Vancouver, Canada-based Live Current Media has launched a fantasy cricket game on its Cricket.com site aimed at cashing in on what it says (release) is a potential audience of one billion cricket fans worldwide. The site was launched as a JV with Indian new media firm NetlinkBlue Holding under the name Global Cricket Ventures (GCV) and its fantasy cricket game went live on Thursday to mark the start of the India-Australia Test Match series. The site will be eventually be available via mobile and all the main soc net platforms.

GCV paid $25,000 for the rights to make a Facebook fantasy cricket game back in April and, of course, bought the rights to produce the portal for the massively popular Indian Premier League in April for $50 million in a 10-year deal that saw it bag the rights to develop the Indian cricket authority’s site bcci.tv.

It’s unclear where he gets the figures from, but LCM’s acting CEO Mark Melville estimates there are “27 million fantasy sports players in the United States alone, with annual revenues between $800 million (£471 million) and $1 billion”. GCV also said it has appointed former CNN International business development executive Alex Chamberlen as chief revenue officer, who spent three years from 2004 as global head of sales for the ESPN-owned Cricinfo.com and was heavily involved in the site’s purchase by ESPN (NYSE: DIS). Release.