Games24x7 shifts focus to tech platform, plans sector-agnostic investments

Amid new GST regime, Games24x7 eyes growth through diverse tech solutions and innovation

At a time when the Indian real-money gaming (RMG) industry is grappling with the new 28 per cent goods and services tax (GST) regime, gaming unicorn Games24x7 is looking to branch out and establish itself as a “technology platform” through sector-agnostic investments in companies developing innovative technology solutions.

“We are no longer trying to typecast ourselves as a gaming company that uses technology. We want to move away from that because a lot of the problems that we're solving—such as understanding consumer behaviour, our responsible product initiatives, or fraud detection—are not problems unique to us,” Bhavin Pandya, co-founder, and co-chief executive officer, Games24x7, told Business Standard.

Founded in 2006 by Pandya and Trivikraman Thampy, Games24x7 is one of three gaming unicorns—companies valued at over $1 billion—in the country, alongside Dream11 and Mobile Premier League (MPL). The company currently has a user base of over 120 million players.

Last December, the company announced a partnership with the Karnataka government to unveil ‘GameTech Accelerate – The Future of Gaming’, touted as the gaming industry’s inaugural accelerator programme.

“Over the years, we have accumulated a lot of gaming knowledge, which we wanted to give back to the ecosystem by mentoring founders and helping them raise funds. With the GameTech accelerator, we really want to establish ourselves as a technology platform. We want to make it even bigger this year,” Pandya said.

Through the programme, the company will be able to invest in “synergistic” technologies developed by companies across sectors, rather than building solutions from the ground up.

The company is also looking to restart investments through its investment arm, Games24x7 Ventures. According to Pandya, investments had paused due to the recent imposition of a 28 per cent blanket GST on online gaming by the Centre, which has adversely affected the operations of real-money gaming firms like Games24x7.

“We are of the view that it's better to hone and help grow companies that are already building innovative technologies, than to reinvent the wheel ourselves,” Pandya said.

The company set up Games24x7 Ventures in November 2022 with a total corpus of Rs 400 crore.

Nevertheless, the company is also investing in improving its own technology stack.

“From the very beginning, our operating ethos has been what we call ‘the science of gaming.’ We have really focused on a scientific way of doing things, and the natural outcome of that was figuring out how we can make our technology stack better and better,” Pandya said.

The firm currently has a team of about 40 data scientists, which has grown five-fold over the last three years. According to Pandya, Games24x7 has been investing heavily in data science and technology, including the contextual usage of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and large language models (LLMs).

For instance, the company is using technology for user identification, which has resulted in increased user engagement on the platform.

“Technology and data science help us identify users early on and, subsequently, create personalised experiences for them very quickly to keep them engaged. This ties into our responsible gaming initiatives. Our goal is to maximise responsible engagement using technology. Tech helps us identify early on whether a player is going to be problematic or if they are going to play responsibly,” Pandya said.

Moreover, it has also helped the company provide better customer service. For example, the company has been able to answer queries on a real-time basis, which boosts the user net promoter score (NPS).

“This has boosted user retention on the platform, and, in turn, user lifetime value (LTV) has gone up,” Pandya added.

Games24x7 is also investing heavily in product enhancements for its fantasy sports and rummy games.

“With our fantasy sports, or rummy games, or any other game that we offer, we want to make sure that what we are offering is fresh. So, product enhancements are certainly something that we're working on,” said Pandya.