The sudden suspension of IPL 2021 had gravely hindered the growth of the online fantasy sports sector, which had otherwise grown immensely in the last few years. Rightly predicted by the CEO of All India Gaming Federation, Roland Landers, IPL 2021’s postponement massively affected both the top line and revenues of fantasy sports platforms.

But after a lot of discussions, the board decided to shift the remaining matches to UAE due to the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in India. In a Special General Meeting led by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Saturday, BCCI affirmed that the league will be moved out of India by virtue of ‘monsoon.’ IPL 2021 is now set to resume in sept in UAE.

With this, online gamers can expect the return of fantasy cricket! The thrill of esports on a global scale is largely driven by the increasing popularity of fantasy games, with millions of sports fans flocking to various online fantasy sports platforms. It is estimated that next year fantasy game players will be close to 100 million, which also proves its foothold in the market.

Playing these kinds of fantasy games requires an intense skill set that a player should possess. Analytical skills, comprehensive sports knowledge, and the decision to make predictions while choosing a team are some of the many skills that a player needs to develop to make it big in the world of fantasy cricket. Let us take a deep dive into some more skills that a player needs to win at a fantasy cricket game.

Strong Memory:
Players need to possess strong and sharp memory to remember important information that affects the outcome of the game. There is an extensive amount of knowledge required to ace fantasy games. Learning about the aspects that can affect the result of the game, such as pitch conditions, weather conditions, past records of players involved, their conditions, etc may provide useful information that can help you make better decisions for the team.

Analytical Skills:
Fantasy cricket also requires extensive analytical skills to derive meaning out of the information collected through all the knowledge obtained while researching. Players often rely on their best-placed information to make certain decisions and take decisions accordingly. While doing so, they often make mistakes in failing to understand how crucial sharp judgment skills can be in a fantasy cricket game. Therefore, to understand the importance of predictability, one needs to play fantasy cricket online to get the gist of what one can expect from the game.

Strategic Thinking:
Once the players have their handle on skills like strong memory and analytical thinking, they can then turn to use the information for their benefit. Strategic thinking involves mixing up the set rules like creating multiple teams – You can create more than one team to increase the chances of your victory. Players can keep 4 to 5 core members in multiple teams to see which combination works best. Another strategy would be to reshuffle the batting order. After the toss, the batting order for the opponent’s team is displayed and players can choose to reshuffle their batting order or even change the players of their team to increase the chances of their team’s victory.

Fantasy Sports games are carefully designed to offer enjoyment, satisfaction, and insight, providing users with a way to use their insight into player performance to create their own superstar team.

A study conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also provided substance to the hypothesis that after analyzing thousands of wins and losses for fantasy players in many seasons, fantasy sports require a lot of skills. They carefully checked the daily fantasy games of baseball, basketball, hockey, and football in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, and concluded that users need to understand specific rules, injuries, weather suspensions, statistics, and other factors to improve overall results.

Therefore, we can safely assume that online fantasy games require extensive analytical skills and the ability to discover patterns. This is also a potential way for athletes to truly improve their research and analysis skills, and a platform for sports enthusiasts to use their knowledge and foresight to pursue their passion for sports. Along with that fantasy games also provide a substantial return for their efforts, fosters a sense of accomplishment, and also help them deeply connect with their favorite sports!

Credits: MPL