Rajiv is based out of Delhi-NCR and writes stories on startups, corporates, entrepreneurs of all kinds, and yes, marketing and advertising world. His ‘historic feats’ include graduation in history from Hansraj College, master's in medieval Indian history from Delhi University, and PG diploma in journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Another forgettable achievement was spending over a decade at The Economic Times as his maiden job. For the first seven years, he learnt the craft on the desk, and the remaining years were spent unlearning and writing for Brand Equity and ET Magazine. What keeps him going, and alive, apart from stories is the heavenly music of immortal legend RD Burman.
Bhavin Pandya (left) and Trivikraman Thampy, CEO & cofounder, Games24X7 R ummy,” explains RummyCircle on its website, “is a card game that is played with two decks of cards with total of two Jokers.” Almost three years after dealing with a bad hand, Bhavin Pandya and Trivikraman Thampy looked like two jokers to bankers. “Are you guys serious? Is this even legal?” asked one of the top honchos of an MNC bank. Sitting across the table, and in the firing line, were two friends who co-founded Games24x7 in 2006. They started with a free online rummy game, chess and a bunch of other casual games, somehow survived the global financial crisis of 2008, and were now rolling out RummyCircle, their first paid online rummy platform. For Pandya and Thampy, the chips were down. A prerequisite for a paid online game was a payment gateway. Unfortunately, the duo didn’t have any, and were now pleading, and building their case, with banks and companies processing online payments. Related stories MPL: Forging a league of its own Dream11 turned fantasy (gaming) into reality. Now it's eyeing a diversified sports tech future Urgent need to look at esports from a different lens: JetSynthesys' Rajan Navani “Will this get us in trouble? Nobody offers rummy in an online paid format,” retorted another nervous banker who was paranoid about the segment’s lack of regulation. He was justified in his reaction. There was no precedent, there was no clarity on compliances, and the future looked uncertain. The financers, though, were not the only ones to feel jittery. The co-founders were pariah for advertisers as well. In spite of a slew of court verdicts on the legality of rummy, nobody was willing to punt on the first-time founders. After months of struggle, the games started. CC Avenue came on board, followed by HDFC. “We were the first company to get a payment gateway,” says a beaming Pandya on a Zoom call from Boston in May. His friend, who logged in from Miami, flaunts another achievement. “We were the first ones to convince Google and Facebook that this is a legitimate industry that should be able to run ads,” claims Thampy. Teen Patti Game
(This story appears in the 17 June, 2022 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
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