He’s 20-something and was making INR 10-15 Lakh a month till a couple of weeks back. The self-styled middle-class Insta influencer calls himself “the face of fantasy cricket” in India.

“At least 90% of my income is gone,” lamented the “cricket trader” from Meerut, but refused to go on record when Inc42 tried to assess the impact of India’s recent ban on real money gaming on a buoyant influencer economy.

Let’s call him Krishna Dubey, whose tips on winning online fantasy games drew 2.7 Mn followers on Instagram and 72 Lakh subscribers on YouTube. His Telegram channel boasts of INR 200 Cr of prize money he won in cash. Not less than 90% of his brand collaborations were with RMG apps.

“I earned up to INR 15 Lakh in a month in the IPL season. My career is over now. And, it took barely a few hours,” said the youth. He poses with former Indian cricketers and flaunts a fleet of luxe automobiles – from Lamborghini to Defender – on his social media profiles.

Did real money gaming redefine the Indian middle class? Perhaps!

Dubey’s despair resonated across the country.

A beauty pageant winner-turned-reality TV star with 200,000 followers on Instagram and exuberant posts on almost everything – from lifestyle to beauty to fitness – said RMG app collaborations were driving 20-30% of her total income. She made INR 1-2 Lakh a month in peak seasons.

“I have collaborations with Whey Protein brands, fitness apps, beauty products, but RMG sponsorships fetched a huge chunk to my overall earnings, even though the windfall was limited to the IPL season,” she said, requesting anonymity.

In fact, most of the influencers refused to be identified, fearing further trouble in their disturbed lives. “Our dreams are crushed, our future is doomed,” rued a mid-level YouTube influencer. In fact, Prince Cricket Expert turned a pauper overnight.

His video on MSD’s likely mentoring of the Men in Blue attracted merely a few hundred pairs of eyes, while his winning tips on Dream11 fetched more than 10,000 views.

The user, Prince Cricket Expert, with his 44,000-plus subscribers on YouTube, sees the cul-de-sac.

The ban spelt doom for thousands of such influencers.

Exclusive data sourced from Qoruz, a creator intelligence platform, shows that over 32,000 creators had been actively posting content on real money gaming and fantasy sports since January 2024, building a pool of more than 68,000 posts and driving 267 Mn viewers.

Under the Chapter V of the law against real money gaming. “Up to three years’ imprisonment or INR 1 Cr fine (or both) for operating or facilitating RMG; up to two years or INR 50 Lakh for advertising, and enhanced punishments for repeat offences (up to five years’ imprisonment and INR 2 Cr for repeat operating or facilitation violations),” it said.

But little has changed, going by the stats from Qoruz. The average engagement rate across RMG collaborations stood at a healthy 2.42%. It denotes the percentage of followers engaging with a user’s content. “Anything above 2% is considered as good, while above 5% is excellent,” Qoruz cofounder Aditya Guruwara said.

While a micro-influencer, with a following of 10,000 to 40,000, would earn INR 10,000 to INR 40,000 from a single collaboration with an RMG app, a mega influencer, with 500,000 to 1 Mn followers, would draw INR 1.5 Lakh to INR 4 Lakh per collaboration that could be for a post or a reel or for live streaming.

When it comes to celebrity influencers such as actors, cricketers........

© Inc42