AIGF’s mission has always been to facilitate recognition for the Online Skill Gaming Industry, which is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Indian economy. The key objective has been to ensure best practices across the Online Gaming ecosystem through effective self-regulation for its members and other stakeholders including responsible gaming and player protection. This means that AIGF itself has to build and maintain strong expertise to draw from to tackle the various regulatory and legal scenarios this budding industry has to face regularly. AIGF’s self-regulation charter for Online Skill Gaming is based on the principles of Transparency, Integrity, and Responsible Gaming.

Since its establishment, AIGF has been at the forefront consulting with relevant industry policy-makers to illustrate the importance and benefits of recognizing & standardizing the self-regulatory framework established by eminent domain experts that are representatives of different sections like the judiciary, education, finance, and sports backgrounds that make up its advisory committee. One of the honorable members of the advisory committee is Professor Deepak Dhayanithy.

Professor Deepak Dhayanithy, one of the excellent academicians and analysts in the field of sports examination in India. His area of exploration includes exploring strategy and organizational dynamics through subjects like Football, NBA, and Poker. He brought a revolution in the area of planning educational programs for B schools with his innovative seminar on Competitive procedure through a game of poker.

Dr. Deepak Dhayanithy is Associate Professor of Strategic Management at IIM Kozhikode. He has been at IIM Kozhikode starting around 2011, offering and teaching elective courses to MBA and Ph.D. students – on sports, analytics, decision-making, poker, and strategy. His exploration includes sports phenomena and the natural environment. During the primary decade of this century, he finished his Ph.D. (Fellow, IIM Lucknow) and saw the unfurling of the subprime emergency from his roots in the subprime mortgages industry. During the 1990s he studied architecture and worked as an architect before turning to management studies. Brought up close to Elliot’s Beach in Madras, he spent a great amount of time playing and following the scope of sports and games.

Talking about his experience, he teaches Competitive Strategy: The Game of Poker (CSP) and Strategic Analytics: Insights from Sport (SAIS). He has participated in conferences/seminars- Mukherjee S. & Dhayanithy D. 2017. How Does Inter-organizational Network Moderate TMT–Entry Mode Choice Relationship? Board Interlocks Effects on Internationalization of Indian Firms. Academy of International Business (AIB) Annual Meeting, Dubai, UAE and

Bhagyanathan A., Kasthurba A. K., Thampi S. G., Dhayanithy D. 2017. Sacred Groves by Design – Community Participation for Resilient Landscapes. Peri-Urban Development, IGCS, IIT Madras, India.

He has been a Trustee, Aspire Foundation and Advisor, Sports Education and Promotion Trust (SEPT). Implementation partner of Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, Govt of Kerala. He was a Chairperson, Fellow Program in Management (FPM), Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode Apr 2013 – Mar 2015. Currently, he is working on Environmental Attitudes in Kerala. ICSSR IMPRESS funded study. Co-investigator. (Principal Investigator – Dr. Anjana Bhagyanathan, Architecture Dept, NIT Calicut.)

His academic writing includes research papers for sports contexts, book surveys for sports management journals, views in media sources, and the book, ‘Strategy Huddle – management lessons from sports’. It is his understanding that there is something else to sports besides fun and games, and that the extreme rivalry in sports makes it a decent petri-dish to study the complexities of strategy. He believes in what Albert Camus said for morality, “All that I know most certainly about morality and duty, I owe to football”. He is married to Dr. Anjana Bhagyanathan who teaches architecture at NIT Calicut. Their children appreciate playing sports which the author proceeds to attempt to comprehend.

Credits: AIGF