India’s real money gaming leader Dream11 has debuted on the PlayStore under the one year Google’s pilot to allow online rummy and fantasy sports apps on the PlayStore. This marks a new era in the Indian real money gaming sector which is often stigmatised with gambling.
Google’s pilot of allowing rummy and fantasy sports on Playstore has started in the last week of September with the rummy apps from operators Rein Games, Ability Games, etc., getting listed on the Playstore initially. On September 8, we first reported about the pilot project by Google.
Till now real money gaming apps were only available for side-loading using an APK file and are out of Google’s Play Store, a default place users reach to install an application.
“In order to explore possible updates to the other real-money games, contests and tournament apps policy, Google Play is conducting limited-time tests,” the company stated last month.
Dream11 parent Dream Sports raised $840 million funding round led by Falcon Edge, DST Global, D1 Capital, Redbird Capital, and Tiger Global in the last funding round at a valuation of $8 billion, up from $5 billion in March 2021 when it raised $400 million.
This Google’s decision is also expected to positively impact the valuations of real money gaming portals since PlayStore has almost 95% market share of app distribution platforms in India. This decision is expected to increase the number of active users of real money gaming apps. Dream11 without access to PlayStore claims to have 13 crore users and this number is bound to increase with the help of PlayStore.
Classic Rummy by OpenPlay Technology is also listed on PlayStore at the time of writing this. Magic Games and Rummy24 apps were permitted initially until they were delisted as Google sought some changes in the application as per our sources.
“Google’s policies for advertising and listing on Play Store are often arbitrary and inexplicable. For the last several years, it did not allow rummy and fantasy sports apps on its platform despite there being clear judicial rulings recognising them as a game of skill and a constitutional activity,” says Jay Sayta, a Technology and Gaming Lawyer. “The move to allow real money rummy and fantasy sports apps on a pilot basis is a welcome decision but hopefully this will also be extended to other recognised skill-based games such as poker, pool, chess, carrom etc.”
The PlayStore decision also comes at a time legal clarity is expected on the status real money games with the Supreme Court expected hear the arguments in cases challenging the decision of Madras and Karnataka High Courts on online gaming ban laws..