Technology has always been the core of game development. As real money gaming is growing and the urge to earn more from these games is increasing, the platforms need to put special focus on the technology front to provide a better experience to the players and to ease the platform’s challenges.
To uplift the technology game, today almost Rs 8,000 crores have been invested by aggressive global investors such as Sequoia, Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Raine Capital, Clairvest, Westbridge Capital, Kalaari Capital, Bennett Coleman, Blume Ventures, and Kae Capital. Many fantasy gaming and skill gaming companies have raised capital.
In conversation with AnimationXpress, Playvegas88 founder Trushit Buch says, “From my perspective, it’s the end goal that drives technology. In our case SEA (Southeast Asia) is not known for the best internet speed, the number of clicks to perform tasks to build stickiness, support local languages and the medium used for support to end-customers so that minimal learning curve. This acted as a core to our technology choice, seamless wallet with robust AWS (Amazon Web Services) infrastructure with minimal load at client-side and just the right number of integration for communication and commerce. This is all supported with localised experience is the right technology strategy.”
Here are the excerpts of the rest of the interview:
Where will real money gaming and game of skill head in 2021?
The EU, US and UK are mature markets, there is massive growth potential in SEA and India, with an average of 12 to 30 per cent YOY growth. So commercially companies focused on these markets would attract investment, strategic partnerships and would grow really fast. The taboo related to the game of skill/real money games is changing, with the right set of regulations and education, people have started adopting these games and applying skills at a scale never seen before. 2021 would especially be a year of significance for growth in this industry, mainly fueled by smartphone adoption, preference to playing skill games as a leisure activity, and a massive young population in SEA and India.
Do you provide API for real money gaming platforms? How do you help companies with technology support? Could you elaborate on your solutions?
So we believe in democratising technology. We created a platform that has games that we built, a seamless wallet and support for API to create an ecosystem for third party connectivity. We provide white label solutions where operators can pick and choose games and can practically go live in 24 hours and API integration to existing operators. We provide 24x7x365 managed service to our clients in multiple Asian languages. Our aim is to be Shopify for the gaming sector, provide the right set of games, tools, personalisation and minimise the barrier for Go to market.
What are the requirements for your technology in the market?
With complete as well as partial lockdowns across Asia, it created a differentiated focus on the online gaming experience. Our technology facilitates 1) Super fast Go to market with ready to use games
2) Low learning curve with super easy DIY interface
3) Always online and scalable architecture to accommodate growth
4) Constant security monitoring and auditing
5) Trained technology and functional team to support in multiple languages
6) 24x7x365 active support
7) Dedicated client partner to help business succeed and
8) Most importantly fair play games.
So our service offering and managed services create MOAT and have helped us grow in two years.
Right now what is the pace of incorporation of AI technology in the real money gaming business? Where will it be in the next five years?
There is no debate that data is the fuel that drives innovation. We believe in leveraging data points and analysing them to provide an overall better and more personalized experience to users. In coming years, Machine learning would be a primary enabler for more complex problems, such as:
1) Minimising overall support cost by auto-responding to queries and requests
2) More predictability and in turn responsible gaming, and most importantly personalised user experience at scale by making it community centric.
What are the opportunities you see in this sector?
We provide technology platforms and see a tremendous opportunity for us to have multiple games offering in the esports and skill gaming sector. We personally see this as a massive opportunity for healthy, skill based entertainment. With stickiness to our platform and games in SEA, this is one area to collaborate and provide a variety of entertainment.
Your technology is transforming the ecosystem. Can you share a case study?
We are like Shopify for Gaming. We are a B2B technology platform that provides games, tools and content as SaaS. The industry today is very fragmented with service providers, technology providers, operators, support companies, CRM and database companies, individual games companies, system integrators that build API and more. This leads to massive loss of opportunity, communication and collaboration challenges and most importantly, a lot of capital as well as operational expense for gaming service providers. We provide, scalable, turnkey solution that is based on a monthly subscription with no requirement of the tech team as well as support teams with our white glove services.
How is the year 2021 business-wise?
The online skill games industry is, and will continue to generate substantial growth in employment, tax revenues, and investment in SEA as well as India. A common self-regulatory body will enable larger investment in the fastest growing industry. SEA is estimated to be a $4 billion market and India is $1.2billion and growing.
What’s your business plan?
We plan to expand our content portfolio and provide a robust technology framework in SEA and we also intend to expand our market share and build our esport brand and venture into the B2C space. Our focus, since the last two years, has been on building a solid backbone infrastructure and content bank with market validation. We are clocking in $1.5 million ARR and profitable (100 per cent bootstrapped). We can leverage that experience to scale and explore B2B2C. We are exploring options to raise capital.