Gaming
All India Gaming Federation announces the second edition of AIGF Knowledge series
Mumbai: All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), the apex industry body for the online gaming sector in India, announced the upcoming second edition of the AIGF Knowledge Series. This groundbreaking initiative is set to take place at Bengaluru GAFX 2024, a flagship annual event of the Indian animation, VFX, gaming, and comics (AVGC) industry, supported by the Government of Karnataka.
The “AIGF Knowledge Series” is a cohesive module to spark up conversations and create awareness about the online skill gaming landscape. The series will be held in collaboration with different states in the country to foster insightful and riveting discussions across strategic gaming themes through panel discussions, fireside chats by various domain experts from the industry and gaming ecosystem. The first edition was successfully conducted in Meghalaya and the second knowledge series is scheduled to take place at Lalit, Bengaluru, on 31 January 2024, starting at 3 pm. Renowned industry experts, thought leaders, and key stakeholders will gather to share valuable insights into the latest developments, challenges, and solutions in the realm of online gaming safety.
The Indian online gaming industry is at the cusp of transformation and is poised to only grow further. In 2023, India’s online gaming market had revenues of Rs 260 billion ($ 3.1 billion) and is expected to grow to Rs 625 billion ($ 7.5 billion) in the next five years, as per a report. An event of this nature is intended to benefit game creators, industry, and gamers alike and serve towards the goal of creating a safe, secure, trusted and accountable gaming ecosystem within Digital India.
All India Gaming Federation CEO Roland Landers expressed his delight at introducing AIGF’s flagship knowledge series in Bengaluru. He stated, “Our objective with this series is to facilitate insightful and engaging discussions on strategic gaming themes. We also aim to collaborate with other key states in the future to enhance outreach and awareness towards online gaming. Through this knowledge series, we invite all stakeholders in the gaming industry to actively participate in this insightful event. By fostering collaboration and sharing knowledge, we can collectively contribute to the development of a safer and more trusted online gaming ecosystem.”
Moreover, as the Indian online gaming industry continues to evolve, the AIGF Knowledge Series at Bengaluru GAFX 2024 stands as a pivotal platform for industry stakeholders to collaborate, share insights, and shape the future of the online gaming landscape.
Event Registration Link: https://aigf.glueup.com/event/97443/register/
Gaming
India’s broadcasters say no to Fifa World Cup 2026
Fifa has slashed its asking price by 65 per cent but India’s broadcasters are still not buying
MUMBAI: The world’s biggest sporting event cannot find a single taker in the world’s most sports-mad nation. Fifa’s television rights for the 2026 World Cup remain unsold in India, and the clock is ticking loudly.
To shift the property, world football’s governing body has already swallowed hard and cut its asking price from $100m to $35m, bundling in the 2030 edition as a sweetener. It has not worked. Indian broadcasters have looked at the offer, done the sums and quietly walked away.
The reasons are brutally simple. The 2026 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, kicks off in a time zone that turns India’s primetime into a graveyard shift. Most matches will air between midnight and 7am IST, a scheduling catastrophe for advertisers chasing mass reach. The 2022 Qatar edition was a gift by comparison, with matches dropping neatly into Indian evenings. North America offers no such luxury.
The market itself has also changed beyond recognition. The merger of Star India and Viacom18 into JioStar has gutted the competitive tension that once sent sports rights prices soaring. Where rival bidders once slugged it out, there is now a single dominant buyer, and it is in no hurry. JioStar has valued the rights at roughly $25m, a full $10m below Fifa’s already-discounted floor price. That gap has so far proved unbridgeable.
Broadcasters are also nursing a ferocious cricket hangover. Between 2022 and 2023, Indian media houses committed well over $10bn to cricket rights alone, covering IPL, ICC events and BCCI domestic fixtures combined. After a binge of that scale, appetite for a football package that delivers a fraction of the ratings, in the dead of night, is close to zero.
The economics of football broadcasting make the maths even harder. Cricket, with its natural breaks every few overs, is an advertiser’s paradise. Football offers a 15-minute halftime and precious little else. Recovering a nine-figure rights fee from a single half-hour ad window is a stretch at the best of times. These are not the best of times: the Indian government’s tightening grip on real-money gaming and gambling advertising has vaporised a category that once underwrote the economics of big sporting events.
Nor is the World Cup an anomaly. Indian Super League valuations have cratered. English Premier League rights have softened across successive cycles. The cooling of football as a broadcast commodity in India is structural, not cyclical.
With the tournament opening on 11th June, Fifa is running out of road. It may yet blink and meet JioStar at $25m. Or it may go direct, streaming the entire tournament on its own platform, Fifa+, or cutting a digital deal with YouTube, and hoping that a generation of Indian football fans finds its way there without a broadcaster to guide them.
Either way, the beautiful game’s Indian chapter is looking decidedly ugly.
