GamesKraft Success Story - How is it Creating a World-Class Gaming Experience for the Indian Users?

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With the availability of fast internet and smartphones, online gaming is gaining much popularity in India, especially among the youth. With this increasing craze, many gaming companies are coming up with engaging and entertaining gaming options.

Gameskraft, a Bangalore-based startup in the online gaming sector is all set to bring a world-class gaming experience to Indian users. This startup, launched in 2017, is driven by the vision to establish Gameskraft Technologies as a leading gaming company in India. StartupTalky interviewed Gameskraft founder Prithvi Singh. Let's see what he has to say, what Gameskraft actually is, and how it is transforming the world of online gaming in this StartupTalky article ahead!

Gameskraft - Company Highlights

About Gameskraft
Gameskraft - Industry
Gameskraft - Founders and Team
Gameskraft - Startup Story
Gameskraft - Mission and Vision
Gameskraft - Name, Tagline and Logo
Gameskraft - Business and Revenue Model
Gameskraft - Customer Acquisition
Gameskraft - Funding
Gameskraft - Products and Features
Gameskraft - Advisors and Mentors
Gameskraft - Investment
Gameskraft - Partnerships
Gameskraft - Challenges
Gameskraft - Competitors
Gameskraft - Future Plans

About Gameskraft

Gameskraft is an online gaming company founded in Bengaluru, which develops web and mobile games. The company is hailed as India's first gaming company that gives instant cash rewards. The ISO-certified gaming platform is lauded to be instrumental in building and scaling bellwether technology startups, including Goibibo, Blinkit, Myntra, and Flipkart.

Nostragamus, Rummytime, Pocket52, Rummyculture, and Gamezy are some of the gaming platforms that Gameskraft boasts of, all of which are based on reward systems and use real cash. Gamezy was launched by Gameskraft in 2019, through which it entered the fantasy cricket and football segment. Besides users can play games like Carrom, Fruit Slice, Fruit Dart, Sheep Fight, Ludo, Snake, Run Boy Run, Quiz, Bricks, and Bubble Burst on Gamezy. Players can play the games free for practice and later can opt for playing these games with real money and real players.

Gameskraft debuted with Rummy Culture in 2017. In just a short period, it has evolved into India’s fastest-growing cash rummy platform, with over 1 million active players on its website and Android application. Offering a best-in-class gaming experience with complete digital safety, Rummy Culture has multilingual customer support. Free to register, the platform also provides first-time players with generous welcome bonuses. The USP of Rummy culture lies in its transparency and ease of use along with instant withdrawals.

The games are designed after researching the market trends, the demand, and the gaps that exist in the casual gaming industry.

"We made sure our products will cater to the specific needs of the Indian customer. Unlike most other real cash games, our users are credited the money they win on the same day" -  Rummyculture owner Prithvi Singh says.

Gameskraft - Industry

The investment of market leaders such as Alibaba, Tencent, Nazara, and Youzu, has contributed to the growth of the Indian gaming industry. According to a joint report released by Google and KPMG, the online gaming industry in India was projected to reach $1 billion by 2021, which is around $1.5 billion on July 1, 2022. The estimated number of employees in the gaming industry across India will be more than 40,000 by 2022, which is almost around the same number.

India boasts of being home to the second-largest gaming market across the globe and has an annual growth rate of 38%. Over 300 million mobile users play online games in India, which is around 1/4th of the total population of the country.  

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Gameskraft - Founders and Team

Prithvi Singh founded Gameskraft in 2017. The company has declared Ramesh Prabhu as the CFO of the gaming startup, who has taken up the role since August 2018. Harish Rawat serves as the Senior Vice President of Marketing of the business, while Vikas Taneja is known as the Group CEO of Gameskraft.

Prithvi Raj Singh

Gameskraft founder Prithvi Raj Singh is a BTech. Computer Science engineering graduate from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology. Prior to GamesKraft, he worked with companies like Grofers, where he had worked as the Staff Engineer; Ignite Technologies as the Chief Architect; CA Technologies as a Manager, and Trilogy, where he had worked as a Technical Associate. Prithvi had already gained knowledge across different domains including large-scale and enterprise applications.

Prithvi Singh has always been fascinated with computers and this is why he chose Computer Science in his college. He mentioned this in a YouTube interview, along with discussing much more about his journey and the experiences he had as a first-time investor. Here's the interview below:

Gameskraft - Startup Story

Prithvi started showing interest in gaming at a young age. During his college years, he spent a considerable amount of time playing video games. Around the same time, he realized that the market is mostly dominated by international companies and the games are not specific to the Indian market. So, he wanted to develop games, especially for Indian users.

