Draft gaming rules: Dream Sports, MPL, Games24x7, others write to MeitY against IAMAI's view

The companies said they have made some recommendations for the ministry's consideration through specialized gaming industry bodies. (Representative image)

Four of India's largest real-money gaming startups - Dream Sports, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Games24x7 and Zupee - have written a letter to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), expressing their disagreement with the recent statements of the industry association Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on the country's draft gaming rules, people familiar with the matter told Moneycontrol.

These companies are part of the IAMAI's Gaming Committee. However, they allege in the letter that the industry body's recent statement on the country's draft gaming rules were "made without consulting us or providing us any information and we have raised a strong objection with IAMAI regarding the same". Moneycontrol has viewed a copy of the letter.

On February 2, IAMAI had stated that the government's proposed draft gaming rules was "right on intention but poor on scoping". It had suggested that the government should reconsider the definition of gaming since it is "too broad and vague and would unnecessarily bring under regulation and expensive compliance a set of firms that do not need to be regulated or need to be very lightly regulated".

"Certain provisions of the draft also seem to imply that service providers or partners that advertise, publish or host online games will have to comply with the Rules by verifying each game with the self-regulatory body (SRB) on an ongoing basis making it impractical. Intermediaries must not be obligated to ascertain and verify the registration of online games," IAMAI stated.

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However, a person familiar with the matter told Moneycontrol that these gaming firms did not agree with IAMAI's view on verification of each game through a self-regulatory body.

"We would like to clarify that we do not agree with the primary assertion made in the release (by IAMAI). We have made certain recommendations for your consideration through our specialized gaming industry bodies and look forward to engaging in consultation with you on the same," the companies said in the letter.

Dream Sports, MPL and Games24x7 declined to comment while IAMAI is yet to respond to Moneycontrol's queries. The Economic Times first reported this development.

MeitY's online gaming rules

On January 2, 2023, MeitY had proposed a self-regulatory mechanism, mandatory verification of players through Know-Your-Customer (KYC) norms and grievance redressal methods as draft amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 with the aim of safeguarding users against potential harm from skill-based games and also ensure these games conform with Indian laws. The public consultation for these draft guidelines ended on January 25, 2023.

"We believe that measures introduced to curb the menace of offshore illegal gambling apps and websites is a very welcome step and will go a long way in providing a safe and trusted internet to our gaming users. These will also help in expanding Create in India and Brand India for the online gaming industry in India" the letter read.

Read: India's draft online gaming rules: What real-money gaming startups and industry bodies are saying

In the run-up to the public consultation of these rules, IAMAI had said it was most suited to form the proposed SRB for online gaming, citing its previous experience in running similar self-regulatory bodies for the edtech and video streaming sectors.

India also has a series of real-money gaming focused industry bodies such as All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), which counts MPL and Zupee among its founding members; Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) which has Dream11 as its founding member; and E-Gaming Federation (EGF) which has Games24x7, Junglee Games and Head Digital Works as its platinum members.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar, however, told reporters on January 17 that industry bodies cannot become self-regulatory bodies to regulate online gaming.

These bodies will represent all stakeholders including representatives of children, parents, players, government, and gaming intermediaries, he said.

Last month, WinZO, a social gaming and interactive entertainment platform, had also expressed reservations about the SRB structure for registrations of an online game.

"In our experience, such a pre-registration is highly likely to compromise the confidentiality of information required to be submitted for evaluation/certification and lead to IP leaks which is the single most important asset a game developer has that cannot be protected by a patent. Potential delays may also compromise the first-mover advantage," WinZO co-founder Paavan Nanda said at the time.

Nanda has suggested a registration process that relies on self-declaration and collecting basic company information, similar to video streaming firms in the Intermediary Guidelines. He said this process will not require waiting for a confirmation from the SRB before the launch of a game.

"Pre-registration for companies like WinZO is going to be extremely onerous and compromise the speed to market, innovation as well as first mover advantage if the details of every game that's launched on our platform have to be exhaustively revealed and has to undergo a methodical process by an external industry body," he said.