2,000 Matches Are Streamed Live In CricHeroes: Abhishek Desai, Founder

What is CricHeroes? How does it function?
CricHeroes started as a simple scorekeeping app for grassroots cricketers to keep their scores. It is 10x better way to do it compared to existing alternatives. Gradually it became a network, recognising cricketers for their talent and making them better with performance analytics. The big idea is to connect every stakeholder (businesses and professionals) of cricket with each other and capture all transactions happening on the network.

Very early in our journey we approached cricket associations to start using CricHeroes for officially scoring their local domestic matches which were scored on paper-based score sheets before. Some of the associations were very progressive and appreciated the idea. When they started using the CricHeroes app, it helped them to consolidate all the data in their system.

What are some of the features of this App?
Scoring a match or registering a tournament in the application is completely free for everybody, all the basic features which are required to consume cricket in a meaningful way. Some of the features which are only available to CricHeroes pro users are Cric Insights. This can be used to analyse your own profile or the opponent’s profile before the match. Access to Highlights is only available for CricHeroes pro users. Live Streaming is a premium feature in which you have to pay a very minimal amount of 199 rupees a match. There is also a daily plan of 1000 rupees and a monthly plan of 4000 rupees where you get unlimited matches during that time which makes it cost effective.

What are the investments made in CricHeroes till date?
In 2017 we got an angel investment of $89.9K from Nilaj J. Patel and followed it up with $155K from other angel investors in 2018. In 2021 we got a $218K investment from Chanakya Gupta, Sanjay Shukla and others. The latest investment in CricHeroes is done by Games 24x7 to an amount of $989K.

What is the user base of CricHeroes and the revenue generation/expected revenue in 2023? How many paid subscribers are there in the platform and how many matches are live streamed in CricHeroes?
The revenue generated for the current year until now is Rs 3.5 crore. The user base of CricHeroes is expected to be 30 million in FY2023. The expected revenue generation for FY2023 Is INR 8 – 10 crore and we have an expected revenue generation of INR 20 crore in FY 2024. We have around 25,000 paid subscribers in the platform and around 2,000 matches are streamed live in CricHeroes.

Your take on the overall business ecosystem of similar applications in India in 2022, what is the overall pie of business in terms of INR, what is the growth, de-growth in terms of percentage?
In India, cricket is definitely far bigger compared to any other sport at grassroots level and it is very difficult for any other app to concentrate on other sports at present. It was one of the major reasons why we have not ventured into any other sport as of now. In 2022, it is difficult for any other sport to scale but I genuinely hope the situation will be different in 5 years.

In terms of market share, the share of CricHeroes in grassroots cricket is more than 90%. There is still a huge space to expand and grow. We are at a 16 million user base in which 90% are from India. The market is more than 100 million and ICC estimates the market to be more than 300 million. Therefore, there is still a huge room to grow for us in this particular market.

You have expanded into live streaming of the matches through your app. Can you explain the advantages of this in the domestic cricket setup of India?
Cricket Associations have been live streaming all their matches with the help of CricHeroes for more than three years now. They not only have the scorecards of all those matches, but they also have video analysis of these matches which actually helps them analyze the games in a far better way compared to having access to only having score sheets. Video plays a major role in cricket as there is a limit to what can be analysed through data. The gap between international cricket and grassroots cricket in terms of video technology is bridging very fast.

Are there any premier Indian cricketers who have maintained their stats in CricHeroes?
If the players are playing for a particular state association which has partnered with CricHeroes, the association would have maintained their scores. Yash Dhull, Ishan Kishan, Krunal Pandya are a few. Recently Suresh Raina also played a club game which was scored on CricHeroes. There have been many games which have been scored on CricHeroes where a prominent cricketer played in that particular match.