Indian cricketers, including Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Shubman Gill and others, are set to lose Rs 150-200 crore a year after the legislation banning real-money online games was passed by the Parliament, a report said.

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, was passed by the Parliament on August 21. The Bill seeks to prohibit advertisements to online money games and bars banks as well as financial institutions from facilitating or transferring funds for any such games.

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The government has hailed it as a “landmark move to shield citizens from the menace of online money games while promoting and regulating other kinds of online games. This legislation is designed to curb addiction, financial ruin and social distress caused by predatory gaming platforms that thrive on misleading promises of quick wealth. It reflects the Government’s resolve to safeguard families while guiding the digital economy towards safe and constructive growth”.

Kohli’s earnings from gaming firms

As a result of the new legislation, Dream11 exited as the jersey sponsor of the Indian cricket team.

India ODI captain Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya held contracts with Dream11. India Test skipper Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rinku Singh, and former India captain Sourav Ganguly were brand ambassadors of My11Circle. Dhoni and Kohli promoted MPL and Winzo respectively. Now, the cricketers are set to lose their contracts with the gaming firms, as per a report in Cricbuzz.

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Kohli’s contract was estimated at around Rs 10-12 crore annually, while Rohit and Dhoni were believed to be in the Rs 6-7 crore bracket. For younger or lesser-known players, the figures were around Rs 1 crore. Collectively, Indian cricketers are likely to lose between Rs 150-200 crore a year from these terminated contracts as the latest law bans ‘advertising and promotion of money games across all forms of the media’, the report said.

IPL teams also suffer losses

Also, some of the Indian Premier League (IPL) teams, which have gaming companies as sponsors, will lose Rs 10-20 crore a year, the report further said.

The advertising industry will lose close to Rs 8,000-10,000 crore a year, according to experts.

“In terms of overall advertising spends, these gaming companies contribute around 7-8 per cent of the market. Nearly 80 per cent of that will vanish, since real money gaming accounts for 75-80 per cent of the overall gaming market. So that is one big impact. Roughly 7-8 per cent of total ad spends and about 15-20 per cent of digital ad spends will also disappear, because their share in digital advertising is higher,” Karan Taurani, executive vice-president, Elara Capital, was quoted as saying in the report.