Ravi Nagarajachar, Vice President of Operations at GoodGamer Corp – Interview Series

Ravi Nagarajachar, Vice President of Operations at GoodGamer Corp, he has over 18 years of IT experience during which he has managed and delivered successfully several software projects across USA, Canada, Europe and India.

With expertise in operations, delivery in Telecommunication OSS and BSS systems, Ravi has spent the last 8 years on building high performing, cost effective off-shore delivery organizations in India, a highly motivated with perfectly blended multi regional experience and able to lead any IT team.

What is the GoodGamer app?

GoodGamer is a daily sports and esports fantasy and real-money gaming app offering a wide variety of skills-based games. The app is built for a wide cross section of Indian gaming lovers – from cricket fans, to hardcore esports gamers, to casual mobile gamers. Gamers can build their own cricket, football, and esports teams, play head to head mobile games against friends, enter tournaments, and experience gaming in ways never before seen in India. From Esports DFS to skills-based props contests, our app is introducing a host of new features and styles of entertainment to the market.

Could you tell us the genesis story behind GoodGamer?

For the founders, the genesis goes back over 20 years when Charlo Barbosa founded Poker.com. But the story really heats up a little over a year ago as the team began to recognize the size and the timeliness of the opportunity in India. With an initial focus on bringing additional excitement to Esports fans, the team quickly realized that traditional sports like cricket and casual gaming are also extremely attractive to Indian gaming fans. With a strong cross-pollination between India and Canada, the team is excited to bring North American style real-money skills-based gaming to Indian fans.

How big are eSports in India?

By some accounts Esports has attracted over 17 million fans in India this year. While still a small portion of the 300 million mobile gamers in the country, the players and fan base are extremely dedicated, with engagement levels as high or higher than in traditional sports. Also, the industry is expected to generate $1.3 billion in revenue by 2023. Esports has grown incredibly fast in India, but is still really just getting started.

This is India’s First Daily Fantasy Sports and Esports Gaming App, why do you believe the market in India has been neglected until now?

I think esports in India is rapidly catching up with other regions largely due to improvements in internet & mobile infrastructure, and massive demonetization of mobile data due to the likes of Reliance Jio. Daily Fantasy Sports apps are huge in India, absolutely, but sometimes it takes a bit of an outside perspective to see where the future opportunities lie, and to focus on those earlier than the incumbents.

You recently relocated to Bangalore, India after living in Vancouver, BC. Could you touch base on how the expectations of gamers in both countries differ?

In India, mobile is far more important to the ecosystem than in North America. In Canada, there is still the perception that to be successful in gaming, and especially in Esports, a gaming PC or dedicated gaming laptop is a requirement. Indian gamers have proven that this just isn’t the case, even in Esports. What matters here in India is accessibility, where you can have tournament winners playing on Rs 14,000 phones, and winning prizes over one crore rupees. It's pretty incredible, with skill and dedication anyone can be successful in Esports here.

GoodGamer has partnered with Skyesports of Chennai, one of the top Esports tournament organizers and casters in India. Could you tell us more about this partnership?

We’ve actually been working closely with Skyesports since the fall of 2019. We had planned a major India-wide Esports tournament with them for last May, but unfortunately the lockdowns shuttered those plans. Shiva Nandi and his team have been great in helping ensure the GoodGamer app is right for the market, that it's something people will actually want to use in India. Even though we’re now growing our team in India, through our early days we were all in Vancouver and they were really our ‘feet on the street’ in India.

Gamers will be able to launch private contests where the contest creators can earn a commission for creating and managing contests. Could you tell us more about how setting up these contests works?

Set up is really easy actually – on the home page in the GoodGamer app you just click “create a contest,” then select a league and match, then you decide entry fees, number of winners, and more. You’ll get a promo code you can share. Where the fun really comes in though, is bringing others into the contests. Maybe you keep it super exclusive and only invite your closest (and most competitive!) friends. Or maybe you have a  large social following that you want to share your contests with – this is a great way for streamers and  influencers to generate extra revenue.

Is there anything else that you would like to share about GoodGamer?

We are working on our casual mobile esports tournament platform where users can download casual games and participate in tournaments for real money.  With over 300 million casual gamers in India, we feel it’s the right segway into this larger market and to capture a wider audience than just cricket and fantasy sports.

With a focus on our upcoming Series A round, this is a very aggressive time for us in terms of user acquisition and marketing. IPL is a fantastic opportunity for us to not only showcase the GoodGamer app, but also to test out the many unique aspects of our business model that set us apart from the typical fantasy sports app.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit GoodGamer Corp.