George Oborne, CEO of India Bet, explains how the nascent social gaming market is shaping up in India
Indian society has changed rapidly over the past decade with huge social and economic changes creating even greater confl icts between classes and castes. But despite this, two common denom-inators bind Indian society together: an adoration of cricket and a love of gambling.
Gambling and cricket are major influences in Indian culture and society, so when these are combined with a rapidly emerging online market and a largely illegal gambling market then one can see how the potential for social gaming in India is huge.
Social gaming, however, remains nascent in India especially in comparison to more mature markets such as Europe and the US. The result of this is that social games take on a number of different incarnations depending on whom they are targeting or the business model that is being experimented with. We will now take a look at four of these models, assessing how each one fi ts into the Indian market.
Fantasy sports
Fantasy leagues are well established and ESPN, who own cricinfo.com and have a strong TV presence in India, run a number of them throughout the cricketing calendar. However, while they are popular, and particularly so over the IPL, they are very diffi cult to monetise. In addition the on-off nature of the cricket calendar makes it diffi cult for them to create any continuity and to keep users engaged when cricket is not being played.
In stark contrast to fantasy is a type of sports social gaming almost unique to India and which has been pioneered by the likes of TeamCricket.com and Dream11. com. These allow the user to engage in real-money gambling through a strange technicality in the law which allows users to play against each other in games of skill. However, there have been issues with player liquidity and also the irregularity of cricket matches and tournaments have seen these ventures stumble on their entry into the market.
IndiaBet.com has aimed to hit the middle ground and offers what feels like a full online social gaming experience. With social sports betting accompanied by social casino and virtual sports games, users are constantly engaged when on the site. Offering users prizes and running an affi liate business model has seen IndiaBet.com make a successful entry into the Indian social sports market, where they continue to grow and innovate.
Facebook in India
Finally, the presence of social gaming on Facebook must not be ignored. Junglee Games launched their Teen Patti game (an adaption of three-card brag) in 2010 and whilst it was a success, with over 100,000 users signing up, they had diffi culty creating revenue from it using the Facebook coin system. However, in an interesting twist, Junglee’s recent move into the Indian Rummy market has given them a new use for their Facebook user base and it was used as a cheap and effective base for their launch marketing in late 2012.
The social gaming market will continue to develop and innovate over the coming years, both in India as well as in more established markets. There is clearly an appetite for it in India and with the emergence of mobile and tablet devices, as well as a growing conversation with government and the media over the regulation of gambling, this is certainly a sector to keep an eye on.