Dream11 Teases Return In Revamped Form After Online Gaming Crackdown

Dream11 has teased a new product launch months after India's new online gaming law prohibited real-money games. The teaser hints at a pivot by Dream11 toward online social games or e-sports, the two forms of gaming promoted by the new legislation, following the regulatory crackdown.

"Submitting the NEW Dream11 app for approval to Google Play & Apple App Store today!" Harsh Jain posted on X, adding a "Fun AI teaser video".

"His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti He's nervous, but on the surface, he looks calm and ready," Jain added, referecing the lyrics from Eminem's popular song, Lose Yourself, from the movie 8 Mile as he teased the company's new venture that is set to be launched soon.

In August this year, President Droupadi Murmu had issued her assent to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which was passed by the Parliament's Upper House earlier. The legislation, which turned into a law, cracked down on real money-based gaming, while promoting e-sports and online social games.

The legislation prohibited advertising or endorsements of platforms facilitating online games that involve real monetary transactions. It had proposed to bar banks, as well as non-banking financial bodies, from facilitating any transaction involving online money games.

According to sources, the decision followed three and a half years of deliberations. Many real-money online gaming firms, including Dream11, had shut their doors after the passage of Bill.

Additionally, payment gateways also braced for up to a 15% hit in their annual top line growth as real-money gaming companies brought their operations to a halt.

Overall transaction volumes in India is expected to take a hit of at least Rs 30,000 crore over the year, with smaller industry-specific companies facing the brunt of the ban.

Close to 80% of the impacted volumes will be transactions that would otherwise have been routed through the Unified Payments Interface. And in terms of volumes, 2% of UPI's monthly transactions may also see a downtick.