India’s biggest gaming platforms are quietly rewriting their playbooks. Zupee, WinZo and more, once defined almost entirely by real-money gaming, are now aggressively expanding into free-to-play formats, skill-based casual games and content-led experiences.
That pivot comes in the wake of a major policy change. With the passage of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, the Indian government imposed a blanket ban on all “online money games,” including what had traditionally been considered skill-based real-money formats (fantasy sports, rummy, poker, etc.). Under the new law, offering or promoting real-money games as well as facilitating payments or advertising them is prohibited.
The law reflects the government’s aim to protect consumers, especially youth from financial risks, addiction, and associated harms such as fraud or money laundering. As a result, platforms that built their business around paid gaming have seen that model collapse, prompting them to rapidly reinvent themselves.
Free-to-play models allow these platforms to tap into a significantly larger user base, attract younger audiences and build daily engagement at a fraction of the cost. Real-money gaming drew users with the promise of winnings, high stakes and competitive thrill. As these companies try to reposition themselves as entertainment hubs rather than betting-led platforms, the key test now is simple: is there real audience appetite for this outside the core gamer community?
Rohit Agarwal, Founder and Director, AlphaZegus, believes that as long as the content is built around entertainment first and game mechanics second. It is being noticed that non-gamers consume gaming content when it feels like talk shows, drama, banter, or challenges that just happen to be set inside a game.
He adds that if the narrative is easy to follow and the stakes are emotional or humorous, it travels well beyond the “hardcore” base. “The mistake would be to simply transplant an esports broadcast format and expect mass appeal. The opportunity is in creator-led formats designed like short video, OTT or sports studio shows, but with gaming as the playground. That is where you unlock a wider, pop-culture audience rather than just rank-grinders,” Agarwal says.
Aahna Mehrotra, Founder & Principal Lawyer of AM Sports Law & Management Co, also states that these platforms are essentially trying to retain their existing user base after the impact of the Public Online Gaming (PROG) Act, which has banned all pay-to-play formats of fantasy sports, card games, and other real-money gaming models.
“Instead of losing users entirely, they are redirecting them to other formats such as free-to-play gaming, short-form content, or other entertainment layers. It’s a way of keeping the ecosystem alive while avoiding regulatory risk,” she explains.
Even after the real-money gaming ban in India, brands are still showing strong interest in the industry’s shift toward interactive, free-to-play gaming environments, viewing these new formats as safer, more engaging and more ad-friendly spaces to reach consumers. But industry voices say the ecosystem still needs to prove its value before premium advertiser confidence returns.
Sajin Nair, Associate Vice President – Marketing at Innominds, says that while curiosity remains, caution is now the dominant sentiment. “Brands are naturally wary of a sector that just became a ‘sin stock’ due to regulatory chaos; their old interest was in the audience’s willingness to spend, not just interact,” he notes.
According to him, free-to-play platforms will need to demonstrate that they can offer clean, premium and measurable brand integrations, not just low-value banner ads if they hope to win back top-tier budgets and long-term trust.
Agarwal sees a clearer opportunity emerging. He believes casual and free-to-play gaming environments are inherently more “brand safe,” thanks to their broader demographic spread and everyday usage patterns. “For a large FMCG, BFSI or auto brand, a relaxed, mass-reach gaming environment is often easier to sell internally than a sweat-heavy esports arena,” he says.
Agarwal further explains that esports will continue to attract high-intent, young, mostly male audiences and drive deep engagement, but casual gaming opens the door to families, female users and tier 2–3 markets. “Most large advertisers will treat esports as a sharp-edge property and casual gaming as a scalable media environment,” he adds.
With creators experimenting with new digital formats and brands exploring new channels for engagement, casual gaming environments are beginning to surface as a potential touchpoint in the wider branded-content ecosystem. While the space is still in its early stages, experts are closely tracking whether creator-led gameplay, in-game challenges and interactive story formats can mature into credible extensions of mainstream digital campaigns.
As the industry adjusts to new regulations following India’s real-money gaming ban, legal clarity is becoming a central consideration for advertisers.
However, questions remain about the long-term viability of free-to-play gaming as a premium marketing vehicle. Nair points out that unless these platforms break out of the “low-CPM trap,” they may struggle to attract top-tier advertiser budgets. “Free-to-play games will remain a niche unless they can convince an ad-fatigued audience to pay for virtual assets, enabling premium, non-intrusive brand integration,” he says.
Otherwise, he warns, the category risks being viewed only as a commodity reach channel, unable to rival the high-value content ecosystems of established OTT platforms.
As gaming companies build new content formats and tighten compliance frameworks, advertisers are watching closely to see whether casual gaming can evolve from an experimental add-on to a stable part of the digital media mix. The next few months, industry leaders say, will determine whether the category can scale beyond curiosity and deliver measurable business impact.
