Manish Agarwal, the CEO of India’s first publicly recorded gaming organization Nazara Technologies, is hopeful that more clarity will arise in the country’s real-money gaming market in the coming quarters.

Over the previous year, a few Indian states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala have restricted or attempted to boycott real-money games, with Karnataka being the most recent one.

Moneycontrol was the first to cover on October 6 that few gaming platforms have begun blocking access to residents in Karnataka after the state government notified the online gambling law with prompt impact on October 5. This included Nazara–owned fantasy sports application Halaplay that noted on its website that people dwelling in Karnataka are not permitted to participate in the paid version of its league.

All things considered, comparable suspensions in states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been struck in the Madras High Court in August and Kerala High Court in September individually. The Supreme Court likewise maintained fantasy sports as a game of skill in July this year.

“Over the most recent two months, there have been a bigger number of positives than negatives (in the sector). I’m seeing that state governments are losing fights in their respective high courts and judgments are becoming more honed and more clear where there is high contrast as opposed to dim.” Agarwal said, “Considering that the space is so huge and new, there will be steady difficulties however our view is that throughout the following four to eight quarters, things will begin turning out to be more clear and firm”.

Gaming associations are additionally reflecting legal difficulties against Karnataka’s online gambling law that banned all types of online gaming where the transfer of money is involved. “The industry will challenge this in court and look for a legal plan of action. We should remember that the Madras HC had as of late struck down a similar act that attempted to stop online skill gaming in the state” said Roland Landers, CEO of All India Gaming Federation, an industry body for online skill gaming in India.

South India is a significant market for games like Rummy which has a decent focus in these states, although real money games like poker and fantasy games see equivalent distribution over the nation, Agarwal said.

On October 6, Nazara Technologies raised Rs 315 crore war chest through a special allotment from marquee institutional investors like Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC-manage trading company Gamnat Pte Ltd and Ahmedabad-based Plutus Wealth Management.

A considerable piece of these returns is relied upon to go in seeking after essential acquisitions across four verticals that Nazara presently works in – gamified learning, skill-based real money gaming, freemium games, and esports, which the firm terms as the “Friends of Nazara” organization.
While the real-money gaming business contributed to a minuscule 1% of Nazara’s revenue in Q1-FY22, Agarwal sees a major open door in the segment.

“The general market is extremely enormous, around Rs 11,000-13,00 crore, and the business has exceptionally strong network impacts of trusted brands, simultaneous users, and liquidity pool on the platform. You can’t contend in the market with being a tiny player. If we can merge a portion of the organizations in the market, we will want to make an impressive situation for us to have the option to contend on unit financial matters with profoundly settled players” Agarwal said.

This war chest helps them in assessing different alternatives, having conversations, and fast terminations, Aggarwal added, even though they at present “don’t have a pipeline at this point”.

The enhanced gaming and sports media platform had gotten a 100% stake in Hyderabad-based skill gaming organization OpenPlay for about Rs 186.4 crore in August. It additionally claims a larger part stake in real-money social quizzing application Qunami separated from Halaplay. The organization likewise offers real-money renditions of its Cricket (WCC Rivals Clash) and Carrom gaming (Carrom Clash) titles.

Credits: Moneycontrol