How Fantasy Cricket Challenged Indian Payments Ecosystem

���� India has Indian Premier League, Online platforms, Mobile Applications, and Cheap mobile data. This made fantasy cricket leagues have become hugely popular in India in recent years.

Anyone with a smartphone and internet can take part in fantasy cricket leagues and win money 💰

Firms like Dream11 booked more than 60 % of media space on TV and digitally. Top Indian cricketers and Bollywood stars were promoting these fantasy games where one can become a millionaire 💸

🧛‍♂️ The Problem

The popularity of these leagues has given rise to a host of challenges, including issues related to payment processing.

Fantasy cricket operators allowed 'bets' for as little as Rs 1. This led to huge volumes of payments with values as low as INR 1

UPI payment mechanism requires payment transactions to be processed on the core banking systems of banks.

Transaction volumes have abrupt high spikes in the evenings when the big games are live telecasted. This led to the choking off of the Bank CBS (Core Banking System) and NPCI networks.

Indian obsession with cricket made the UPI payment system overwhelmed.  

The growth in the volume of transactions was too quick for the banking infrastructure which was clearly not designed for such a scenario.

🛠 Solution

NPCI reacted by first blocking all UPI transactions of INR 50 and less for all gaming merchants. Later a ban was enforced on gaming from UPI.

To tackle this problem, NPCI introduced UPI Lite, a wallet solution that could be used for small-value transactions. It is designed to handle high volumes of small transactions, making it ideal for the gaming industry ✨

The UPI Lite app has a maximum balance limit of Rs 2000 at any given time. A maximum of Rs 2000 can be added to the UPI Lite account twice daily. This allows for a cumulative transaction limit of Rs 4000 in a day. Users can make multiple transactions within the maximum UPI Lite transaction limit.

✅ This wallet system has greatly reduced the burden on the Bank CBS and NPCI networks, making it easier for gaming companies to process payments and for users to participate in fantasy leagues.

While the introduction of UPI Lite has addressed some of the challenges faced by payment processing. There are still several issues that need to be addressed.

For example, there are concerns about fraud and the misuse of personal data. However, with a strong and proactive regulator and it is likely that these challenges will continue to be addressed and new solutions will be developed to ensure safe and secure operations.

📣 Conclusion

The ban on gaming from UPI was a major setback for digital payments in India. However, the introduction of the UPI Lite wallet solution has provided a much-needed solution to the payment processing challenges faced by the industry.

It remains to be seen how this industry will evolve in the coming years, but it is clear that digital payment systems such as UPI and wallet platform UPI Lite will play a crucial role in shaping ���� India's future.

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The author of this article is Abhinav Paliwal, Co-founder and CEO PayNet Systems.

PayNet is a White Label Neo Banking Platform for new-age financial institutions, helping them thrive in the industry through low code, Agile, Cloud-native, and API-first technology.