Dream11 paid ₹358 crore for the India jersey. Apollo Tyres pays ₹579 crore.

On 16 September 2025 the BCCI named Apollo Tyres the new lead sponsor of the India cricket team. Cricbuzz reported the winning bid at ₹579 crore for 142 matches. Dream11, the brand Apollo replaced, had paid ₹358 crore. Four weeks earlier Parliament had banned every game Dream11 made money from. The jersey sold for 62% more than Dream11's deal.

That is the story of the gaming ban at the top of Indian sport. Lower down, the story changes. This report follows the money slot by slot: what the law changed, who left, who walked in, what it cost, and where the gap is still open.

What did the online gaming ban change, and when?

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act passed the Lok Sabha on 20 August 2025 and the Rajya Sabha on 21 August, and the President signed it on 22 August. It bans any online game played for money “irrespective of whether such game is based on skill, chance, or both” (Gazette of India, Act 32 of 2025). That last clause ended the skill defence fantasy cricket, rummy and poker had stood on for a decade.

Section 6 bans the advertising. No person may make, aid or be involved in an advert that promotes an online money game, directly or indirectly. The brand, the agency, the celebrity and the channel are all inside that sentence. The penalty is up to two years in jail, a fine up to ₹50 lakh, or both. A repeat offence carries two to three years and a fine of ₹50 lakh to ₹1 crore.

The dates matter. The Act came into force on 1 May 2026, with its Rules and a new Online Gaming Authority of India (PIB, 22 April 2026). The companies did not wait. Dream11, MPL, WinZO, Zupee, PokerBaazi and Games24x7 shut real-money play on 21 and 22 August 2025 (Business Standard). Dream11 signed off with “See you in our second innings” (Hindustan Times). For eight months the exit was a choice. Mint dates the ban to October 2025. No law changed that month.

The courts offer no way back for now. The challenge to the Act sits in the Supreme Court with no stay. On 27 May 2026 the Supreme Court upheld the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka bans on games played for stakes, and on 15 October 2026 it dismissed ten review petitions against that ruling (MediaNama).

Who held the slots, and who holds them now?

“Reported” means the figure comes from the trade or sports press; the BCCI and the brands did not publish it. Dream11 also held the front of Kolkata Knight Riders' shirt; KKR signed Hero MotoCorp's VIDA as front-of-jersey partner for three seasons from IPL 2026 (exchange4media).

Did the money leave cricket?

At the top, no. The jersey tender drew three bids above Dream11's old price, and the BCCI added Asian Paints as a new official partner in November 2025 at about ₹45 crore. A BCCI Apex Council note seen by Cricbuzz says the board secured “a new jersey sponsorship at a higher valuation” after Dream11 left (Cricbuzz, 23 December 2025).

WPP Media's Sporting Nation report puts Indian sports sponsorship at ₹7,943 crore in 2025, up 7%, with IPL team sponsorship above ₹1,000 crore for the first time. Its verdict: “The pie didn't shrink; it was reshuffled” (BestMediaInfo). Remember that 2025 still holds eight months of gaming money.

One rung down, the price slipped. My11Circle won the IPL's fantasy category in February 2024 at ₹625 crore over five seasons, ₹125 crore a season, the richest associate slot in the league (Cricbuzz). Its place on the IPL wall went to Google's Gemini at a reported ₹270 crore over three years. That is about ₹90 crore a season, 28% less by our arithmetic, though the two packages may not carry the same rights.

On television the gap shows in the advertiser count. BARC and TAM data for the first 16 matches of IPL 2026 show about 45 TV advertisers against more than 65 in 2025. Dream11 and Games24x7 alone had taken more than 6% of ad time in 2025. Ad time stayed flat, Google took 13.6% of it, and the 10-second live rate held at ₹18 lakh (exchange4media, 29 April 2026). Fewer buyers bought the same minutes at the same price.

How big was the hole?

The hard numbers are the companies' own. Dream11 spent more than ₹3,900 crore on marketing in FY2024-25, Zupee more than ₹800 crore in FY2023-24 and PokerBaazi more than ₹460 crore (Mint). MPL spent ₹443 crore on advertising and promotion in FY2024 (YourStory). Those four lines add to about ₹5,600 crore a year. Marketing there includes the spend on app installs, so not all of it reached sport.

The estimates for the whole category run wide. Rediffusion's Sandeep Goyal put it at ₹5,000 crore, more than ₹1,000 crore of it from the IPL and ₹200 to 300 crore in celebrity fees (exchange4media). Media Care's Yasin Hamidani put total gaming marketing above ₹10,000 crore a year. Havas Media's Manish Sharma says gaming was 18 to 20% of IPL ad spend at its peak (BestMediaInfo). None of these is audited. Each is a named person's number, and we give it as one.

Who filled the gap?

Two kinds of buyer, and they could not be further apart.

The first is AI. Google took the IPL seat. ChatGPT joined the WPL wall. Nine of the ten IPL teams signed an AI brand for 2026, and one agency head puts AI's IPL team spend at ₹300 to 400 crore a year (Moneycontrol). Shark Tank India swapped PokerBaazi for OPPO, Canva and Adobe.

The second is the old economy. Tyres took the jersey. Paint took a BCCI partnership. Real estate took the Gujarat Titans shirt through Birla Estates. A two-wheeler brand took KKR's. Kingfisher, Dr Fixit and Bisleri joined the league walls. Canva at ₹544 crore and JK Cement at ₹477 crore lost the jersey and still bid more than Dream11 paid. That list of losing bidders is a list of buyers waiting for the next slot.

