LightFury Games brings Rohit Sharma on as investor ahead of eCricket beta
Bengaluru-based LightFury Games has added cricketer Rohit Sharma as an investor and licensed eCricket player ahead of a planned September 2026 closed beta. The cricket gaming title has crossed 3 lakh sign-ups and features more than 700 officially licensed players.
What happened
Bengaluru gaming studio LightFury Games added Rohit Sharma as an investor and licensed eCricket player ahead of its September 2026 closed beta. The startup has
Key facts
- Rohit Sharma is the eighth marquee cricketer investor
- Closed beta rollout planned for September 2026
- More than 3 lakh eCricket user sign-ups
- Teaser crossed 1 million views
- More than 700 officially licensed cricketers
- $11 million pre-Series A raised in April
- $8.5 million seed round raised in 2024
- More than 120 employees
- Estimated 2.5 billion cricket enthusiasts globally
- India had around 511 million gamers in 2025
- India gaming revenue rose 14.8% YoY to $1.04 billion in 2025
Why this matters
LightFury’s combination of Rohit Sharma backing, player licenses, and early demand makes it a credible partner or target for sports-media, gaming, and telecom platforms seeking cricket-focused audience growth.
What to watch
- Closed-beta invitation volume versus the current 3 lakh sign-up base.
- Rohit Sharma's promotional cadence, equity disclosure and whether other marquee cricketers become investors or ambassadors.
- Day-1, day-7 and day-30 retention metrics, especially versus install volume.
- Expansion of official player, league, team or board licensing rights.
- Beta feedback on gameplay realism, anti-cheat systems, multiplayer latency and low-end Android performance.
- New financing, publisher agreements, telecom bundles or app-store featuring commitments.
- Any delay beyond the planned September 2026 closed beta or a narrowing of launch geographies.
- Use Rohit Sharma's investor role for an always-on pre-registration and creator-marketing campaign rather than a one-time endorsement burst.
- Prioritize closed-beta measurement of day-1/day-7 retention, match completion, latency, device compatibility and conversion by geography.
- Announce player-license depth, gameplay modes and competitive integrity details in stages to sustain sign-up momentum through September 2026.
- Build diaspora-focused launch partnerships in the UK, Australia, Middle East and South Africa, where cricket affinity and mobile-game spending can improve monetization.
- Secure contingency funding and infrastructure capacity for a beta surge, since celebrity promotion can create server-load and support risks.