After spending most of my life in a country where Cricket is a religion, where everyone has an opinion on the game, and people bet millions on the outcome of match results and player performances, it was just impossible to not think about creating a platform where fans can boast about their hunches & predictions on players’ performances, compete with friends and win prizes. After 3 years of thinking and discussing the idea with some close friends and followers of the sport, we finally settled with an idea that I believe has immense potential to grow. (Yes, 3 years is a long time and it ain’t rocket science conceptualising and creating a website, but I had my limitations!)
There are tons of cricket fantasy websites out there and if you follow the granddaddy of all cricket websites – cricinfo.com – it is very likely that you have participated in their Fantasy game at least once. They had over 50k active users during the World Cup. There are other such Cricket Fantasy League sites too, but the core concept of each of them is the same – you select a team of players based on a set of rules. The only question you have to ask yourself while selecting a player is “Will he perform well?” because that is the only way you can score points. The better your selected player performs, the more points you get. But if your chosen player doesn’t score runs or take wickets, he is no good for you. If you ask me, there is no thrill in that.
So we have come up with a fantasy game concept that works more on your expectations rather than just getting lucky with a player. The thought process behind this concept is this – there are many times when you are sure that a player isn’t going to play well in a particular match and will get out for say, less than 10 runs. This game will give you a chance to pick that player in your team and say so. Predict that he is going to score less than 10 runs. The nearer your hunch is to how the player actually performed, the more points you get. But at the same time if you go terribly wrong with your predictions, you can lose points
We’ve also added an extra dimension to the game in the form of “badges”. Members can earn badges based on their achievements. Each badge gives them certain points that we call “CP Bucks”. These Bucks can be redeemed for real money or other prizes!
I believe this concept takes Cricket Fantasy to a new level where it brings more excitement & involvement in the game. It gives you the opportunity to score off failures unlike other games, but you also have to live with a constant fear of losing quickly in case of wrong predictions.
This concept took a long time to take shape. We had been trying to come up with a real business model which is win-win for us as well as the participants. And now that that piece of the puzzle has been solved – we are ready to go live with the core idea. We now look to gain some traction and then pitch it to investors to get funding and complete the product, which should surpass every other cricket fantasy website in the market.
Go ahead and check it out yourself – http://cricketpredictions.com and give us your valuable feedback.
Here is a sample report of how your predictions, results and points may look like –
