The All India Gaming League (AIGF), the pinnacle body for the online skill gaming industry in India, has onboarded three principal members, specifically: Myteam11, Head Digital, and Glance Gaming.

With this, the AIGF has exceeded 100 members across all gaming formats, including esports, fantasy gaming, card games, casual gaming, e-games, and virtual gaming.

Being the oldest, biggest, and most diverse industry association for online gaming, the AIGF as a whole represents most of the skill gaming administrators across all gaming formats, including a significant portion of the Indian online gaming MSME sector. The pinnacle body likewise drives discussions that safeguard the interests of its members by creating awareness among the relevant stakeholders about the socio-economic advantages of the online skill gaming industry through representations, research reports, surveys, seminars, and events.

The AIGF regulates all revenue formats of gaming: free-to-play, freemium, pay-to-play, and play-to-earn, and its self-regulatory charter, which has robust standards for audit, certification, and conduct for its members and user safety, is supervised by an autonomous Online Skill Gaming Council (SGC).

Roland Landers, CEO, of All India Gaming Federation, commented:
“We are happy to have Myteam11, Head Digital, and Glance Gaming on board and happy to share a combined vision of fostering innovations, ensuring global best practices, and unravelling many more aspects of this sunrise sector.” We at AIGF have been working for over seven years and have been successful in getting on board 100-plus members across verticals of the online gaming industry to address imperative challenges and reach a common goal of regulating all gaming formats.

“The Indian online skill gaming industry has come a long way and is heavily buoyed by smartphone penetration, India’s massive youth population, growing internet penetration, and the affordability of smartphones.” The sector is expected to become bigger than the Indian film industry. Online skill gaming will be a cornerstone of Digital India and contribute to the vision of a USD 1 trillion digital economy. As the government recognizes this potential, the Supreme Court of India and multiple High Courts have also unequivocally held that games of skill are legal and, even if played for stakes, are protected under the Constitution of India. AIGF reaffirms the government’s vision of establishing transparency, integrity, and responsible gaming across all facets of the sector.

“Indian online mobile gaming is a US$1.5 billion sunrise sector with a 38% CAGR and is set to reach US$5 billion by 2025.” It is evident from the past two decades that the Indian online gaming sector has grown in tandem with innovation in game design, gaming platforms, and digital technologies. I believe that with the advent of Web3, there will be multiple use cases for gaming in the metaverse, gamified education, and skilling. Hence, it is imperative to establish a regulatory framework that fosters and supports innovation. In alignment with this, we at AIGF have also instituted an Online Games of Skill Charter covering aspects relevant to a standardised approach to the industry and user protection.

Since its commencement in 2016, the AIGF has been at the front line, working with the relevant legislative, judiciary, and executive bodies to highlight the economic and social advantages that build from the online skill gaming industry. Quite possibly one of the most notable practices that the body follows is the “Skill Games Charter,” released in 2018, which guarantees player protection and responsible gaming practices, including guidelines for advertising. Through the adoption of principles and the disciplinary process, the AIGF demonstrates the significance of its self-regulation mechanism and seeks to build a self-regulatory community and facilitative environment for the proposal of online transactional games of skill transparently and fairly, with due respect for consumer and stakeholder interests.

Credit: Sports Khabri