Investors put $1 billion into real-money gaming firms between 2020 and 2024

Investors poured nearly $1 billion into real money gaming (RMG) companies between 2020 and 2024, but the Centre’s Bill aiming at curbing the sharp spike in online gaming addiction has now put this capital on the line.

 

The sector saw its peak in 2021, raising $450 million across 32 funding rounds, a threefold jump from $135.4 million over 21 rounds in 2020.

 

It went on to secure $332 million across 22 rounds in 2022, before plummeting to $20.6 million in six rounds in 2023 and $19.5 million in just three rounds in 2024, according to Tracxn.

 

Companies secured major funding rounds during this period. 

According to Tracxn, major skill gaming companies have raised significant funding over the years- Head Digital Works has raised $81 million since its founding in 2005, Games24x7 secured $108 million since 2006, Dream Sports raised $1.24 billion since 2008, Mobile Premier League (MPL) raised $396 million since 2018, Zupee raised $122 million since 2018, and WinZO raised $92 million since 2018, among others.

 

Some of the major investors include Peak XV, Tiger Global, Y Combinator, Lumikai, Nazara Technologies and others.

 

These companies also operate non-RMG or free-to-play offerings, even as RMG continues to dominate their business scale.

 

“The essence of RMG is that users participate in skill-based games for financial reward, so this proposed law would directly affect this operating model for both users and gaming companies. There is likely to be considerable uncertainty amongst users, gaming companies, and investors for the foreseeable future,” said Aniruddha Basu, partner at Khaitan & Co.

 

In February, Head Digital Works, which operates A23 Rummy and A23 Poker, said it will acquire Deltatech Gaming, the company behind the online poker platform Adda52, for ₹491 crore.

 

In 2024, Nazara Technologies announced one of the largest M&A deals in India’s gaming sector, acquiring a significant stake in Moonshine Technology (MTPL), the parent of PokerBaazi, for ₹982 crore.

 

Nazara Technologies invested ₹805 crore towards equity shares in PokerBaazi parent Moonshine Technology through a combination of cash and stock in 2024. It holds compulsory convertible shares amounting to ₹255 crore.

 

However, it added that the company did not have direct exposure to RMG business.

  “The company’s only indirect exposure to RMG is through its 46.07 per cent stake in Moonshine Technologies Private Limited (PokerBaazi). As Nazara does not hold a majority stake or exercise control, Moonshine’s revenue is not consolidated in the company’s financial statements and has no impact on the company’s reported revenue or Ebitda. The contribution to PAT by Moonshine as a share of profit & loss by associate is negative in Q1FY26,” it said in a statement.