Twitter-backed ShareChat to shut down fantasy sports app Jeet11 and cut some jobs businessroundups.org

Indian social media startup ShareChat, backed by Twitter, Tiger Global and Temasek, is closing its fantasy sports platform Jet11 and laid off a number of employees.

People familiar with the matter told businessroundups.org that the startup sent an email to affected employees last month. The platform was operational at the time of writing.

ShareChat confirmed to businessroundups.org that it is shutting down Jeet11’s operations and has laid off less than 5% of its employees as a result of the decision. The startup has a total workforce of about 2,300 employees, suggesting the move affected more than 100 people.

“As standard business practice, we periodically review our strategies. We can confirm that we have discontinued Jeet11’s operations and reorganized some of our functions, which meant moving this talent within teams and leaving some employees. This process has affected less than 5% of our employees,” a ShareChat spokesperson said in a prepared statement.

“We continue to focus on robust growth and hiring in a variety of functions and roles as per our plans. To succeed as India’s fastest growing social media company, we regularly review our strategy and make necessary changes to realize our vision.”

Quietly launched in 2020, Jeet11 was ShareChat’s attempt to take on Dream Sports’ Dream11 and Mobile Premier League.

Despite ShareChat claiming to have penetrated smaller Indian cities, Jeet11 has never gained any meaningful traction among its users.

Fantasy sports as a business has lured investors in India in the recent past. Google also recently launched a pilot to allow fantasy sports and rummy apps on the Play Store in the country. Nevertheless, several Indian states continue to maintain betting ban apps. Industry experts believe that most of these betting apps rely heavily on cricket matches and struggle to retain customers after the end of a major tournament.