"With Gameskraft, I wanted to bring the Indian context to the online gaming space. The games we develop are mainly targeted at Indian users. Since India’s gaming industry has a huge potential, I was pretty confident about Gameskraft"  quotes Gameskraft owner Prithvi Singh.

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Gameskraft - Mission and Vision

Gameskraft was launched with the aim to create the "next big revolution in the e-gaming industry."

“Gameskraft's vision is to be the most loved online gaming company of the 21st century using best-in-class technology. We are here to create a flawless user experience like no other contemporary apps in the market.”

Gameskraft - Name, Tagline and Logo

"We wanted a name for our company that is catchy and easy to remember, so we came up with Gameskraft.", said rummyculture owner Prithvi Singh.

Gameskraft's tagline is ‘India’s fastest-growing gaming company’.

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Gameskraft - Business and Revenue Model

GamesKraft is built on a user-oriented business model and can thus be summed up as a business operating in a B2b as well as a B2c model. Gameskraft earns revenue by collecting service charges on the cash games. Non-cash games are free mostly, but some games have entry restrictions.

Gameskraft - Customer Acquisition

Initially, word-of-mouth publicity helped Gameskraft to create a name. Gameskraft’s referral program also helped the company to attract new customers. The company also offers welcome bonuses to new users. During the Cricket World Cup 2019, Gameskraft launched an exclusive World Cup ‘scratch card’ offer for the Rummyculture users.

As part of this app-only (available on both Android and iOS) offer, users stand a chance to win a prize every hour. However, only mobile verified users can claim this offer and they are eligible for a maximum of 8 scratch cards a day.

Under this ‘scratch card’ offer, Rummyculture subscribers can access one scratch card per hour. Each card will be activated for one hour when the match starts. Users can make a claim only during this period. Additionally, Gameskraft recently presented the official World Cup 2019 Team India jersey to Rummyculture players with the highest add-on cash every day from June 1st to 5th. The platform has also added an exclusive World Cup leaderboard to Rummyculture’s platform and users with the highest points tally will receive attractive prizes following the completion of the World Cup 2019. Rummyculture is now available on the iOS platforms too.

"We took a customer-centric approach from the beginning and it has worked really well for us. Customers have grown to like our games because of their transparency and user-centricity.", said Gameskraft founder Prithvi Singh.

Gameskraft - Competitors

Many online gaming companies are now operating in India. Some top gaming companies are:

• 2pi Interactive
• 99 Games
• Apar games
• CreatioSoft
• Dhruva Interactive

As noted by Prithvi, Gameskraft is a new player in the online gaming space. The Gameskraft focus is currently on its latest offering Gamezy. The Gamezy owner, Gameskraft has forayed with the former into the fantasy gaming space earlier in 2019.  

"What makes us stand out is that we do extensive market research before rolling out any game. We take regular feedback from our customers to make improvements in various areas – whether it’s the UI of the game or the format."

Gameskraft - Funding

Gameskraft doesn’t have any formal investors at present. It was the founder of the company, Prithvi Singh, who arranged some amount of funding from his family and friends to start Gameskraft.

Gameskraft - Growth and Revenues

Gameskraft has been making safe gaming experiences ever since it was founded. The company has also been hailed as:

• India’s fastest-growing gaming company
• A Guinness World Record holder for conducting the world’s largest rummy tournament
• Gameskraft boasts of having crossed 1 million downloads
• It has a massive player community of 25 million for its app Rummy Culture.
• Gameskraft has 2 offices, both of which are located in Bangalore.
• It has a team of 600K+ gaming enthusiasts.
• It has 421 million online gamers.

Gameskraft Financial

The operating income of Gameskraft is growing annually. The company's revenue in FY21 was Rs 1,411 crore, whereas in FY22 it was Rs 2,112 crore. In FY21 and FY22, the company made Rs 731 crore and Rs 937 crore, respectively, in profits.

Gameskraft Expenses Breakdown

Gameskraft's total expenses surged from Rs 415 crore in FY21 to Rs 869 crore in FY22, indicating a significant increase in operational costs during this fiscal year.

Gameskraft EBITDA margin dropped from 51.69% in FY21 to 44.35% in FY22, while costs as a percentage of operational revenue increased from Rs 0.29 in FY21 to Rs 0.41 in FY22. Additionally, the ROCE decreased from 95.68% in FY21 to 52.61% in FY22, reflecting changes in profitability, cost dynamics, and capital use.

