By MPL











Mobile Premier League (MPL), an online gaming platform, is expanding into the United States in an attempt to capture the world's largest mobile gaming industry.

The Sequoia India-backed firm aspires to be a "mega app"—a unified gaming platform with numerous offerings—in the US market. It has established a presence in New York, where it employs a team of five employees to handle activities in the region.

“Because of the large number of users we have in India, we are able to design formats that would not have emerged in the United States because of the lower user base. That is the edge we have, and it is for this reason that we are carrying it forward,” Sai Srinivas, MPL's co-founder and chief executive officer, told ET.

The three-year-old company was valued at $945 million earlier this year after raising $95 million in a Series D fundraising round. In India, it has about 75 million users. MPL's revenue has increased dramatically year over year, a trend Srinivas hopes to continue in the coming year. He also stated that the platform is "extremely well-capitalized" and that no additional cash will be raised in the foreseeable future.

MPL will be available for iOS and Android in the United States, with games such as baseball and solitaire. Throughout the year, it will introduce new games and formats to the market, such as synchronous gaming.

Games24x7, another Indian online gaming startup sponsored by Tiger Global, announced in April that it is eyeing the US market for expansion.

“In the United States, there is no other comparable platform with a similar value proposition now in operation. There is already a market for competitive gaming or esports,” Srinivas said. “From our standpoint, if MPL can deliver the same value offer in the US on both Android and iOS, we'll be the only gaming platform available in three of the world's four largest markets,” says the company.

MPL entered Indonesia in mid-2019 and quickly established itself as a leading gaming platform, according to the business, with over 5 million registered users in the country.

Users in the United States, according to Srinivas, can participate in free skill games as well as paid contests with prizes ranging from 60 cents to $6.

In comparison to India and Indonesia, MPL's service cost for hosting tournaments in the United States will be higher. “From a revenue basis, we believe the United States and India will be neck and neck. “Even Indonesia would be roughly 60 to 70% of that size,” Srinivas said.

The company also stated that it is working on a security feature that would ensure that no player from outside the United States can use the app via a virtual private network.

Despite regulatory challenges, India's online gaming sector has risen fast as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as increased internet and smartphone usage. The Indian mobile gaming market is expected to reach $405 million in 2022, according to market and consumer data firm Statista, a 1.5x increase from 2016.

MPL is situated in Bengaluru and has offices in New Delhi, Pune, Jakarta, Singapore, and New York, co-founded by Srinivas and Shubham Malhotra. It employs almost 900 people. It provides esports, casual games, fantasy sports, and card games in India.

(Source: Economic Times)