Mumbai police have filed an FIR against prediction app Probo under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act, 1887, and the Information Technology Act, 2000, reported India Legal Live.

A police officer reportedly downloaded the app as a customer to investigate and played the game himself. On investigation, it was revealed that this app was doing online betting in the name of prediction gaming. Upon bare perusal of the app, one can find questions like “Which team will win the match? India or England” which does not require any element of skill and is betting which is prohibited said a report by India Legal Live.

Founded by Sachin Gupta and Ashish Garg, Probo is an event trading platform that allows users to trade their opinions on future events in various categories such as cricket, politics, football, finance, entertainment and startups. Users on the platform can put their views at a mutually agreeable price and win rewards.

According to a report on Entrackr, Probo was valued at around $100-120 million in the last funding round in February 2022. Probo’s seed round investors include Kunal Shah, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Bhavik Koladiya and Vaibhav Domkundwar.

In a response to the The-Ken in March 2022, Probo claimed to have obtained a legal opinion to say prediction-trading is a game of skill and legal in India.  “Fundamentally, it’s not betting where people are putting money against the house. We are not making money from other people’s loss,” Sachin Gupta was quoted by The-Ken.

The present police FIR claims the app is not available on usual app stores like the Play Store or Samsung app store. Investigation revealed that this app can be downloaded by the apk file to the customers only through the company’s website. The report claimed that to register on the app, the age limit set by the government was not being followed, in such a situation, there has been the possibility of many minors being associated with this betting app.