This Gurugram-based venture is changing the dynamics of the online gaming industry

Adda52Rummy is India’s leading online rummy site – A wholly-owned subsidiary of gaming and hospitality giant Delta Corp Ltd. Adda52Rummy has established a market-leadership position in the online rummy industry thanks to its focus on user-experience and customer.

It was launched in 2012. It is India’s most trusted and rewarding rummy app with over 1 million registered user base. This venture is the first in the industry to spot a demand pattern emerging towards 21 Card Rummy and have championed multi-player 21 Card Rummy game by launching high-value tables which have unique advantages such as lowest rake, minimal service charges and biggest pay-outs than any other 21 Card Rummy provider in India.

We are publishing an interview with Mr. Ashish Bhakuni – Marketing & Strategy Head, Adda52Rummy.

Q. What is the problem you are trying to solve? Please share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
Ans: Rummy game is one of the oldest and highly popular card games. This game is arguably the most popular in both the cities and the villages of the country. The advent of online casino games has disrupted the way card games were played traditionally. When online casino games came into existence, a new version of the Rummy game appeared which called the online Rummy game. The digital version of the Rummy game has disrupted the way card games were played offline. The rummy game is now played online by millions of people worldwide on their PCs or mobile phones. The 13 card game rummy is being called as the skill-based game and it is quite easy to learn a few of the basic rules of the games.

The online rummy space is set to grow more competitive with an aggressive foray in the online rummy space by 6-7 new online rummy websites, who are looking to disrupt the market with new out of the box strategies.

Q. List all the names of the core Team Members, along with their Designated Roles.
Ans: Sure. They are:

• Naveen Goyal: Chief Executive Officer, CEO
• Kunal Mahajan: Business & Technology Head
• Ashish Bhakuni: Marketing & Strategy Head
• Ankur Suri: Product & Retention Head

Q. What is your USP? * What is the insight that you have about this market, which no one else has? Uniqueness about your Startup. 
Ans: Our USP is

• Instant Bonus as Cashback reward on every deposit 
• Highest Prize to Participation Ratio in Tournaments
• Minimum rakes and Biggest Payouts to Players
• Fastest withdrawals and Best Welcome Offer in Industry

We have been expanding our player base at a rapid pace. We have also started advertising on regional television channels, radio and print media and hope to assume leadership position in the next couple of years. Our business ethics focus on  a balance between 3 Ps:  promotion, public relations, adding a personal touch and responsible game play to distinguish ourselves from others.  

Q. What were your assumptions when you entered the market, learning that you have? Who in your mind is your ideal customer? Do you have at least one of them signed up? 
Ans: India is a market where brands localize their content whether it is food from McDonalds or shoes from Bata. Same is the case for games. The games that become really popular in India have a local flavour.

And we are committed to bringing more local flavour to the Indian market in 2016. Such local flavour Indian games built in India keeping in mind the tastes of Indian audiences will take over other games.

Q. Is there any interesting success story of your startup? If yes, please write about it?
Ans: With the smartphone user base in India crossing 300 million and headed to 500 million in the next 2-3 years, we are tremendously excited about the Indian market. We see the rummy industry growing 10x in the next five years, and we see the freemium mobile games segment growing 40-50x in the next 5-10 years depending on how rapidly payment options through the app stores evolve.

Soon, we may find games like rummy elevated to the VR platforms. We are watching all the developments in the industry closely to offer our players with the best-in-class experience.

Q. Since inception, give us a sense of the value of business done by your venture? Please explain in detail. 
Ans: FICCI-KPMG report predicts a 27 per cent growth in gaming industry revenues. In fact, we at Adda52 Rummy, have been seeing a 100 per cent growth year on year for past 5 years, and we see that in 2019 too, our player adoption and growth is on a fantastic growth path.

Our approach is embedded in our belief that people like playing games they grew up playing. Localization is the key to success in India and user trends have confirmed the same. We are focusing heavily on the localization of games and technologies with a user-friendly interface. It, therefore, becomes easy to relate to the game and as a result, makes it easier for players to at least try the game once. If the game quality and experience is good, they continue to play more. In fact, Indian gaming players are dominating the gaming segment with their local offerings.

Q. Who do You Perceive as Your Competition? How do you differentiate yourself with them?
Ans: The key stakeholders of Rummy Industry are online rummy operators, online skill games operators, policy analysts, industry experts, economists, law firms, consulting firms, technology providers, service providers, payment gateway, tax consultants and game enthusiasts among others.

Proliferation of smart-phones has become a significant motivator for mobile game developers to start building games that bridge the gap between real life and virtual world through augmented reality games. Such games can be used for driving real change in consumer behaviour. And we expect some early stage action to happen in this space in 2020. There are some good portals out there who are 

Adda52 Rummy, an online and mobile gaming platform is leveraging on technology to make playing Indian card games, like Rummy, a better, immersive experience. Backed by a strong technical support team, seamless payment gateways and engaging user interface, we have seen over 1+million registrations, clearly indicating the role technology has played in transforming the experience of playing card games. Technology is at the heart of everything we do to provide safe, simple and hassle free consumer experience supported with offline assistance. For all our games, we provide high-end technology interface, robust payment gateway, and user-friendly mobile app. To give players the smoothest experience, we spend the bulk of our time on core infrastructure components. We track an enormous amount of data to determine what players enjoy and what they don’t. Standard tools of the trade like A/B testing and statistical analysis are rigorously applied.

Adda52 Rummy offers the simplest online multiplayer rummy game in popular formats for free, and cash. From being restricted to the living room, we make sure that Rummy  is played at a competitive level (tournaments), improving the skill-set of gamers. This is why we are currently one of India’s Most Rewarding and loved real money game providers.

Q. What would be your goal to accomplish in the next six months? Any other information you would like to share?
Ans: Our primary focus is on user experience and we are continuously making efforts to enhance it with all our future offerings. In an endeavour to provide best offers and prizes to our players, we will be running monthly tournaments with enticing give-aways and big prizes like trip packages, cars, bikes etc.

Our aim is to keep our product relevant and engaging for our user base across India. For the same, our marketing team works tirelessly to curate innovative game features and rewards for the tournaments. Wewill continue to provide superior entertainment and gaming experience to the players.

The team of 200 led by CEO Naveen Goyal continues to innovate by developing new and exciting ways to entertain the rapidly-growing number of online gamers in India.

Q. What message do you want to convey to fellow entrepreneurs?
Ans: The rummy game has been declared purely as a game of skills by the Jurisdiction of India and there are no prohibitions on playing the Rummy game in India. The gaming operators can offer the most user-friendly and entertaining Rummy gaming platform to the players and they can boost their business operations.

The customized and licensed gaming solutions are offered to the customers who are looking for ways to enter into the online rummy gaming business. With immense global experience in providing the Rummy game software solutions, the game development company opens the new doors of opportunities for the clients and help them to take the next big leap in the competitive online gaming market place.

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Thanks Ashish. All the best!