Is Playing Dream11 Fantasy Sports for Money Lawful?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question

I play Dream11, an online fantasy sports game where I pick a team of real players and sometimes win money, and sometimes lose money from my own pocket. Is this haram?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

Thank you for your question.

Playing Dream11, or any similar app, in its paid form, where you put in your own money to enter, and then either win or lose depending on how real players happen to perform, is a form of gambling (maysir) and is not permissible. The skill you use in selecting players does not change this ruling, because your money is still won or lost on an uncertain outcome, and the winnings are taken from the pooled stakes of those who lose. The free version, in which no money is put in or taken out, does not fall under this prohibition, though I would still gently encourage you to leave it aside for the reasons below.

Why are the Paid Contests Gambling

The hallmark of gambling in the Sacred Law is a transaction in which each side puts wealth at risk, and then, on the result of an uncertain event, one side takes the wealth of the other. That is exactly the structure of a paid Dream11 contest. You and many others each pay an entry fee into a common pool, and when the match is over, those at the top of the table take the pool while the rest forfeit what they paid.

Imam Ibn Naqib records the school’s ruling that, setting aside the narrow case of certain skill competitions, every game played by two or more people that turns on conjecture and guessing is unlawful, whether or not money is staked, and that staking wealth on both sides so that one party consumes the other’s is the very thing the Sacred Law forbids. [‘Umdat al-Salik]

Allah (Most High) says, “O believers! Intoxicants, gambling, idols, and drawing lots for decisions are all evil of Satan’s handiwork. So shun them so you may be successful.” [Quran 5:90]

This is the same reason a paid raffle or a sweepstake is unlawful: the money collected from everyone is handed to the few whose names come up, and everyone else loses their stake for nothing in return.

Why the Element of Skill Does Not Make It Lawful

Fantasy sports platforms and the courts that licensed them lean heavily on the argument that picking a team is a game of skill rather than chance. Knowledge of the players and study of the statistics indeed improve your chances. But research and analysis do not turn a bet into something else. You are still wagering money on an uncertain future event, with a real possibility of two-way loss, and that is gambling, however much study goes into it.

The Sacred Law does permit prizes in genuine contests of skill, but on a precise condition: the prize must come from one side only, or from an outside sponsor, not from the competitors’ pooled stakes. So a tournament with an entry fee can be lawful when the fee covers only participation, and a third party funds the prize. Dream11 fails exactly here because the prize money is nothing more than the players’ pooled entry fees redistributed to the winners. Allah (Most High) says, “Do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly.” [Quran, 2:188]

The Free Version — and a Word of Counsel

If you play only the free contests, where you stake nothing and can win nothing in cash, then the gambling prohibition does not apply, and the matter returns to being an ordinary game. Even so, I would encourage you to step back from it. It is still built on guessing outcomes you cannot control; it consumes a great deal of time and attention, and it keeps the appetite for the paid version alive in the heart. The love you have for the sport is far better spent actually playing it, or supporting it in wholesome ways, than in a format designed to draw you back toward the wagering.

A Legal Note for Those in India

You should also know that since the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act of 2025, all real-money online games, including paid fantasy sports, have been banned across India, and Dream11 itself stopped its paid contests in August 2025, now offering only free play. This means that seeking out the cash version today, whether through leftover funds or any workaround, would also place you against the law of your land, which a Muslim is obliged to respect where it does not command sin. So both the Sacred Law and the country’s law now point in the same direction.

What to Do Now

Turn back to Allah (Most High) with a sincere intention to leave the paid contests, and do not be weighed down by what is past, for Allah is ever Forgiving toward the one who returns to Him. If you still hold any winnings from these contests, the cleanest course is to give that money away to the poor without expecting reward for it, as a way of freeing yourself from it, rather than keeping it. Then redirect your energy toward what benefits you in this life and the next. May Allah make the lawful sufficient for you and bless you in it.

And Allah (Most High) knows best.

[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Related Answers

• Is Sports Betting Permissible? — A ruling confirming that a wager in which there could be a two-way loss based on a chance event is gambling
• Is It Permissible to Play Skill-Based Games and Win Prizes? — A ruling confirming that a tournament is permissible when the entry fee covers participation only and the prize is funded separately by a sponsor
• Is It Permissible to Enter Online Contests or Giveaways? — A Shafi‘i ruling explaining the conditions under which prize competitions are permissible
• Is Paying for Packs in a Video Game Gambling? — A ruling confirming that paying for randomized in-game packs constitutes gambling when the outcome is uncertain

Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan (Allah have mercy on him), who taught there.

Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Shaykh Muhammad Awama, Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Hitu, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.

He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has been the Director of the Discover Islam Center and, for 6 years, the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen in Mowbray, Cape Town.

Shaykh Irshaad has 15 years of teaching experience at some of Cape Town’s leading Islamic institutes. He is currently building an Islamic podcast, education, and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy Prophetic living and fitness.