Poker’s popularity in India has gone far beyond expectations. Because of its mind-sporting nature, Poker has secured its place in the online gaming ecosystem in India. To know more about Poker let’s have a look at the exclusive interview of Varun Ganjoo, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer, of Baazi Games.

In your opinion, what factors have led to Poker gaining a prominent spot in the Indian fantasy gaming ecosystem?

Poker’s massive popularity in India is because of its mind-sporting nature that enhances your decision-making skills. This has prompted numerous players to play the game as a profession with PokerBaazi’s innovative online experiences for the two novices and experts. The online platform has made Poker more open to players, prompting its popularity. With famous personalities like Cristiano Ronaldo, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Rafael Nadal, Michael Phelps, and Kevin Hart loving the game like numerous others, Poker is bit by bit earning respect as a mind-port not only in India but also around the world.

Digital currencies have also been gaining great traction lately in the gaming space. How are online poker gaming platforms embracing digital currencies for pay-to-earn?

We keep on complying with government policies, and rules set by relevant administrative authorities and we keep our process transparent and guarantee our users know about their investments. We do not promote digital currencies in our space till the time there is an outright green sign for the same.

We heard that Baazi Games is announcing the 3rd edition of its flagship tournament, National Poker Series. How will this year’s edition of the National Poker Series be different from its previous editions?

The nation’s most desired Poker championship- National Poker Series India (NPS) – is underway on the PokerBaazi platform as it started on March 29th and will wind up on April 16th, 2023. To reward more players, the current year’s release will grant gold, silver, and bronze medals to podium finishers in a total of 107 contests, as well as three National Poker Series India podium medals to the top finisher in the leaderboard, who will be announced as National Poker Series India 2023 champions. Further, the 360° campaign ‘Ab India Khelega Glory Ke Liye’ has helped in spreading awareness and saw active participation from players the nation over, including tier 2 cities.

What was the overall vision behind the National Poker Series? And how will such tournaments impact the growth trajectory of Poker in India and across the globe?

The vision behind the National Poker Series India is to give a national platform for Indian poker players to showcase their skills, subsequently extending the scope of Poker in the country. By empowering players from tier 2 cities to partake and address the country in worldwide tournaments, platforms like National Poker Series India will affect the development of Poker not only in India but universally.

What are some of the major challenges facing the online poker gaming industry, and how is Baazi Games addressing them?

In the ongoing situation that we are living in, making awareness with the right set of information makes an impact. The same is our way to deal with poker. We attempt to fabricate importance through how we unfurl our campaigns. We launched a campaign called ‘You Hold the Cards’ that ended up being an assertion of the idea that our brand is based on. Moreover, with presumed IPs like National Poker Series India being hosted on our platform consistently, we further spread the component of glory that is connected to the game.

What are the growth prospects for Poker in India in the coming years?

Considering the current population with evolving internet penetration, India has to surely to secure itself as a strong market for online gaming as it channelled any semblance of China and the USA to enrol the biggest pool of gaming consumers on the planet. One of the primary purposes behind this has been the quick reception of smart devices. What’s going on with this is an expansion in the time spent on the internet and consequently, the post for an ever-increasing number of options for active entertainment.

This ever-increasing availability highlights promising parts of online gaming including poker to dramatically flourish. Poker is an exceptionally fascinating choice for dynamic diversion. While we get Poker’s unique nature as a game with the headways in innovation that give us such a lot of space to explore opportunities, formats, and elements, Poker will undoubtedly lay out more grounded traction in the overall gaming industry.

Credit: The Gaming reporter