Gaming
GEMS2020: Gaming & e-sports making its way into the mainstream
MUMBAI: Thanks to the 4G mobile data boom, the cult of e-sports and gaming is going mainstream. The Indian online gaming industry is growing at an exponential rate year upon year, and is expected to be worth $1.1 billion by 2021. During GEMS, there was a growing consensus among experts and industry leaders that yes, gaming is indeed “Getting Into The Mainstream”.
Moderated by GroupM ESP business head Vinit Karnik, the panelists included ITC Foods business division digital strategy and media head Anushree Ghosh, Parle Products senior category head – marketing Krishnarao S.Buddha, Airtel Media VP Archana Aggarwal, MSI regional marketing manager Green Chang-Ching Lin, NVIDIA South Asia consumer marketing head Pawan Awasthi.
Karnik started the session by setting up the context for the audiences from a marketing point of view. He highlighted that India is among the top five gaming countries and most of the players prefer mobile over personal computer, making India a predominantly mobile-first market.
The experts shared their insights on how families need to understand that being a gamer and an e-sports player can be viable career options. Also, the world of gaming and e-sports is no longer taboo – more and more brands and media organizations have seized upon its potential, and have been reaching out to gamers, and through them, to their sizeable audience and followers.
Watch the session here:
Awasthi touched upon various factors that have substantiated the growth of gaming. He said: “Globally there are close to two billion gamers. When we talk to gamers, 60 percent of them game on the PC as a platform, not mobile. Worldwide, the average age is 30 plus. In India, it is less than 20 years, so it follows that our audience is of an equally young age; this is possible because of the hardware and the platform which mobile provides. It is the freemium model which is leading to the growth in India.”
For instance, game casters Dynamo and Scout, who love to play on mobile, have a following of around nine million subscribers. And there are many such players in the country.
As India has rapidly emerged as one of the most lucrative markets comprising over 300 million gamers, Taiwanese gaming laptop giant MSI is looking to move into the Indian e-sports landscape in a big way.
“We’ve been working on gaming laptops and talking to the community. India is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets. So especially for a mobile gamer, there’s a huge growth and so they’re also looking for a better device to enjoy their gameplay,” said Chang-Chin Lin, adding that India will continue to be a key focus market where MSI is looking to expand its footprints.
Talking about Indian players’ preference for mobile gaming, Chang-Chin Lin shared that during major e-sports tournaments that take place here, the majority turns up for PC gaming, but mobile gaming is certainly not to be discounted. In the gaming market, there are 160 PDM and the mobile market takes 50 per cent of it. There will be an uptick in mobile tournaments happening in India in the coming years, he predicted. Already, the success of the Mobile Premier League (the platform recently raised $90 million in financing) is testimony to this fact.
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Aggarwal agreed that the e-sports landscape is booming with the influx of players and corporate investment, but there is a need for a platform where streamers or gamers can professionally play tournaments. She asserted, “Earlier, the structure was unorganized but now I am seeing a lot of media houses and companies organizing tournaments. I believe that is when the brands will start following it.”
On the marketeers side, both Buddha and Ghosh pointed out that although there is a captive audience which is playing a game, the challenge is how engaging and brand-safe it is. Hence, gaming is still two per cent of the media mix. While they see a huge scope in the gaming and e-sports space, they still need more information, proof-points, research, validation and case studies to understand how it can be a profitable investment.
“Being the household brand with a whole lot of large CPG brands, we kind of traverse in terms of the target audience that one wants to reach out to,” said Ghosh.
Elaborating on the challenges they face as marketeers, Ghosh explained: “To begin with, to advertise on gaming (and we do advertise on gaming) there are brands that talk to that 15-30 age group – whether it is a snack brand or a confectionary brand – and we are consistently reaching out to these audiences.”
Young viewers in the e-sports industry demand authentic brand interactions. As brands attempt to analyse this space, there are qualms as to whether the gaming audience will like the interruptions, given the engaged nature of the platform.
“Our question is whether interruption-based communication becomes annoying especially when audiences are engaged and suddenly there is an advertisement. We also have questions around the efficacy of media advertising. Because these are extremely engaged platforms and the consumer is actually paying to get rid of advertising. Given the nature of the platform, its effectiveness also needs to be established,” added Ghosh.
With marketeers expressing reservations on how to seamlessly integrate branded content with online gaming, there seems to be a huge question mark looming over the e-sports sector. But given the pace at which it is growing, we’re certain that in the not-so-distant future, brands would be engaging with this medium with much more enthusiasm.
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.
