Gaming
Rolling Loud levels up as Valorant drops into India’s hip hop arena
MUMBAI: The beat is dropping, the spike is planting and India is about to witness a cultural crossover loud enough to shake both the pit and the server. In a first-of-its-kind union of bass and battle, Riot Games’ tactical shooter Valorant is teaming up with Rolling Loud India 2025, the world’s largest hip-hop festival, for an explosive two-day debut at Loud Park, Navi Mumbai, on 22–23 November 2025.
It’s a milestone moment where firepower meets flow, as India gets its maiden mash-up of global gaming swagger and global hip-hop spectacle. The festival, co-produced by Rolling Loud and District by Zomato, promises a weekend that fuses festival chaos with in-game confidence loud, proud, and right on cue for Valorant’s 5th anniversary and Rolling Loud’s 10-year run since its Miami beginnings in 2015.
Rolling Loud has lit up cities from Miami and Los Angeles to Portugal, Germany, Thailand, Australia and beyond. Its India edition keeps that energy booming, bringing a heavyweight roster including Central Cee, Wiz Khalifa, Karan Aujla, Swae Lee, DaBaby, Denzel Curry, Don Toliver, NAV, Sheck Wes, Westside Gunn, and many more closing out with a special home-turf blaze by Divine.
With Hanumankind fuelling India’s hip-hop momentum, Rolling Loud India arrives both global in ambition and unmistakably local in flavour.
“Valorant reflects the spirit of its players… music is the pulse of the Valorant experience,” said Riot Games India director of publishing Arun Rajappa noting how the collaboration meets fans “where they already are in emotion, expression, and culture.”
Rolling Loud’s co-founders Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif echoed the sentiment, calling Valorant a natural fit: “We’ve always connected worlds music, fashion, art, and now gaming.”
India has moved to Valorant’s rhythm before: the 2022 anthem “Raja”, introducing Agent Harbor, hit over 2.8 million Youtube plays and became an instant rallying cry.
Then came “Bunker”, featuring Tienas, a swagger-heavy tribute to the grit and camaraderie of the Indian Valorant community.
The Rolling Loud partnership turns that beat into a festival-scale pulse.
At Rolling Loud India, Valorant will unveil a multi-sensory experience zone designed like a live-action extension of the game’s universe equal parts arena, arcade, and art gallery.
Festival-goers can:
. Step into Karaoke Pods blasting curated Valorant playlists and in-game anthems
. Square off in quick duels and playful reflex challenges
. Explore interactive installations, live art moments, and photo-ready set-pieces
. Immerse themselves in a space where gaming culture and hip-hop aesthetics merge seamlessly
Every corner is built to move with the crowd, keeping the vibe kinetic, competitive, and unmistakably “VAL-ready.”
For Riot Games, this is more than a collaboration, it’s a cultural handshake with players who game hard, vibe harder, and treat music as their second weapon of choice.
And as Mumbai gears up to host a festival where flow meets firepower, one thing’s certain, Rolling Loud India 2025 is about to be the loudest lobby Valorant has ever entered.
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.
