Exclusive Interview! Real Money Skill Games Lead India's Gaming Industry Charge, Says SportsBaazi CEO Saurabh Chopra

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In the dynamic world of online gaming and spectator engagement, a lot of emphasis is now being put on innovation and personalised experience for the users and due to this shift in attitude, the users are moving towards Real Money Skill Gaming for tangible returns.

SportsBaazi - one of the prominent online gaming platforms in India - has carved out a niche with its innovative approach and unwavering focus on user experience.

In a recent interview with myKhel, Mr Saurabh Chopra, Co-founder & CEO of SportsBaazi, shared his insights into the platform's dynamic user engagement where he highlighted several intriguing trends shaping user behaviour on their platform.

One standout trend has been the remarkable surge in daily user engagement, with average time spent per day skyrocketing from 4 minutes in 2022 to an impressive 26 minutes by 2024.

This substantial increase underscores the platform's success in delivering an immersive gaming experience tailored by SportsBaazi's indigenous design and development efforts. Mr Chopra also revealed how the platform is also personalising suggestions based upon user engagement and interests, for a better experience.

He further highlighted a shift in consumer behaviour towards real-money skill gaming in the recent times, where users seek not just big prize pools but also tangible returns while enjoying entertainment. Here are the excerpts:

Q: What are some of the most interesting trends you've noticed recently in user engagement on the SportsBaazi platform?

Ans: While there are many positive engagement trends on SportsBaazi off late, the one that remains key is the meteoric increase we are witnessing in the average time spent per day by our users on the platform. This metric has shot up by more than 500%, going from 4 minutes in 2022 to now 26 minutes in 2024. It's a validation for the immersive gaming experience being indigenously designed and developed by SportsBaazi teams.

Q: Have you observed any particular demographic shifts in your user base over the past year? If so, what might be driving these changes?

Ans: Not really. Gaming in India is demography agnostic in my opinion. The degree does vary for different age groups and income groups but engagement comes from all across. What is shifting rather is the consumer behaviour towards real money skill gaming, the first wave attracted the aspirations in the country towards very big prize pools, the next wave will be more qualitative where gamers would prefer using their disposable time and income for more realistic and tangible returns while getting entertained.

Q: What innovative tools or features have you implemented to enhance user engagement, and how successful have they been?

Ans: It's been about undertsanding the science of gaming and engagement. I sometimes refer to our product teams as game research teams rather than game development.

The Predictor universe on SportsBaazi is designed with significantly high skill quotient for the core gamers out there. The data intelligence tools on SportsBaazi, content around the science of probabilities is definitely helping up drive this engagement better.

Q: How has user feedback influenced the development of new features on the platform?

Ans: Understanding gamers and gaming behaviour is core to our mission. We have many player communities which help us stay close to the pulse, community managers in our team facilitate surveys which are focussed on critical topics helping us to build a seamless feedback loop.

Q: What strategies has SportsBaazi implemented to establish itself as a leader in the spectator engagement space?

Ans: Our focus. In an environment where many gaming startups are choosing to be multidimensional gaming platforms with sports games, casual games, card games etc, our focus on building a sports focussed spectator engagement experience gives us a distinct advantage.

Q: How does SportsBaazi personalize content and interactions for its users to keep them engaged during live events?

Ans: We are working on personalising the experience based on your playing preferences on SportsBaazi. If you show interest in a set of players repeatedly, it could be individuals like Rohit Sharma, David Warner, Virat Kohli or it could be player characteristics like Bowlers or Batsmen, in that case you are presented with prediction sets that you are more likely to engage with.