech unicorns to have turned profitable. It had recorded a loss of Rs 87.8 crore in FY2019.

Mumbai-based Dream Sports reported its revenues for the financial year 2019-20 as Rs 2,130 crore, a 166 per cent jump since the last financial year,  show regulatory documents sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler. There was a 236 per cent increase in the company’s net profit from the last financial year. The company’s total expenses for the fiscal were reported as Rs 1,868 crore compared to Rs 934 crore the previous year.

“The Company has augmented its revenues and per-unit price realization by deploying innovative marketing strategies and offering exciting new products,” said the firm in the documents.  “The depth of designing capabilities was the core to our success over the years.”

Beauty and fashion retailer Nykaa which filed a draft red herring prospectus for an IPO last month is the other major consumer-focused venture that has reported a profit of Rs 62 crore in FY21.

The company relied heavily on advertising across various platforms to drive downloads and spent Rs 1,328.02 crore on advertising and promotion, compared to Rs 785 crore in the previous fiscal.

Its employee benefits expenses jumped to Rs 153.21 crore during FY20. The expenditure on information technology increased 5.7X to Rs 230.5 crore during FY20.

Dream Sports is the parent of  online fantasy sports platform Dream11. Dream11 had said it is world’s largest fantasy sports platform with over 110 million users playing fantasy cricket, football, kabaddi, basketball, hockey, volleyball, handball, rugby, futsal, American football and baseball, on it. The firm was valued at $5 billion when it closed a $400 million secondary funding led by led by TCV, D1 Capital Partners, and Falcon Edge Capital in March this year, almost doubling its valuation in nearly six months.

Its rival,  Mobile Premier League (MPL), Asia’s largest eSports and skill gaming platform, this month raised its Series E round of financing led by Legatum Capital at a pre-money valuation of $2.3 billion. This made it India's second gaming unicorn or start-up valued at over $1 billion, after Dream11.