Dream11, which had signed a three-year contract worth about 3.6 billion rupees ($44 million) running through 2026, can no longer sponsor the national team after the central government banned real-money online games as well as their promotion, including fantasy sports. India's upper house of parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025 last month. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which commands some of the world's most lucrative broadcast deals thanks to cricket's popularity and India's vast population, set a September 16 deadline for new bid submissions. The Economic Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter, the board is seeking 35 million rupees per match for bilaterals, and 15 million per match for India's fixtures in International Cricket Council and Asian Cricket Council tournaments in a three-year sponsorship cycle. Over an estimated 140 games in the 2025-28 cycle, the BCCI expects to generate around 4.52 billion rupees, about 940 million more than under Dream11's deal, which was 3.58 billion for the period July 2023 to March 2026 - an uplift of more than 20 percent.
