Three factors boost India’s igaming market
Igaming sites have seen a 24% rise in traffic and a 21% increase in time spent gaming.
India.- Operators around the world have been impressed by the spike in traffic online gaming operators have been seeing in India.
International firms have already set their eyes on India’s huge market of over 826 million people between the ages of 18 and 64, although for now only 23 million are financially able to gamble.
The issue was covered by a panel at ICE SiGMA Asia Digital. There Ranjana Adhikari, co-head of media entertainment and gaming at Nishith Desai Associates, said: “Despite the Indian gaming industry being a very prohibitive regime, there is a very keen interest from international operators offering remote gaming services. I definitely see increasing interest from foreign operators in the market, but the one thing that is a deterrent is stability in policy decisions of India.”
Adhikari said the Covid-19 lockdown had led to a surge in demand and that revenue for the online gaming industry was set to reach $2 billion by 2022.
Traffic to igaming sites saw a 24 per cent increase from February 10 to March 22. The time spent gaming increased by 21 per cent in the same period.
According to an analysis published by Times Post, Indian igaming players are lapping up Glaws, which saw a 20 per cent increase in transactions and 25 per cent increase in traffic, Poker Gangal (15% more traffic) and Games2Win (25 per cent increase).
The report found three factors behind the recent surge, the first being the closure of local land-based casinos in the states of Goa and Sikkim, which temporarily suspended operations during lockdown.
The second factor was the integration of sports betting services and casino games on the same platforms, creating a smoother transition for sports fans when sports events were cancelled.
The report said the other major factor influencing the trend was the appearance of a new audience brought in by branded slots associated with popular movie franchises.
