Forget Bollywood, Mobile Gambling is the New Billion Dollar Baby

Author: Skyla Burrell

When people think of India many may think of the vibrant culture, the amazing cuisine, the lucrative movie business known as Bollywood, the epic love statement of the Taj Mahal, or maybe even the old-fashioned dowry system supposedly no longer in play (but still embedded in the culture). I bet you not many, until now, think of India as a giant player in the mobile gambling arena. In fact, mobile gaming in India is a set to pass the billion-dollar benchmark in 2020.

India is home to over one billion people, yes one billion, and has the 6th largest economy in the world. India is a nation rich with history and culture that seems to have bridged the gap between traditional and modern worlds quite seamlessly, considering the most practiced religion in the land is Hindu that takes roots from the Vedic Texts, which read more like science fiction than religion. In this magical land of Hindu gods and goddesses and mysteries never meant to be solved also thrives a vibrant and modern India full of innovation and technology.

India takes the fifth place ribbon overall for gambling popularity around the globe, although the actual revenue of $890 million only accounts for 1% of gambling revenue. The vast majority of gambling in India takes place via mobile technology. The average Indian cell phone owner uses approximately 1.4GB of data per day. There are 650 million cell phones in India, more than half of those are smartphones. So, what are they all doing on their mobile phones using all those gigabytes? Gambling, that’s what they are doing, gambling on their mobile phones.

The Indian online gaming market has several high profile gambling companies that operate out of India including the Galaxy group of online casinos and the Excel group. You can find out more details about their casinos on Gambling City. A recent study put out by the Counterpoint Research team says that trends have changed in India from multi-player games to single player games. However, some companies like Gamepind, created exclusively for the Indian market, do extremely well in the social gaming field.

One major factor contributing to the incredible mobile gaming growth in India since 2017 is the development AI and VR games (that’s Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality to you and me) coupled with what’s called ‘Freemium Games’ which are games free to download that offer in-app purchase options. Another factor in the rapid growth seen in the mobile gaming area is the creation of local mobile networks which offer high data capabilities at a competitive cost to users, so the big fish like Sony and Microsoft don’t get all the players in this pond.

India is on pace, thanks to the massive popularity of mobile casino gaming, to become a major player on the world gambling stage. Lakshmi, the goddess of good fortune, wealth, and well-being must be very happy.