Gaming
Gaming on Reliance
MUMBAI: There’s a saying: a prophet is respected but in his own country. And that applies quite well to Reliance Games, the mobile gaming division of Reliance Entertainment (Digital). It has successfully been involved in developing games for a slew of Hollywood studios and has been struggling to get Indian film producers to invest in them.
The company recently launched the official mobile game of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire that released in the US on Friday. It is one of the first multi-player games to be developed in India and Reliance is hoping that it will gain traction. Just like its 17 October 2013 release — “Real Steel: World Robot Boxing” – did with seven million downloads in about a month.
Reliance Entertainment (Digital) CEO Manish Agarwal thinks the company’s gamble in the gaming business has worked well for them
Reliance Entertainment (Digital) CEO Manish Agarwal says that he is amazed with the strong response to Real Steel. “We were expecting 10 million downloads in three to four months’ time but I guess that will happen within 40-50 days,” he says, adding that the expectations from the recent game too are high because it’s different in itself as it can’t be played solo.
“Making just a multi-player game is a bold move for us,” explains Agarwal, who thinks that in India the game might not work well because of the rather low internet speeds, “But it has huge potential to work in countries like Korea, US, UK etc where MOGs are the norm.”
The company signed a deal with Lionsgate, the studio that has produced the movie, to develop the game earlier this year. Agarwal says that getting the deal wasn’t really difficult for Reliance.
“What has been an advantage for us is that we have become very close to many of the Hollywood studios with credible works like Snow White, Total Recall, Real Steel etc in our portfolio. The studios have a comfort level with us. And our game based on the movie After Earth (that was launched earlier this year) became a real advantage for us as the recent game is along the same lines and helped us close the deal with Lionsgate Films,” affirms Agarwal.
The deal was inked on a revenue-sharing basis. Agarwal thinks that a set-up like this works best for both the parties. “Unlike Bollywood that works largely on minimum guarantees, Hollywood is much more mature and the studios there look at gaming as an integral part of the entire process. They don’t take it just as a pre-launch marketing gimmick but look at building it as a franchise, which makes working with them much more exciting,” emphasises Agarwal, who thinks that in India something similar would happen when the gaming market becomes big.
“The Indian movie gaming industry is still very small. And we would only be able to ape Hollywood when the Indian movie guys truly believe that their movies will be played by millions and they see sizeable revenue coming out of it,” he explains.
Currently, Agarwal thinks that since the gaming industry is small, the question of revenue-sharing between the game developers and studios in India is completely out of tune as every producer wants to earn his or her pound of flesh.
“Once the movie guys see profit coming out of it, they will start spending. In Hollywood, they don’t hesitate in spending on games because there’s huge revenue coming out of it from markets like the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, Korea etc.”
Though the company has had both success and failure in the gaming business with something as popular as World Robot Boxing to a complete flop like Dancing With The Stars, Agarwal says that overall it has been an enjoyable journey.
“In a portfolio of business, we need to ensure that we maximise whichever is the hit and cover for the losses or failure and that’s what we are doing. Our gaming business will double this year, it has been really profitable giving us confidence to plan on a higher scale for next year,” says Agarwal.
After producing successful games this year in India, another positive that he has come across is that the company’s Indian team is capable of delivering a world-class product. “That has given us even more confidence to bring many other international projects to India. Today in India we don’t have any competition. We are far ahead of anybody else because the Reliance group has supported us in terms of investments as each of the games is anywhere between half-a-million to a million dollar. It’s a gamble in which we have succeeded,” he concludes.
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.
