Keeoing in mind the craze and popularity of international mobile games like PUBG (South Korea) & Clash of Clans (Finland) among Indian gamers, homegrown gaming platform Okie Gaming is looking to make inroads by bringing indigenous digital games via ‘Desi Sports League’ (DSL), scheduled to be launched in October.

Buoyed by the Indian government’s push to promote games linked to Indian culture & folk tales, Okie Gaming will look to offer a minimum of 30 local games from various Indian states like Vallam Kali (boat racing of Kerala) & Dahi Handi (Maharashtra) every month. It will enable users to play local games online with their friends, colleagues & family, and win real money. There will also be an option to play the games without involving money.

Besides the website, the Okie Gaming app will be available for download from the Google Play Store & Apple Store.

Jitin Masand, chief executive of Okie Ventures believes that Indian sports can also provide the same adrenaline rush that a PUBG has to offer and they just need to be packaged & promoted well.

“Our goal is also to convert the DSL league into fantasy games as covid impact reduces and live local sports resume. It would be similar to cricket and we aim to launch the fantasy version of DSL in the next two years,” he said.

The platform will initially go live with casual games like ludo & carrom. The fantasy sports will go live on 15 September, coinciding with IPL.

Okie Gaming is looking to garner 10 million app downloads in 3 months by promotion through television, digital (Google and Facebook) platforms and over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms. The company is collaborating with celebrities like actor Mahesh Babu, Urvashi Rautela, Mouni Roy, Mona Lisa & Kaushambi Mukherjee for app promotion. Talks are also ongoing with video streaming platform Disney + Hotstar for IPL advertising.

In its bid to convert users from tier 3 & 4 towns who aren’t comfortable with digital payments, the platform will also offer “Okie Gaming Recharge Vouchers” beginning with states comprising Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal & Bihar where a team of 200 distributors will connect with 10,000 retailers to sell these vouchers.

“Users from small towns can add money to the wallet in the app through these vouchers and start playing. The aim is to break the barrier of digital payment and bring them into the digital gaming fold. We are aiming to acquire one million users through the offline medium,” Masand said.

In the 1st half of 2020, there has been a big rise in the number of users & the screen-time in the gaming space as a result of lockdown said Roland Landers, CEO of All India Gaming Federation.

“The change in approach and well-supported infrastructure is driving the growth of the online transaction-based skill gaming industry by 30% and the ARPC (average revenue per customer) grew by 41% as per the EY FICCI Frames – Media and Entertainment report,” he added.

Source: Gaming360