Nazara enters real money gaming mkt with Kenya

Chennai: IPO bound gaming company Nazara Technologies (Nazara) has forayed into the real money gaming market in Kenya, in partnership with Kenyan company Crossgate Solutions. Nazara has set up a subsidiary with 70% holding and has secured a betting licence to run this business in Kenya.

Real money gaming applies to games that allow users to pay money, use it to gamble/play, and then get that money back out into the real world. Most games today allow users to pay cash to play or win lives but cannot take money out of the app/game. “We are excited to leverage Nazara’s on-ground network built over the last few years so as to exploit the sports betting and the fantasy market in the African countries. Given its affinity for soccer, we will begin with FIFA 18,” said CEO Manish Agarwal.

With this move, Nazara also is taking its investee companies like Mastermind Sports, daily fantasy platform HalaPlay to emerging markets like Africa. The company has hired 10-12 people to manage the operations there and will look at expanding into other countries like Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana in the near future.