Gameskraft - Advisors and Mentors

My family and friends have given me constant support throughout the journey. Whenever I need advice, I turn to them.

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Gameskraft - Investment

Gameskraft has invested in three companies. Below are the details:

Gameskraft - Products and Features

Gamezy Fantasy

A product of Gameskraft, Gamezy Fantasy was a platform for fantasy cricket that was created to give customers an immersive and highly gratifying experience so that everyone could experience the rush of success.

In the recent news, Gameskraft recently stopped supporting the Gamezy Fantasy platform.

Rummy Culture from Gameskraft

Rummy Culture has introduced new features intended to boost rummy's appeal to novice players while also improving the gameplay experience for all experienced players. Ultra Deals Rummy is a brand-new game format that Rummy Culture has also debuted.

Gameskraft - Partnerships

Gameskraft has partnered with various prominent companies:

Inspire Institute of Sports

Gamekraft Foundation and IIS have partnerships and with their partnership to provide high-class training and access to facilities to identified young sports talents in India across various disciplines in the sport of track and field

Anju Bobby Sports Foundation (ABSF)

Gameskraft has teamed up with the Anju Bobby Sports Foundation (ABSF) to contribute to the establishment of ABSF's new high-performance academy in Bengaluru. This collaboration reflects Gameskraft Foundation's commitment to sports development and its vision of fostering social upliftment and success stories across various sports disciplines.

West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS)

Gameskraft and the West Bengal National University of Judicial Sciences (WBNUJS) have partnered to create a gaming, technology, and sports legislation research center. This endeavor comes at a crucial time when the gaming industry is quickly evolving and policy reform is gaining ground.

Disney + Hotstar

Gameskraft has partnered with Disney + Hotstar on September 22, 2021, to strengthen its brand recognition among the viewers.

Gameskraft - Challenges

Gameskraft’s journey has been very exciting, but we came across several obstacles in the initial months.

The most challenging part for the company was retaining a steady customer base. When Gameskraft first started, it mainly focused on a good interface. However, over time, it realized that there are many other important factors. The company constantly keeps on researching and making changes to its platform to meet customer expectations. Rummyculture’s first multi-player tournament didn’t go as per plan, mostly due to technical errors. It was a real eye-opener for Gameskraft and they learned from the mistake and made changes accordingly.

Another challenge that startup faced initially was in making payment of rewards to its users. The payment system was not automated.

"Every day after 3 pm, I used to take a printout of all the withdrawal requests and go to the bank with a checkbook. I deposited the check and gave the Bank Manager a list of account numbers and the respective amounts that had to be deposited" Prithvi recalls.

Thankfully, now it has banking partners and the payment process is fully automated.

Gameskraft - Competitors

Many online gaming companies are now operating in India. Some top gaming companies are:

• 2pi Interactive
• 99 Games
• Apar games
• CreatioSoft
• Dhruva Interactive

As noted by Prithvi, Gameskraft is a new player in the online gaming space. The Gameskraft focus is currently on its latest offering Gamezy. The Gamezy owner, Gameskraft has forayed with the former into the fantasy gaming space earlier in 2019.  

"What makes us stand out is that we do extensive market research before rolling out any game. We take regular feedback from our customers to make improvements in various areas – whether it’s the UI of the game or the format."

Gameskraft - Future Plans

In less than two years of time, Gameskraft’s Rummy culture evolved as India’s fastest-growing cash rummy platform, with 1 million active players on its website and Android application.

Their newly launched product Gamezy, a fantasy gaming platform for cricket enthusiasts in the country has received an overwhelming response from the customers. Gameskraft is planning to strengthen its foothold in the fantasy gaming space. The skills-based esports and entertainment platform has declared its ambitions to scale for the future while hiring 7 senior executives, thereby strengthening its leadership team in May 2022!

FAQs

What is Gameskraft?

Gameskraft is an online gaming platform founded in 2017 by Prithvi Singh, which offers an array of interesting games for Indian players. The company takes pride in being India's first gaming company to give instant cash rewards to the players. The ISO-certified gaming platform also boasts of organizing the world's largest online rummy tournament and has its name in the Guinness Book of World Records.  

Who is Gamezy founder?

The Gamezy founder is none other than Prithvi Raj Singh, who founded Gameskraft.

What is the Gamezy valuation?

The Gamezy valuation is still not assessed but the platform boasts of having 1 crore plus+ verified players.

Who is the owner of Gamezy and RummyCulture?

Gameskraft is the owner of Gamezy and RummyCulture.

Is Gameskraft good and legal?

Gameskraft brings in trusted games. It is also recognized by the ISO certification.