The impact of the passing of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 in the Indian Parliament is being strongly felt by the Indian sports industry
The impact of the passing of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 in the Indian Parliament is being strongly felt by the Indian sports industry. Both Houses of Parliament cleared the bill to ban all forms of games played with money and to promote e-sports and online social gaming. Days after the bill was passed, fantasy sports platform Dream11 decided to withdraw as the lead sponsor of the Indian cricket team, sources told NDTV. If the BCCI is unable to secure a new sponsor before the Asia Cup, which starts on September 9, the Indian team will play the tournament without a lead sponsor.
But it’s not only the cricket board that’s affected—even top Indian players are at risk of losing major endorsement deals. The extent of losses will vary from player to player.
Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and the Pandya brothers—Hardik and Krunal—were contracted to Dream11. India Test captain Shubman Gill, along with Mohammed Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rinku Singh, and Sourav Ganguly, endorsed My11 Circle. Virat Kohli promoted MPL, while MS Dhoni endorsed WinZO.
Not all players are paid the same endorsement fees. According to a report by Cricbuzz, “Kohli’s contract was estimated at around INR 10–12 crore annually, while Rohit Sharma and Dhoni were believed to be in the INR 6–7 crore bracket. For younger or lesser-known players, the figures hover around INR 1 crore. Collectively, Indian cricketers are likely to lose between INR 150–200 crore a year from these terminated contracts, as the latest law bans ‘advertising and promotion of money games across all forms of media.’”
While for some, gaming platforms make up only a small portion of their endorsement portfolios, for many, the losses will be significant. Take Mohammed Siraj, for example, who endorsed three brands—one of which was My11 Circle. That translates to a 33% drop in his endorsement income. The same is true for Washington Sundar.
