BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover launches fantasy sports app Crickpe

BharatPe cofounder Ashneer Grover’s new venture Third Unicorn Pvt Ltd has launched a fantasy sports app Crickpe – almost a week ahead of Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament commencing March 31 onwards.

With this Grover has marked his entry into a space crowded by fantasy sports startups such as Dream11, Mobile Premier League, My11Circle, and is backed by marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, TPG, Falcon Edge, DST Global.

In a tweet announcing the launch of the app, Grover posted: “CRICKPE ! Biggest revolution in Cricket since IPL - only fantasy game paying cricketers for performance ! Where you win - cricketer wins - cricket wins !!”.



Through Crickpe, which is a real-money gaming app, users of over 18 years of age will be able to create a virtual team of cricket players, and enter paid contests to earn cash prizes based on the players’ performance in real games. Users will also be able to participate in contests to win rewards.

Crickpe will charge a 10% platform fee of the total funds received for any public or private contest. However, it will also let users enter free contests.

According to information provided on Crickpe’s page on Google Play Store, the game will reward a percentage of every game pot to real cricketers, based on their actual performance in the match, in proportion to their fantasy points earned.

In addition to this, users will be able to send rewards of up to Rs 1 lakh in a financial year to a cricketer – but it would be up to the cricketer to accept or reject the reward. If the cricketer accepts the reward, it will be subject to applicable taxes and processing fee of 10%. As a promotional offer, Crickpe said on its website that it will not be collecting any processing fee till June.

“It is hereby clarified that we are not acting as agents of cricketers and are not under binding contract to collect any money on their behalf. Crickpe shall solely be acting as your agent in offering this cash reward,” according to the startup’s terms and conditions.

Grover had unveiled his new startup Third Unicorn in January when he had said: “We at Third Unicorn have been quietly and peacefully building a market-shaking business. Bootstrapped. Without limelight. And we are doing things differently. Very differently”.

The team at Third Unicorn will not be more than 50 members and the idea will be to “generate $1 billion in revenue”, he had said. Grover also said his new company will not have a regular board, referring to his soured relationship with investors and board members following the high-pitched controversy at his former firm BharatPe.

He is also currently tied up in a litany of cases filed against him and his family members in the Delhi High Court. While BharatPe has sued Grover, his wife and former head of controls Madhuri Jain Grover, and their relatives seeking Rs 88 crore in damages for alleged misappropriation of funds and reputational harm, other BharatPe cofounders Bhavik Koladiya and Shashvat Nakrani have also filed cases against Grover in the Delhi High Court.