JSW Sports' Karan Yadav says fantasy deals were “only a small single-digit share of revenue for most teams,” and paints, tyres, footwear, real estate, telecom and banks did the heavy lifting (exchange4media). TheSmallBigIdea's Harikrishnan Pillai has the shortest version: “It's more replacement than revolution.”

What does Monumentum's record show?

Our record holds 17 sponsorships and campaigns from real-money gaming brands in India in 2025. Dream11 on the Lucknow Super Giants shirt and the WPL, My11Circle on the IPL, WinZO as associate sponsor of Kaun Banega Crorepati 17, PokerBaazi inside Shark Tank, Dream11 and MPL at the WAVES summit, and ad films from Zupee, WinZO, PokerBaazi and A23. In 2026 it holds none from the brands that shut real-money play.

IPL 2025 was the last IPL with fantasy cricket ads. Dream11 ran nine films through the tournament and My11Circle six.

One 2026 row sits close to the line. FanCode, the streaming unit of Dream11's parent Dream Sports, streamed the cut-short 2025-26 Indian Super League from February to May 2026 (our ISL report). That is media, and the law allows it. We do not count it.

Writing this report also caught three ambassador ties still marked current: Vicky Kaushal with A23, and Harbhajan Singh and Jatin Sapru with Zupee. All three ended with real-money play, and the record now says so.

The gaming brands still in our 2026 record make free games or run e-sports. Krafton signed Yashasvi Jaiswal in February 2026 for Real Cricket, a free game (afaqs). The law allows that.

What our record cannot show is money. It counts deals. Most team and show deals carry no published value, so the record tells you who left and who arrived. It does not tell you what each one paid.

What happened to the gaming companies?

Dream Sports CEO Harsh Jain told Mint that before the ban “95% of our revenue came from Dream11, and 100% of the profits.” Dream Sports split into eight units in December 2025 and says it laid off no one (Moneycontrol). Dream11 is now a free sports app that sells ads: it signed more than 30 advertisers before IPL 2026 (exchange4media). Indian cricket's old jersey sponsor is now a place to buy media.

The rest shrank. MPL, Games24x7 and PokerBaazi cut staff within weeks (Moneycontrol). The Enforcement Directorate arrested WinZO's founders in November 2025 (The Tribune). Zupee moved into AI storytelling and micro-dramas.

What should brand teams do with this?

Four moves for anyone buying in 2027.

Look below the top shelf. The jersey and the IPL wall resold fast because ten brands wanted them. Summits, TV shows, kabaddi and football leagues lost a buyer that paid for reach. Dream11 had been a partner of the ISL since 2017 and the fantasy partner of the Pro Kabaddi League. WPP Media says emerging sports revenue fell 12.2% in 2025. A property that lost a gaming sponsor and has not replaced it has a slot to sell and one bidder fewer. Ask it what the slot sold for in 2024, and start there.

Price the IPL on ratings, not the rate card. The 10-second rate held at ₹18 lakh in IPL 2026. TV ratings for the first 15 matches fell from 4.57 to 3.71 (exchange4media). Same price, 19% fewer rating points by our arithmetic. Mudramax's Rupali Chavan says rate cards held and the negotiation moved to added value (BestMediaInfo). So walk in with the ratings and ask for the added value in writing.

Get a benchmark before you call an IPL team. AGENCY09's Rajesh Patalia puts an official partner deal at ₹8 to 20 crore per team per season (Moneycontrol). That is one agency head's range. Open with it.

Clear the law before you sign a gaming name. Section 6 reaches the brand, the agency, the celebrity and the channel. Free games and e-sports stay legal, and Dream11 now sells ads. Get it in writing that the product takes no stakes.

What should rights holders do with this?

Four moves for anyone selling a league, a team, a show or a summit.

Count your categories. Brand Finance's Ajimon Francis said in August 2025 that cricket had seen “crypto players go and gaming companies come in the last 3 years” (Moneycontrol). Now nine of ten IPL teams carry an AI brand. Wit & Chai's Suyash Lahoti puts AI at 25 to 30% of IPL team sponsorship (Moneycontrol). That is one category at a quarter of the pie, and cricket has already seen what happens when a hot category leaves. Set a cap on any one category, and hold to it.

Keep the losing bidders' numbers. The BCCI came through because three bidders stood behind the one that left. Write down every under-bidder, with the price, each time you sell a slot. That list is your replacement plan.

Write the exit into the contract. India played the 2025 Asia Cup with no name on the shirt. Every category deal needs a change-of-law clause: who owes what, and how fast you can resell.

Pitch before the IPL plan locks. Havas' Manish Sharma says 27 to 30% of the extra IPL money is new, and 65 to 70% moves over from outdoor, other sports and non-IPL digital (BestMediaInfo). If you run a smaller league, the IPL is spending your budget.

How we counted

Our counts are confirmed and reported sponsorships, ambassador ties and campaigns in India in Monumentum's record, by year, as of 30 October 2026. Real-money gaming brands here are Dream11, My11Circle, MPL, Zupee, WinZO, PokerBaazi and A23. Every other figure comes from the source linked beside it, and every source was read in full. Figures marked reported were not published by the brand or rights holder. The full source list is with the research file; write to us through How we check to correct anything.

Corrected 31 October 2026. This report first gave 18 deals for 2025; one of those was an inferred row, so the count is 17. It also called our FanCode row an error and said the ISL lists JioHotstar. That came from retired code on the ISL site. FanCode did stream the league.