Clarity in e-sports regulations will further boost industry, says MPL co-founder

Clarity in regulations for e-sports will provide a major boost to the growing digital sports industry, helping it tap the home market as well as woo gamers across the world, ‎Mobile Premier League (MPL) co-founder Sai Srinivas has said.

Speaking to PTI, Srinivas said India - with availability of affordable data services and growing smartphone penetration - is poised to account for roughly 30-35 per cent of the global consumption of Internet-led services, including gaming and e-sports.

"I believe that India is at a point where the future of gaming and e-sports in the next five years will be significantly driven by this market. It is India's chance to actually build its own digital infrastructure and build really scalable platforms and not only serve India, but also export a lot of these platforms to other countries like the US," he said.

Founded in 2018 by Sai Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra, MPL hosts a range of e-sports tournaments and also serves as a publishing platform for other gaming firms.

The company, which has over 500 employees, has raised USD 225.5 million (putting its valuation post the deal at USD 945 million) in funding from investors including Composite Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Base Partners, RTP Global, SIG and others.

He pointed to the growing popularity of e-sports tournaments that see gamers competing from various locations.

Also read: MPL raises $500,000 from its Employee Investment Plan

"I don't think it's hard for us to imagine where say, an American sitting in New York is competing with a player in Brazil, someone from Berlin, and a player in Muzaffarabad in India. All of them are actually competing in this massive tournament via their mobile phones," he said.

Srinivas said clarity in regulations in terms of defining skill-based and games of chance would facilitate Indian companies in building massive enterprises in the gaming sector, and become exporters of the technology as well.

"We need to have clarity in terms of regulations, in terms of defining what e-sports is, defining what competitive skill gaming is, and very clearly drawing a line between that and other games that might be games of chance, casino-led games, etc," he said.

He further stated that the more clearer and more structured the regulations become, "India and Indian companies are not only going to build really massive enterprises on this, but will be the net exporters of this technology" and that potentially is a USD 10-15 billion opportunity.

Srinivas said various industry representatives are engaging with the government on this matter.

In December, Niti Aayog had released a draft report titled 'Guiding Principles for the Uniform National-Level Regulation of Online Fantasy Sports Platforms in India', wherein it noted that there is a public interest in the fantasy sports industry.