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Head Digital Works’ Deepak Gullapalli on real money games, rummy and myths around self-regulation

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He might have started his business from a small garage with two rented computers but today his platform Head Digital Works is not only one of the biggest names in the real money games industry in India but he himself is a pioneer in the online gaming sector constantly fighting for the development of the sector and the necessary government support.

Among many other things to get more government involvement and support in regularizing the industry Deepak Gullapalli, Founder & CEO, Head Digital Works, and his team have made a strong representation to the industry federation that would help the government understand the nuances of the industry, its framework and most importantly the nature of the games that fall in the ‘game of skills’ category. According to him a jacket ban is not the way out and would only lead to illegal operators siphoning money out of the country.

“Regulation is the need of the hour for the industry,” he said.

Regulation vs self-regulation

There is a lot of debate on whether rummy and the likes of it played on digital platforms are games of skills or games of chance. Sadly in spite of rigorous education programs and awareness campaigns, a huge number of the Indian population and some state governments consider rummy a game of chance.

Gullapalli thinks self-regulation cannot solve this problem. “The actual solution is to have a regulation in a place where a body in authority, which in this case is the government, looks at these games and examines them both from the statistical view and from the legal view and gives it a prominent definition. Self-regulation is not the way out here because there is no ultimate authority and can always lead to debates and discrepancies.

For Gullapalli, having a definition can change the way people perceive these games. “One has to understand the game and all its parameters like how the money is won, where does the money come from, or simple facts like how the business operates.”

“We have made a strong representation to the industry federation that’ll educate our government about what our industry is actually about and how a ban is not a way out in this situation. Bans will only open doors to illegal operators who will carry on businesses behind closed doors,” he said.

Self-regulation, however, would help to an extent where all the stakeholders in the industry can be on the same page in a self-regulating framework but once the government has a regulation in place everyone has to obey it and that’s how the industry can be converted into an organized one according to Gullapalli.

Notion around rummy—has it changed over the years?

From where it started the industry has sure come a long way but is that enough acknowledgment? Perhaps not, said Gullapalli. “A lot has changed in the industry as compared to the initial years where there were a lot of challenges like convincing banks, payment gateways, advertisers, media and others about the business and people had a negative perception about real money games like rummy but from the first five years of my being in the industry to now there has been a significant change in how people look at it, however, there is still a long way to go,” he said.

Explaining perceptions have changed Gullapalli said, “Initially when people used to ask me what I do for a living and I’d tell them about my online rummy business the first thing they’d ask me is if it was legal. From there today it is a multibillion-dollar industry and it is mostly the people who started it who made a huge difference. As an industry of all of us( which includes absolutely all the operators), we work very closely to help the industry grow and rummy has kind of opened the door for multiple games and shown the path for various games in terms of revenue generation.”

“Earlier monetization was a big challenge but rummy showed the path of how to maximize monetization,” he added.

At the end of the day, however, according to Gullapalli, it is only complete acceptance by the judiciary and government that’d lead to a brighter future for the industry in India.

Head Digital Works: How it started, expanded and paving way for more developments in the sector

Gullapalli thought of starting online rummy during his college days in London when he and his friends would play a lot of it off-line rummy. Among his group of friends, there was a guy who always played Solitaire on the computer and that’s when the thought of playing rummy on the computer struck him.

In 2006 Gullapalli rented a garage and two computers and started his journey of creating an ecosystem around skill-based gaming. The initial plan was not to create a money game but just play against the computer and hence the first business plan was to start it on CD ROM and sell it in the market where people could play it on a computer. “We soon realized that rummy is more fun when you play with real players and not with computers and that is when we started our two-player game/table and gradually it evolved into a multiplayer game. Between 2006 and 2009 is when Play for Fun portal started where people could play with coins and win free gifts post which we took legal opinion from one of the top law firms trying to understand how we could involve real money keeping in mind the laws of the land and then in 2019 we finally started the real money games in India,” Gullapalli said recollecting his journey.

Head Digital Works being their parent company which owns and operates Ace2three.com, the group’s marquee real money business.

“In 2017 we acquired a fantasy start-up and we incubated the company and now we own 100% of the business. It’s called FanFight which is a pure fantasy sports platform. Apart from that we also have a social gaming business under the brand name of Witty Games which is completely social gaming and we also bought the Cricket.com domain because we see great opportunity in how cricket content is delivered and could also couple it with our fantasy sports offerings. We are predominantly a rummy platform constantly trying to innovate and grow in allied businesses too,” he said.

Turns out, Head Digital Works is in the process of launching more games as well.

One of the first companies to raise VC funding in 2010, Head Digital Works opened doors for a lot of VC funds and PE funds to invest in this industry in India. Reputed funds investing in the sector not only added credibility to the business but also made others recognize the potential of the industry in the country.

Going big? Going Public or Going international? Maybe all of it.

The future plan of Head Digital Works like any other business is to continue to invest in the business and grow.

For Gullapalli going public is a dream. “It is a dream but someone has to open the doors. The industry is not ready yet but it’ll get there for sure,” he said.

Talking of growth plans he said, “We’d continue to grow our core business while looking for partnerships. We are expanding into other games and other geographies as well and going international too. We are strong in our unit economics and we have a strong team, we want to leverage that to the fullest to drive growth for the brand.”

Head Digital Works is also working on an aggressive plan for cricket.com from a content standpoint and has plans to take it global.

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