Gaming
Bee7, Vserv join forces to solve games monetization challenges in India, SE Asia
MUMBAI: Bee7, the android games monetization and user engagement platform, has formed a partnership with Vserv, the smart data platform for mobile marketing in India & Southeast Asia, to help solve mobile games monetization in these markets.
Until now, monetization in India and Southeast Asia has been notoriously difficult due to weak payment infrastructure and low credit card usage, which makes paying for games or in app purchases practically impossible.
The partnership creates a genuine avenue for developers across the globe to monetize their titles in these markets without disrupting the user experience, or charging for games and in-app bonuses. It combines Bee7’s unique game wall tool and Vserv’s app monetization solution – VMAX, thereby enabling developers to pull in demand from multiple channels using one single solution. This combined with Vserv’s large developer ecosystem of 150,000 apps and mobile sites from publishers such as Disney, EA, Games2Win, Reliance Games, ZeptoLab etc. gives developers a proven tool to increase user retention and yield optimization in a fragmented android dominated market.
Through this partnership, Bee7 and Vserv have unlocked a lucrative new market for developers. India’s smartphone adoption is growing rapidly and will be the world’s second largest smartphone market. It also ranked third for total downloads in Google Play for 2014, while mobile games revenue in Southeast Asia exceeded $1.1 billion last year.
Bee7 managing director John Rankin said, “As global CPI costs continue to soar, developers look to emerging markets as a new revenue opportunity to help make their games profitable. It’s been incredibly tough for developers to make money in these markets, until now. The Bee7 and Vserv partnership unlocks these markets for developers – arming them with a proven method to make money from games and improve player retention without disrupting the all important user experience.”
Vserv VP – global data and supply partnerships Prashant Dixit added, “Vserv’s latest offering, VMAX, is a trusted friend to game developers as it helps them maximize their yield. VMAX enables these incredible results by providing developers complete control, maximum demand channels and wide range of ad formats. Our partnership with Bee7 is a step further towards our commitment in solving monetization challenges for developers in India & Southeast Asia. By combining Bee7’s unique game wall tool with VMAX™, we are providing a powerful app monetization solution to our developer friends.”
Vserv and Bee7 will host events together to help grow the mobile games ecosystem and to share their knowledge of emerging markets, advertising tech, user acquisition, retention and monetization with developers.
Gaming
Dream Sports sees 100 plus exits after gaming ban forces overhaul
Company splits into eight units as real money gaming law hits revenue.
MUMBAI: For a company built on fantasy leagues, reality has suddenly rewritten the rulebook. More than 100 employees have exited Dream Sports, the parent of Dream11, after the company reorganised its operations following India’s ban on real money online gaming. The shake up came after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 came into force in August 2025, prohibiting games where users deposit money expecting winnings. The regulation struck at the heart of the fantasy gaming industry and dramatically affected Dream Sports’ core business, wiping out about 95 percent of its revenue and all of its profits.
In response, the Mumbai based company shifted into what chief executive officer Harsh Jain described as “startup mode”, splitting its operations into eight independent business units in December.
Around 700 employees were reassigned across these newly formed ventures based on their experience and interests. However, roughly 15 percent opted to leave the company.
A spokesperson for Dream Sports said many of those who exited were experienced professionals accustomed to running scaled businesses rather than early stage ventures.
“Since some of these employees were experienced with running high scale businesses and not startups, around 15 percent chose to leave and join other scaled companies or start ventures of their own,” the spokesperson said.
Despite the departures, the company noted that the attrition rate is only slightly higher than its earlier level of around 10 percent before the ban. Dream Sports now has close to 950 employees and is not currently hiring, choosing instead to focus on stabilising its existing workforce.
The restructuring has transformed Dream Sports from a fantasy gaming company into a broader sports entertainment platform. The eight units now operate independently, each focusing on different segments of the sports and technology ecosystem.
These include Dream11, sports streaming platform Fancode, sports travel service DreamSetGo, mobile game Dream Cricket and artificial intelligence initiative Dream Sports AI, which includes sports analytics platform Dream Play.
Other ventures include fintech product Dream Money, open source initiative Dream Horizon and the philanthropic arm Dream Sports Foundation.
As part of cost saving efforts, Dream Sports also relocated its headquarters from Bandra Kurla Complex to Worli earlier this year. The new office, called Dream Sports Stadium, brings teams from its various brands together under one roof to improve collaboration and operational efficiency.
Jain had earlier said the company removed bonus lock in timelines for employees hired in recent years, allowing those who wished to leave to exit with pro rata payouts.
“We want people who are fully into the startup mode and willing to work for it, and we will share that reward if it comes,” he said.
Founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream Sports was last valued at 8 billion dollars after raising 840 million dollars in 2021 from investors including Falcon Edge Capital, DST Global, D1 Capital Partners, RedBird Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, TPG and Footpath Ventures.
The new gaming law has forced several companies in the fantasy gaming sector to either shut down or pivot their business models, signalling a significant reset for one of India’s fastest growing digital entertainment industries.
