ABILITY GAMES-SKILL GAMING IN INDIA THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE

India is amongst the top five mobile gaming markets in the world with c. 365 mn gamers in 2019. We estimate this number to rise to 486mn by 2022. In 2019, around 5.6 bn mobile gaming apps were downloaded in India - the highest in the world. This represents 13% of the total gaming app downloads as per App Annie estimates. As per EY India, gaming contributed to nearly 6% of the time spent by users across content categories on mobile devices. Furthermore, a section of Indian consumers is looking to better utilize their leisure time & are spending that on playing games rather than watching OTT content. This is because they are enticed by incentives like cash and prizes.

Gaming has historically not picked up given the lack of telco infrastructure as well as less cultural inclination amongst older Indians to not play online games. However, in the last few years, the online gaming industry has witnessed a paradigm shift during the lockdown period. We are witnessing Gen Z and Millennials inclined to play games. Currently an avg. gamer is below 25 years of age. Some of the key growth factors driving gaming sector growth apart from cheaper data & smartphone are 1) Growing ecosystem of gamers & developers in India coupled with good mobile payments ecosystem; 2) Localized and India specific games developed to Indian consumer tastes; for instance, fantasy games on the back of the popular Cricket game; 3) Marketing campaigns run by celebrities attracting new users; 4) Incentive to win money in transaction-based games. Those who want a taste of the action and that competitive feeling, online gaming has come to the rescue. Esports is already a burgeoning industry in India and with all social interactions shifting online in the pandemic, there’s been a significant uptick in adoption and traction. For instance, viewership for esports on Amazon-owned Twitch has increased by 31% in March after the pandemic, while Facebook also took the opportunity to expand its Facebook Gaming app. Online gaming, however, is not new to India. It has been a huge draw for most age groups even before the lockdown, thanks to the considerable penetration of mobile gaming. People now have time to play games online or are spending more time playing than they normally do. It has been a good distraction for many.

As per the report, there are about 400 gaming start-ups in India. Some of the big investments in the sector till now, as listed in the report, include $100 million investment in Dream11 by Tencent and Steadview Capital (2016), $75 investment in Ace2Three by Matrix and Clairvest (2018), $41 million investment in Mobile Premier League by Sequoia and Times Internet (2019), and $20 million in Paytm Games by One97 and AG Tech holdings (2020). Internationally, numbers corroborate the same. The audience on YouTube streams for PUBG has grown from 1.2 million to 3 million now, while the number of views on platforms like Instagram has more than doubled from the previous 100,000-150,000.

Telcos are focusing more on high bandwidth games, Fixed broadband & 5G to play a bigger role rather than being just the pipe, telcos like Jio and Bharti (particularly Jio) are focusing on gaming as an incremental source of digital ad and subscription revenue. While telcos strategy on gaming is still evolving, we believe that over time with improving fixed broadband & 5G rollout, gaming will be a key part of their monetization plan.

As India is a young market, with over 75% of its population under the age of 45, making it one of the largest potential markets for online gaming in terms of volume. The Indian population is also undergoing an increase in urbanization, which has furthered even more the growth of gaming within India. There’s also a higher tendency for younger individuals to play online games, India’s online gamers are aged between 18-24, this makes India a prime country for the advancement of online gaming. The number of active internet users is over 560 million internet users, making it the second-largest online market in the world. By the year 2023, it is estimated that this number will increase by up to 650 million internet users in the country. With revenues from mobile gaming surpassing those of gaming consoles, major game developers are switching their focus on creating games tailored to a mobile audience. The growth of esports is also seen as a legitimate career option. The use of technologies like AI (Artificial intelligence)/VR (virtual reality) is expected to increase player engagement by creating a realistic experience and hence lead to better revenues for gaming companies for the past few years, audiences have preferred games with localized content which allows for a more immersive gaming experience. Games like Indian Rummy, Teen Patti, Andar Bahar, Texas Holdem Poker and Omaha Poker continue to attract an audience through various online sites. Online game development companies in India have risen to 275 in 2019 from a mere 25 in 2010. India is also experiencing a rise of employment opportunities within the job market since it has become a popular backend development center for gaming companies creating more opportunities in non-conventional sectors such as tech-oriented careers within IT and game development.

