Over the past few years, the gaming industry along with fantasy sports has witnessed a significant surge, especially in the skill-based gaming sector. It has been a massive revenue driver and employment generator in the country and is estimated to grow by over two billion dollars by 2021. 

Deepak Gullapalli, the CEO of leading fantasy gaming company FanFight, believes that having a stable and profitable telecom industry in India will be crucial in ensuring that the gaming sector continues to grow. 

“The demographic population (majority of young adults) is an advantage of this country coupled with the ease of access of mobile internet and virtual payments have aided in the hyper-accelerated growth in this sector,” said Gullapalli.  

However, Gullapalli highlighted that a stable telecom industry offering dependable internet service will hold the key to ensure that the growth continues as the virtual gaming industry is heavily dependent on it.

“Another critical dependency is on mobile internet and telcos. In our business today, the internet and the user are primarily mobile. Therefore, the more telcos continue to bleed, the quality of mobile Internet will suffer and the entire ecosystem of internet businesses will be jeopardized.

“Patchy internet services can ruin a user’s experience especially on gaming which takes up high levels of engagement and involvement,” he added.

Among other measures, the FanFight CEO also emphasised on the need of the government in reviving the telecom sector in the country for hassle-free connectivity.

According to Gullapalli, the government will have a significant role to play with its policies in making sure businesses continue to thrive.

“A bad user experience because of poor connectivity will directly result in a revenue impact for the sector. We will be hoping that the government takes the initiative to revive both the telecom and telecom infrastructure sectors for a more optimistic future of mobile internet connectivity,” he concluded.

FanFight currently has more than six million registered users and aims to reach 10 million users by the end of the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL).