Founded in 2011, Adda52.com is the pioneer of online Poker in India. With the help of award-winning technology, the card game has been made available across the web, mobile and app platforms.
Poker is not just any card game, but a learning tool that enhances one’s mathematical and observation skills. Adda52.com, having 2 Mn+ registered users, offers a safe and secure platform to play the highly entertaining card game anytime and from anywhere. iTech, world-leading testing, and certification laboratory for Online Gaming systems have certified the site to be fair with a reliable and resilient system. Apart from hosting thrilling and action-packed online cash games and tournaments, Adda52.com also organizes the Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT), which is India’s biggest offline Poker tournament held in Goa and Sikkim. It is also the exclusive Brand License partner for the World Poker Tour (WPT), an international Poker tournament series.
In an exclusive chat with Medianews4u, Krishnendu Guha, Chief Marketing Officer, Adda52 speaks on the Journey, Future Plans, and more.
Adda 52 was founded in 2011, its inception and Journey so far?
Since its inception, Adda52.com has sustained a tough and competitive journey and there have been many many milestones in our journey to success and one of them being Adda52 is the first brand to bring in a global alliance with a brand like World Poker Tour and increase awareness and exposure both online and offline through their properties WPT India and WPT online India. The true journey of Adda52 began very early, when the co-founders, MohitAgarwal&Anuj Gupta, were in college. Mohit had created an online poker software for a project and Mohit&Anuj was inspired by their seniors who had set up an online poker website, called Party Poker, in the US in the 1990s. However, the founders didn’t work on Adda52 right away and stuck to their corporate careers for a decade. Around this time, the duo was tracking with the craze around online poker being played over social media around 2009- 2010. What surprised them was that users in India played a lot of pokers online for no money at all. This was when the two realized that it was finally time to work on their decade-long dream of building a start-up for poker players in the country.
What made you start something like Poker online?
The founders were passionate about building a culture of online poker in India and with this thought they founded Adda52 in 2011, and in February 2012, the start-up became the first company in India to offer a chance to play poker online with real money.
Today there are a plethora of platforms for Poker, what is unique to your portal?
The culture of online poker in India needs a strong involvement of live experience. Being a part of Delta Corp has not only helped in gaining trust and access to high roller players, but it has also provided an immersive experience to the user. Being one of the leading online Poker companies, Adda52 has a credible reputation amongst the masses. Some of the milestones that make us unique is shared below:
– Adda52 is the first brand to bring in a global alliance with a brand like World Poker Tour and increase awareness and exposure both online and offline through their properties WPT India and WPT online India.
– Adda52 is the first brand to develop live streaming tech locally and stream Indian poker to the world.
– Adda52 is had also developed their own live tournaments like DPT which is a well-renowned property in the Indian Poker circuit.
– Adda52 is the first legal online poker platform in India. The acquisition of Adda52 by Delta Corp has fuelled the birth of the Poker Vertical in India.
– Adda52 is the first brand to appoint a Pro team and represent the brand and country on foreign soil.
– Adda52 was the first in India to get International certifications for its gameplay Itech labs
– Adda52 was the first in India to do a combination of online and offline for a single big poker tournament
What was the traffic you saw during the lockdown? Your thoughts on the new guidelines?
We saw a growth of 12% on daily active users during the lockdown period. We were always compliant with government guidelines in terms of how users transact on our platform so this didn’t impact us.
What are the major challenges in this space?
Poker faces a lot of ambiguity around its legality in India and while it has been declared as a skill-based game, certain state laws still lack clarity. We comply with all state laws and users can access the game from anywhere in the country where it is permitted. Another key industry challenge around Poker is its connotation with gambling and a lack of awareness of how skillful this game is. Not only does it require strategic skills to become a pro, it also helps inculcate life skills.
What would be your Focus in 2021 and where do you see yourselves in the next 3 years?
Our vision for 2021 is to create a seamless user experience and grow the density of our users as opposed to penetration in new markets. We are expecting new players to spend 15-20% more time on our platform in 2021 than they used to spend earlier. This is from the fact that users are finding it quite engaging, which is evident from the daily active user jump that we have seen during the lockdown. We expect to see the daily active user count grow by at least 15%~18% in the coming years