Based in Kolkata, as multiple game developers are budding, but among some veteran players, one is Ability Games which has become the Number 2 real money gaming company in India in less than 1 year, operates fantasy sports website 11Wickets, real money poker portal PokerLion and many others. Founded as an independent research and game development company, focused on cutting-edge technologies. With an invested capital of over ₹1 Billion, Ability Games wishes to conquer the online gaming domain globally. With a vision of providing world-class gaming experience to Indian Users, targets to reach out to 100 Million potential online gamers in the near future. And has tied up with the world leaders of the gaming industry to offer a thrilling and seamless user experience. Ability Games operates a real money fantasy platform www.11wickets.com having above 3 million registered users. 11wickets is among the top 500 websites in India. They rank 11,256,963 among websites globally based on its 333 monthly web visitors. Their acquisition of Yudiz Solutions with a team of 220 including developers, has catalyzed to expand their growth and development. The team behind the signboard constantly pushes the boundaries of both technical and creative innovation, from putting R&D into developing technology that gamers dream of but have never seen applied before and focuses on creating games and software which produce an engaging experience for their users and bring them back to loop. Ability Games has chalked out plans to revolutionize the online gaming industry of India. A young team of energetic dreamers and hard-working people at the company is going through the journey of offering various online games in the genre of fantasy sports, sports news and information portal, and poker. The company serves a large base of online gaming users throughout the nation through its variety of products. Currently, Ability Games has over 3 million users on 11 Wickets; and their subscriptions are showing a double-digit growth percentage every month. 11 Wickets have also expanded into Fantasy League gaming for Pro Football, Pro Kabaddi, and Basketball. Apart from Poker Lion, they have also begun to expand into more card games like Rummy24.com. Launching 11 Wickets in June 2018, which was designed to be more about the knowledge of the sport than just another game icon on your phone. 11 Wickets is a game of skill; and implements a winning strategy based upon an individual’s knowledge of cricket as a sport, a prominent part of pop culture, and an interesting activity across diverse age groups. The success mantra of Ability Games is that the founder, Mr. Suraj Chokhani himself has been a fervid gamer. Therefore, he is always on the other side of the table and knows very well the desire of a gamer.  

Online gaming, game theory, or neuroeconomics are the pearls of the same string, Neuroeconomics brings together research in neuroscience and economics to better understand how actors make decisions by unifying mathematical constructs with behavioral measurements. Neuroeconomics research includes the study of social decision making or how actors make decisions when other actors are affected by the outcome, and/or other actors are also making decisions, and uses techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and pharmacological interventions. Game theory, formalized by von Neuman & Morgenstern (1944), has been very useful in helping to formulate experiments, and to interpret the decisions that actors make, and the neural signatures of these decisions in the brain. One of the goals of neuroeconomics is to provide a consistent biologically based connection between our functional and computational understanding of strategic choice.

People buy and play games because games meet their entertainment needs. The reward chemicals they get from play help to reduce stress. The more stress a person is under, the more they need these reward chemicals. They are not optional. A person under great stress will pay for entertainment even before food. As our population grows, our stress will grow in a similar way. So, the demand for entertainment will just continue to explode and will command ever-larger shares of consumer budgets. Virtual economics and neuroscience can be combined to evaluate a common game design mechanic to predict how consumers will react to it. Since most online games reward players primarily for killing, the key is for the player to spend as close to 100% of their time killing as possible.

The COVID-19 disruptions have been far and wide across industries. Economies around the world have been impaired as they were not ready for this shock absorption. However, amid this crisis situation, the online gaming industry is one of the few sectors which offers a ray of hope for economic sustenance and revenue generation by entertaining and engaging those who are locked into their homes due to the viral outbreak. The online gaming industry is thriving with the growing appetite for online games of Indian users