Almost 3000 people are traveling with us to Australia [for T20 World Cup]”: DreamSetGo founder Monish Shah

Monish Shah, Founder and Chief Business Officer of DreamSetGo, is optimistic about the future of enhanced live sports experiences for Indian fans.

Founded in 2019 as a standalone brand under the Dream Sports family, which also notably includes fantasy sports app Dream11 and sports live streaming platform FanCode, DreamSetGo (DSG) aims to be a trusted name in the becoming a niche sports tourism industry.

“The vision is to make sport better,” says Shah Vedant Shinde of Sportskeeda.com in an exclusive interview. “We want to bring global sport to Indian fans, make it accessible and then we want to take it [a] up a notch by giving them incredible sports experiences that will become a memory… it will become something you will remember for a lifetime.”

DreamSetGo benefits from its collaboration with well-known sister companies and already has exclusive partnerships with leading football clubs in the EPL (Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea). It is also the official agent for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia, offering packages for all F1 races, tennis (Wimbledon and Australian Open) and next year’s Rugby World Cup in France.

The DreamSetGo team is ready for the T20 World Cup in Australia

DSG’s vision is not only to offer reliable matchday tickets and hospitality, but also to offer customers unparalleled pitch access, meet-and-greets with legends, memorabilia and sightseeing opportunities.

“While the focus is on the sports experience, we package it really well with travel. Almost 3000 people travel with us to Australia [for T20 World Cup]’ says Shah.

Highlighting the planned experiences surrounding the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia, Shah said:

“From premium accommodation to…experiences like Yarra Valley, a private wine tasting lunch, to booking a ballroom at the Sydney Opera House…[the] route [is] packed with incredible experiences. [There’s] Also [a] private yacht dinner planned with Brett Lee, [and a] DSG Diwali Party where we have Venkatesh Prasad, Harbhajan Singh, Aamir Sohail, Mike Hussey [and] Gautam Bhimani. To [a] long [time] You will see Aamir Sohail and Venkatesh Prasad get together. What better than these two names for a precursor to the India-Pakistan game!”

As well as capitalizing on such traditional rivalries in cricket and marquee events in football, F1, tennis and rugby, Shah reveals that DreamSetGo is “eagerly evaluating major sporting tournaments in these sports and successfully delivering them to fans in India”.

Capitalize on revenge trips

While the two-year pandemic proved deadly for the tourism industry, DSG weathered the storm thanks to support from its parent organization. Shah used the downtime to build the right team and build long-term partnerships.

Shah detailed how DreamSetGo can handle future adverse scenarios that could result in travel restrictions:

“We actually needed it [the] Pandemic [as an] Opportunity to create a strong base for DreamSetGo in terms of “rockets”. [as and] when the revenge journey comes back what she has. In the future we continue to explore options and solutions to improve our product, [and] At the same time, we ensure that we are better equipped with the add-ons in times that can become challenging.”

Some of these “add-on” activities include virtual interactions with sports stars and digital experiences designed to engage customers in a way that is as close as possible to a live gaming experience.

Tapping into India’s “Billion Sports Fans”.

With a team of over 50 spread across sales, travel, experiences, partnerships and marketing, DreamSetGo has identified three target audience categories – businesses, high net worth individuals (HNIs) and individual travelers (ie FIT or Free Independent Tourist).

He explains DreamSetGo’s strategy of attracting well-heeled business travelers in particular, adding:

“We also have an extremely strong MICE team focused on the incentive trips companies are looking for to reward their dealers, distributors, agents etc. Premium retailer experiences or agent experiences… Being able to offer them a completely different experience than their partners is actually very well received by corporate customers. And that’s moving away from typical, traditional MICE and offering them adventure trips.”

All in all, Shah believes there is a total addressable market (TAM) of “one billion sports fans in India” and DreamSetGo’s goal remains to offer “something for everyone”.