MUMBAI: Leading Indian gaming company Nazara Technologies Ltd has set up a subsidiary – NZ World Kenya Ltd (NZ World) – through which it is looking to enter the ‘real money’ gaming market in the East African nation as well as other countries on the continent.
Nazara has a 70% stake in NZ World Kenya, with the rest being held by a local partner.
In real money gaming, users put in real money to play. There are of two types – games of skill (where users put in cash to buy games or upgrade to higher levels) and games of chance (akin to gambling, where users put money to make more money).
Talking to BusinessLine, Nazara Technlogies’ CEO Manish Agarwal said: “Real money (game of chance) is not legal in India. It is a very big market in Africa and is the main reason why we are setting up a new entity in Kenya.”
Agarwal noted that real money gaming in Kenya is growing fast, with the market currently pegged at around Rs 15 billion per month as compared to the overall Rs 10 billion online mobile gaming market in India.
NZ World has secured a betting license from the Betting Control Board of Kenya to operate certain products within the license and will launch sports betting, sports fantasy, sports arcade and a sports real money quiz, later this month.
Agarwal told the business daily that the plan is to also tap markets such as Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana, among others on the continent, where there are clear regulations and a legal framework around such gaming licenses.
NZ World plans to kick off proceedings with the upcoming FIFA World Cup through launching sports betting, sports fantasy, sports arcade and a Sports Real Money Quiz games.
“We are excited to leverage Nazara’s on-ground network built over the last few years so as to exploit the sports betting and the fantasy market in the African countries. Given its affinity for soccer, we will begin with FIFA 18,” Agarwal told Times of India.
The game is said to be developed by one of Nazara’s investee company Mastermind Sports (Mastermind).
Pratik Shah, founder and CEO, Mastermind Sports, told inc42.com: “Worldwide, real-money sports gaming is becoming mainstream. We’re excited to create a differentiated product experience by leveraging fan insights and our technology expertise. We believe that Africa, starting with Kenya, presents a growth opportunity for us with their appetite for live sports gaming.”
Nazara has made a name for itself primarily as being an exclusive distributor for key game developers such as Electronic Arts (EA) and licensing mobile gaming rights to popular IPs like Virat Kohli, Hrithik Roshan, Chhota Bheem, among others.
Nazara was recently in the news after raising $28 million in funding from celebrated Indian investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
