Draft rules will bring more clarity to India’s gaming industry: Bhavin Pandya at Davos

Published on:

According to Bhavin Pandya, co-founder of skill-based gaming company Games24x7, the proposed gaming laws from the Indian government would help the industry, which is still in its developing stages, get greater clarity and support future growth.

I think it’ll do a lot of good for the online gaming sector. This will lead to more entrepreneurs coming in, more capital coming into the country because you’ll have more certainty now about things, and that’ll lead to different business models over the years,” said Pandya in an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol.

Games24x7 also doubled its marketing spending last year and set up a Rs 400 crore investment fund for early-stage start-ups in the interactive entertainment sector. Pandya said that the company spends marketing money wisely. They don’t want to grow at all cost, but rather only spend at the need of the hour.

With the advent of online gaming during the pandemic lockdown, several online gaming companies have invested in the gaming sector in India. With so many gaming companies operating without proper regulation, Meity developed a solution to fully regulate the online gaming sector.

The draft rules for online gaming released by MeitY On January 2, 2023, proposed a set of rules to regulate online gaming space in India. The most important rules included a self-regulatory organization (SRO), mandatory verification of players through Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and grievance redressal methods.

Consultation on draft online gaming rules recently concluded with parents, students and educationists and is now planned with gaming industry companies and bodies on January 17 in New Delhi.

Most investments are in the real money gaming business due to the popularity of games like poker and rummy in India. According to a report from Lumika, The country’s gaming industry saw an increase in revenue from FY21 to FY22 of $2.6 billion and is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27% to $8.6 billion in FY27.

Related