Play Games24X7, the company that operates gaming apps RummyCircle and My11Circle, said rummy is accounting for the lion’s share of its total revenue. The company’s co-founder and CEO Bhavin Pandya said to livemint.com recently though rummy is popular in the south, the company is aiming to build the presence of its brand RummyCircle in the north to boost revenue.

“While just 10% of our users play rummy, they bring in a majority of the revenue and the remaining play fantasy cricket,” said Pandya in the same interview.

The company boasts a total of 100 million users on its platforms across casual gaming like Pet Haven and fantasy cricket as well as rummy and Teen Patti whereas Fantasy cricket alone accounted for about six million downloads in the initial year of its launch in 2019, and rummy has over 30 million players, the company informed.

According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s gaming committee, India has emerged as the largest fantasy sports market in the world with over 13 crore users playing fantasy sports. The growth of 27% CAGR generated by the online skill gaming industry in 2020 has made it the fastest-growing segment within the Indian M&E sector.

Also read: Youth dies by suicide after losing INR 20 lakh in online rummy

So far, Play Games24X7 which is funded by marquee investors like Tiger Global and The Raine Group and has raised about $34 million year-to-date of which the latest was a series B funding in 2021 of $18 million from Frederick Emmer Pollock, Jonathan Sawyer and eight others. As per business intelligence platform Tofler, In  FY21, the company’s total income stood at ₹1,312.66 crore on a standalone and consolidated basis, lower from ₹1,573 crore in FY19-20. In that period, however, its net profit after taxes jumped to ₹383.7 crore versus ₹110 crore in FY19-20 largely on account of reduced expenditure.

“In the South of the country, rummy is a fabric of people’s lives, unlike the North where it is primarily played during big holidays Diwali. But there is nothing regional about the game and the only way to make it more popular is to work with a big celebrity,” said Pandya informed livemint.com. Notably, the company recently announced Hrithik Roshan as its brand ambassador for its brand RummyCircle.

The company also recently signed on actor Ranveer Singh as the brand ambassador for its fantasy sports division.