The Indian Premier League (IPL) kicks off bringing cheer to fans, especially the fantasy sports apps, which are doling out new offers and have bumped up their marketing spends to aggressively onboard new users.
However, a majority of the consumers may not be pleased with the startups' advertising and marketing campaigns. After a detailed consumer consultation, which received over 110,000 responses, community platform LocalCircles has found ads from gaming platforms to be one area with which most consumers were not happy with, especially the ones which were similar to gambling and ones where an individual can win or lose money.
Around 77 per cent of consumers want the government to prohibit advertisements for gaming platforms where one can earn or lose real money. Around 18 per cent of the respondents said 'no', while 5 per cent of the respondents were unsure about sharing an opinion. The particular poll received 7,293 responses.
"This is an important area as many teenagers, youth and even professionals, seem to have got addicted to such sites and apps and are losing a lot of money, sometimes even without their parents' knowledge and permission," said the company's statement.
This comes at a time when the Ministry of Consumer Affairs (MCA) has issued draft guidelines aimed at preventing unfair trade practices and protecting consumers’ interest. The draft also pointed out endorsements must be based on either adequate information or experience with the service or product being endorsed.
LocalCircles has submitted the above public feedback as part of the inputs on draft advertising code to the MCA and has requested them to give due consideration to the consumer ask of prohibiting advertising of any gaming platforms.
The survey also assumes importance as IPL, India's largest sporting event, kicks off with fantasy gaming startup Dream11 as its title sponsor. Paytm and its gaming arm Paytm First Games ran into trouble on Friday for violation of Google Playstore's gambling policies. While the payments app returned, Paytm First Games is still missing from the Playstore.
"Online gaming is a grey area. If the game of skill is higher, then it is legal. It is illegal if the game of chance is higher. However, there is no judgment from the Supreme Court with regard to online games involving sports betting, and hence there is no pan-Indian judgment. High court judgments apply only to states in which they operate," said Salman Waris, managing partner at TechLegis Advocates and Solicitors, in response to the development.
Even though sports betting is considered illegal in the country, a 2017 judgment by the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ruled that playing fantasy game involved superior knowledge, judgment and attention. The court also had held that ‘the element of skill’ had a predominant influence on the outcome of such games. This judgment was later upheld by the Bombay High Court.