I was never big on playing card games. My parents had instilled in me that indulging in any card-based game was gambling, and "gambling is bad". That changed when I spent one Diwali in my native. Apart from the endless supply of jalebis and gujiyas (sorry to do this to you early morning not to hurt you), a favourite pastime was playing rummy—sometimes even till the wee hours. That is when I first discovered how popular rummy was among Indians. It's little wonder that Gameskraft, the parent company of Rummyculture—an online real money gaming (RMG) app—was making good money within a couple of years since its inception. Founded in 2017, the completely bootstrapped startup turned a profit of Rs 740 crore ($93 million) in 2021—twice the size of bigwigs like Dream11 and Games 24x7. Gameskraft has also found other niche areas: it is white labelling rummy platforms for other gaming companies. Frequent users say that both the app and its customer service are pretty responsive—an essential factor when your money is at stake in real time. But the luck of the draw might have run out for Gameskraft. The company relies heavily on one game that generates over 60% of its revenues. This problem compounds as the number of new users are dwindling. Moreover, the industry itself is fraught with many legal and regulatory uncertainties. In our today's articles where we captures Gameskraft's journey in India's Rs 4,000 crore ($500 million) online card gaming market and why its beginner's luck might have started to run out...
