With the surge in the transactional based online skill ecosystem and the addition of newer business verticals like digital eSports, the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) has strengthen its Advisory Board with induction of eminent jurist, educationist and sports personality.
Three new celebrity inductions on the AIGF board include prominent personalities of their respective fields – Justice (Retd) Vikramajit Sen, Fatema Agarkar & Jhulan Goswami.
Joining the board, Justice (Retd) Sen asserted, “As online transaction based gaming has grown by 30% over last year, self-regulation for this ever expanding industry is extremely important. To overcome the blurred lines, the AIGF Skill Games Charter provides the very foundation for responsible gaming, user integrity, player protection, and best practices for member operators to ensure ethical practices to safeguard the consumer interest.
“To further contribute to the process, I am excited to be on the advisory panel of the AIGF, which has vetted the charter and play a role in guiding the Industry body and its stakeholders forward as the sector grows.”
“I am glad to be a part of AIGF’s advisory panel and for me, the sheer potential that e-sports enjoys lies in its reach, bringing communities together, enabling an alternative to physical sports, working with key life skills such as decision making, critical thinking and logic not to mention attitudes of discipline, responsible digital citizenship!,” added Fatema Agarkar.
“There’s cognitive development and participation avenues that open up given its tech base and therefore obvious reach beyond the four walls, and when structured with science and responsible protocols, the sheer scale of possibilities it opens up cannot be emphasized enough. With AIGF’s well-structured Responsible Gaming Charter, we will put the right checks in place and treat it with the respect it deserves!”
Former captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, Jhulan is elated to be part of AIGF’s advisory board. “It is heartening to see that millions of gamers are participating in online formats including cricket and that this ecosystem is growing rapidly. It is an honour to be on the board alongside such eminent people,” said Jhulan and added “it makes me extremely happy to see the industry come together to adopt the guidelines of the AIGF charter to ensure best practices and player protection for the online Skill Gaming Industry.”
Roland Landers, CEO, All India Gaming Federation welcomed the new advisory board members. “We are privileged to have strengthened our advisory panel at AIGF and are very honoured to have eminent Justice Vikramajit Sen, a Former Judge of the Supreme Court & Ex – Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, Ms. Fatema Agarkar, leading educationist & Founder of the Agarkar Centre of Excellence (ACE) combing sports and education, and Ms. Jhulan Goswami, Indian International Cricketer and the former captain of the Indian National women’s cricket team join us and offer their expert guidance to us and the industry.”
The COVID-19 outbreak and the nationwide lockdown have had a pronounced impact across industries. Besides stalling economic activity and lowering consumption, the pandemic has also led to behavioural and lifestyle changes in people.
The time as well as the average spends per user (ARPUs) for online gaming is rising significantly making gaming the biggest past-time globally as quoted by top economist Ruchir Sharma from Morgan Stanley, in January this year. The online transaction based skill gaming industry in India grew at a robust rate of 30% while the ARPUs went up by a whopping 41% in 2019, as per the FICCI Frames 2020 report compiled by Ernst & Young. In view of these trends the importance for self-regulation for the gaming industry cannot be emphasized enough.