“Poker in India is just entering its golden era and we want to lead the charge”

Although 2021 has been a year of reassessment for all businesses, the online gaming industry has continued to grow at a high rate of about 30% CAGR, and is predicted to reach $7 billion in the next five years, according to industry reports. In a highly competitive and dynamic sector, where many players have turned to sports sponsorships to boost brand memory, Baazi Games has turned to innovation.

In conversation with Adgully, Varun Ganjoo, Co-Founder & Marketing Director, Baazi Games, about how Baazi Games have positioned itself with Out of the Box Games like Online Poker and Card Games, insights on the growth trajectory of the gaming industry in India, and much more.

How has the journey been for Baazi Games in India so far?

In the world of similar looking Fantasy, Strategy and Action Games, Baazi Games ventured into online gaming with a passion-led game of Poker with PokerBaazi.com. In the digital world, product is the real king and if they can combine this with a user-centric approach, they can create a niche for the brand. Poker in itself is a complex technology product. Our focus since the beginning has been to build a solid in-house technology team which could use our team’s intrinsic knowledge of the game to create a world class product.

I am proud to say that we have successfully used this approach to power PokerBaazi to a market position, where it leads the industry today with its product differentiation. Our sheer intent has always been to provide the best gaming experience to the users. The constant hunt for experience enhancing and engagement driving features combined with our customer first support ecosystem is helping us create a loyal user base.

From our research we discovered that users are also looking for a single platform for card gaming, which was missing in the market and hence, we revamped RummyBaazi.com to CardBaazi.com, which offers a plethora of online card games, including Rummy, Dehla Pakad, Call Break, and Solitaire, among others.

What’s the thought process behind creating games that appeal to the public? How will these innovations created by Baazi Games help to grow the brand value?

Online gaming is on course to taking a higher share in the larger entertainment ecosystem. Hence, our aim is not just to create games that attract people, but also create products that provide a top notch experience for them to be comfortable spending time on our platforms.

It might sound strange to some, but we are not focused only on creating monetary offerings for the players. We are bringing value propositions that add to their social currency as well.

With our latest venture, Baazi Mobile Gaming (BMG), we have further diversified our portfolio as we intend to reach out to a wider audience across various age groups, socio-economic groups, and cities with a special focus on Tier 2 and 3 cities, unearthing the latent potential of ‘Bharat’. BMG now makes us a one-stop destination for all kinds of casual and online gaming options for our audiences.

So, with our diverse offerings, we are catering to specialists as well as generalists in the online skilled gaming ecosystem which is helping the brand grow holistically.

How do you see the future of non-arcade and action games in India, like online Card Games, in the playground of PUBG, Call of Duty, and Cricket Fantasy Gaming?

Arcade games have led the way for the mobile gaming industry and the gaming industry. They have played a key role in attracting audiences and have built inroads for gaming in India. While card games had a slower digital start, but the demand for them has increased significantly given the fact that these games are deep rooted in the Indian households since ages.

The pandemic has certainly contributed to a spike in the already fast growing segment. The growth in the online gaming segment is now being led by non-arcade games which are evident from the increasing market share of casual and real money games. The industry reports also echo the same and show that the demand is further going to increase in the next five years.

As per experts, Poker in India is just entering its golden era and we want to be leading the charge to make it a category of its own. In order to do that, we need to raise its awareness to more and more users. The National Poker Series was one such campaign that has driven the outreach to a wider set of poker enthusiasts in the country. The first edition of the tournament held in June 2021 attracted over 83,000 entries and we are all the more excited for the 2022 edition of the tournament series.

The industry is surely going to be very competitive in the coming years, but we are sure that non-arcade games are soon going to find their niche because the very notion of online gaming has changed from an individual activity to that of a community-building phenomenon.

If we talk about the revenue and economic value in the Online gaming sector, what growth have your properties seen and what are the new add-on innovations that are going to keep the name of Baazi Games running?

Our user base, across all our ventures, has exponentially grown by 50% between 2020 and 2021 owing to our constant innovations across the platforms.

At PokerBaazi.com, our innovations ranged from launching a market best gaming app with features like game stats that allow new players to understand the game better and provide them with an edge to compete against existing players, to engaging features like voice chat. Emoticons and expressive features like throwing objects have had a very positive impact on the user stickiness. For CardBaazi.com, as I stated earlier, our research had driven us to the conclusion of a major gap in the market for a specialized card gaming application. Hence, we revamped RummyBaazi.com to CardBaazi.com, which will see the addition of 8-10 skill-based card games in 2022.

BalleBaazi.com innovated the industry-first player intelligence feature, which allows users to have access to a plethora of in-depth information such as venue-specific performance history, fantasy point break-up, players’ form, and batting position, alongside a specialisation feature that detects the strength of an all-rounder. Further, this was the first season of the novel free-to-play National Fantasy Cricket Championship, another industry first concept. The tournament saw participation of more than 62 lakh teams throughout the 13-day tournament during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. This was a major step towards changing the perception of fantasy sports from being “All About Money” to “All About Glory”.

The point to note is that the buck doesn’t stop here. 2021 has been a year of some big innovations and our list for 2022 includes a lot of exciting stuff for our players.