2021 is going swimmingly well for India’s online gaming business, leaving behind the market share of top European and Asian countries. Clocking a total of 560 million users, India is also the second-largest internet user in the world.
Currently valued at $930 million, the Indian gaming industry as a whole is the most valuable gaming market in the world. This makes India’s online gambling not just the fastest growing but the largest across the world.
By proxy, the growth of online gaming has also led to a simultaneous rise in the number of online casinos and players. Let’s look at the factors responsible for this burgeoning growth:
● The Pandemic
Ever since the wrecking ball of the pandemic hit the planet, the entire world announced a complete shutdown which forced people to stay indoors. While many industries took a big hit in the wake of the outbreak, the gaming industry was on an upwards trajectory. Grappling with the lockdown blues, the demand for recreation and entertainment shot up like never before with people especially gobbling up all games out of boredom. To cater to this need, the gaming industry doubled down on their product line. According to a recent KPMG report, a great deal of activity took place post the COVID-19 lockdown and the year 2020 witnessed more investments in gaming than the last five years put together. The gaming sector including real money gaming in India attracted an investment of $544 million during August 2020-January 2021 period.
● Increase in the number of mobile games
Without a doubt, India is a mobile-first country with about 450 million smartphone users as compared to 550 million feature phone users. This led the investors to pump in millions of dollars in the direction of smartphone games ranging from casual to strategy to battle royale to real money gaming.
There was a tremendous jump in real money gaming and online fantasy sports gaming as well with the lockdown accelerating user engagement and monetisation. The Real Money Gaming (RMG) space has boomed from card-based games to fantasy sports and recently to hyper casual/casual games with investors making a beeline to tap into this promising market.
One of the recent sector highlights was an initial public offering (IPO), seeing a favourable listing on the Indian stock exchanges, making the brand (Nazara Technologies) the first gaming company to list in India, where the stock made a promising debut with an oversubscription of more than 170 times, making it the third biggest IPO ever with a size of over INR 2 billion. As many as 400 gaming companies in India alone are catering to about 400 million users which accounts for 15 per cent of the world’s entire internet gaming traffic according to Maple Capital Advisor.
The sophistication of technology has especially encouraged people to play games on PCs and mobiles from anywhere at any time. Even online casinos now have mobile apps that can instantly be installed, facilitating users an ease of accessibility and playing. These variables led to a spike in the number of online players and revenue in the year 2021.
● Indians embracing the world wide web
India packs over 560 million people as of now, making India the second largest online market in the world. Statista forecasts that this is showing no signs of slowing down and will be hitting a whopping 630 million user mark by 2023. With the adoption of the internet, the online gambling industry is definitely on a roll.
● Advertising catalysing the growth
Advertisements played a significant role in the growth of India’s online gaming industry. With a plethora of casinos launching, there was a tough competition between the companies in winning players. Gaming companies calibrated their fundamental strategies to gain a decent market share. Coupled with irresistible bonus offers rewarding existing customers as well as newcomers, many online casinos were able to successfully increase their user-base.
Covid-19 played a crucial role in the growth of Indian gambling market. As of now, many gambling companies across the globe are itching to penetrate India and take a bite out of this large yet largely untapped market. Many giant players like William Hill and Ladbrokes are planning to win over licensing rights for their operations in the state of Sikkim. With legalities being taken care of and investors pumping in millions of dollars, we are sure the India’s gambling market is only going to soar higher and higher.