Dream11’s FY22 revenue grows 50%, but profit more than halves on higher costs

Net profit at the Mumbai-based online platform fell to Rs 142.86 crore from Rs 327.59 crore in fiscal 2021, Dream11’s regulatory filings sourced from Tofler showed. It posted operational revenue of Rs 3,840.75 crore and total expenses of Rs 3,762.4 crore for fiscal 2022.

In the Tiger Global-backed company’s cost profile, a major chunk was on account of advertising and promotional expenses, which rose almost 73% from the year before to Rs 2,158.29 crore in FY22. Dream11 has some of India’s top cricketers as its brand ambassadors.

As the company’s scale expanded, it reported 80% growth in its employee benefit expenses to Rs 496.52 crore during FY22, against Rs 276.49 crore in the previous year.

In its regulatory filings, Dream11 reported miscellaneous expenses of Rs 1,050.38 crore, but did not explain the nature of these expenses. Compared with FY21, miscellaneous expenses grew 62%.

As a result of the fall in profit, the company’s tax outgo fell to Rs 159.77 crore from Rs 170.49 crore in fiscal 2021.

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During fiscal 2022, Dream11 raised $840 million at a valuation of $8 billion from new and existing investors including Falcon Edge, DST Global, D1 Capital, Tiger Global and Redbird Capital. The funding was announced in November 2021.The online fantasy sports platform primarily earns revenue from the fee received from users who participate in real-money, fantasy sports contests available on the platform.

Online gaming companies have recently come under regulatory spotlight with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology kickstarting a process to regulate such platforms.

There are also disagreements between online gaming platforms and tax authorities over the calculation of revenue.

Earlier this week, ET reported that online gaming companies had sought clarity on the taxation structure for games based on skills, suggesting that the value of supply for the industry should continue to be the gross gaming revenue — the fee charged by a company as service charge for facilitating the participation of players.