Harsh Jain is an Indian entrepreneur who is the Co-Founder of the Indian fantasy virtual game portal Dream 11 and Dream Sports Group. Presently serving as the CEO of Dream 11, he co-founded the startup in 2008 with his friend Bhavit Sheth.

Born in Mumbai, India, he is the son of Anand Jain, the business magnet of India and Sushma Jain. After completing his schooling in Maharashtra, Harsh moved to the United States to pursue his Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Afterwards, he completed his MBA degree from Columbia Business School in New York. Harsh is married to Rachana Shah Jain with whom he has one son.

Dream 11 Founder Harsh Jain serves as the President of the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports from 2017.

Family

Harsh Jain is the son of Anand Kumar Jain (businessman) and Sushma Jain (painter). His father is often considered the third son of Dhirubhai Ambani. India Today In 2007, Forbes India ranked Anand Jain on no. 19 in India’s 40 Richest list. Forbes He has a younger sister named Neha Jain. Neha is married to Anurag Bagaria who owns his own pharmaceutical company Kem well Pharma (a contract manufacturer for multinational drug companies).

Career

While Harsh was pursuing his bachelor’s degree in 2006, he joined Microsoft as a summer intern for three months. At Microsoft, he worked on the feasibility and commercial benefits for the company to enter the Push-To-Talk (PTT) marketplace. In 2007, he joined Jai Corp. Limited, Mumbai, as a Marketing Manager. Combining his love for sports, gaming, and technology, Harsh, along with his business partner Bhavit Sheth, founded Dream11, an Indian fantasy sports platform, in 2008.

In July 2010, Harsh co-founded Red Digital, a social media agency in Mumbai. Within two years of its incorporation, the company managed to extend its clientele to some Indian and international conglomerates like Dell, Adidas, PVR, Berger Paints, EduComp, and Reliance Foundation. The firm was acquired by Gozoop, a marketing agency in Mumbai, in 2013. In 2017, Harsh became the President of the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports.

Besides Dream11, Dream Sports has also launched the following brands:

• FanCode– India’s premier digital multi-sports destination
• Dream Capital– Corporate Venture Capital and M&A arm of Dream Sports
• KheloMore– a one-stop destination for sports venues (cricket grounds, football turfs, and grounds, badminton courts, tennis courts)
• DreamSetGo– India’s first premium bespoke sports travel and experiences platform
• DreamX– a sports accelerator
• Dream Sports Foundation– Philanthropic arm of Dream Sports that provides comprehensive support and assistance to deserving individuals and organisations

Controversy

In 2017, a case was registered against Harsh’s company Dream11 in the Rajasthan High Court. The petitioner had termed Dream11 as a play of sheer chance involving betting on the cricket team. The court, in its ruling, stated that that winning or losing in a Dream 11 game depended on the skill and knowledge of the participant. The court also held that “the element of skill” had a predominant influence on the outcome of the Dream11 game. However, the law does not allow fantasy sports in a few Indian states like Assam, Odisha, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. A challenge to this judgment was filed with the Supreme Court of India, which dismissed the appeal and allowed the company to run its operations throughout the country. 

How Harsh Jain founded Dream 11?

Since he was young, Harsh was deeply passionate about sports. He is an ardent fan of the Indian cricket team and the Manchester United football club. In 2008, the year the Indian Premier League (IPL) began, he and his college friend Bhavit had the idea to launch Dream 11. The journey began at that point of time with several hardships but there was no looking back for the two young men since then. Harsh oversees product, design, tech and marketing of the company while Bhavit manages operations.

In the early phases of Dream 11, the founders solicited around 150 venture investors for funding, but they were rejected. Harsh Jain Dream 11 Founder said in an interview that these early failures provided them with a chance to explore and understand more about this industry and eventually by persevering; they built a Rs 65,000 crore company that stands strong today. In 2019, the BCCI formally designated Dream 11 as the IPL’s official partner.

Dream11 – Users and Revenue

Dream Sports’ primary brand is Dream 11, which also includes FanCode, Dream X and DreamSetGo. Dream 11 founders Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth launched these brands in 2008. As the first gaming company from India to join the unicorn club, Dream 11 is a forerunner in the fantasy game industry. It was founded 15 years ago and has a total investment of $1.62 billion, with revenue of $359.03 million in FY21.

It was also included among the top 10 innovative Indian companies for 2019 by Fast Company. With more than 13 crore users playing fantasy cricket, football, kabaddi, basketball, hockey, volleyball etc in India and overseas in it, Dream11 is currently India’s largest fantasy sports platform. The platform has expanded throughout time to incorporate variety of games and services.

Facts

• Harsh loves travelling and playing football in his leisure time. He also likes spending his free time with his four pet dogs at his Lonavala home.
• In 2021, amid the geopolitical tensions between India and China, Harsh claimed that his company Dream11 would not raise funds from Chinese investors in the future. Apparently, in March 2021, Tencent Holdings Ltd., a Chinese multinational held around 10% shares of Dream Sports. [7]The Economic Times
• During an interview, when asked what prompted him to start a fantasy sports website, Harsh said,
  I have been an avid fantasy football (EPL) fan since 2001 and when the IPL began in 2008, I went looking to play fantasy cricket online. It was shocking to see that in a country like India, where cricket is watched by 800 million people, fantasy cricket was non-existent. So my co-founder Bhavit and I thought this was a perfect problem for us to solve. After a few years of experimenting with different formats on Dream11, we found a market-fit product with single-match freemium fantasy cricket in 2012. Over the years, Dream11 has grown to become a diverse platform by offering multiple sports to a variety of sports fans in the country and has grown from 3 lakh users in 2015 to 3.8 crore users in 2018.”
• In 2019, Jain’s venture Dream11 became the first Indian gaming company to become a unicorn. A unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.
• In August 2020, after Vivo made an exit from the sponsorship of the Indian Premier League, Dream11 won a three-year bid to hold the title sponsorship rights of the Indian Premier League for Rs. 2.2 billion. 
• Harsh has been passionate about dogs since childhood. As a child, he used to feed stray animals near his building. Once, while he was in his teens, he brought a kitten at home and asked his parents to adopt it. However, they didn’t allow him to keep that stray cat at their house. He owns 4 pet dogs- 2 beagles and 2 alsatians.
• While Harsh was completing his graduation from Pennsylvania, his parents gifted him a beagle, Simba. Simba was Harsh’s first pet. Unfortunately, when Simba was 5 years old, he developed some serious health issues and died.
• In 2020, Harsh, along with his wife Rachana, founded Raksha Foundation, an NGO in Mumbai. The foundation aims at providing free education to underprivileged children and promoting animal welfare.
• In November 2021, Jain’s wife, Rachana Jain, purchased a luxury duplex in 33 South, Peddar Road, South Mumbai, for Rs. 72 crores.