WinZO, a startup in the online gaming industry, has filed a petition with the Delhi High Court to be listed as a “game of skill” on the Google Play Store. The company is seeking legal validation that the games it offers involve skill rather than chance and are therefore compliant with Indian laws.
WinZO is claiming that if the Delhi High Court grants its declaration that their games are skill-based, they will be eligible to request their platform and games to be hosted on Google Play Store. The online gaming company offers games of skill through their application, which users can play with real money.
During the hearing, Abhishek Malhotra, the advocate for WinZO, argued that Google Play Store has a dominant market position and that currently, only two games, Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and Rummy, are permitted to be offered. He further argued that Google Play Store does not have the authority to decide whether a game is based on skill or not.
WinZO has filed another petition challenging Google’s search engine disclaimer policy. The Delhi High Court bench of justices Manmohan and Saurabh Banerjee suggested to Google’s counsel to consider issuing a milder warning to users when downloading WinZO through the search engine.
Saumya Singh Rathore, the co-founder of WinZO, stated that the only way for their company to have fair access to the market was to obtain a similar legal validation for all of their games, including chess, carrom, trivia, and others.
What is WinZO?
WinZO, which was established by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh in 2018, collaborates with third-party developers to offer games on its mobile application in 12 different languages and boasts over 100 million users.
WinZO, a startup based in Gurugram, has received a total of $100 million in funding from various investors, including Griffin Gaming Partners based in California, gaming funds like Maker’s Fund and Courtside, and Kalaari Capital.
However, the online gaming company’s net loss has increased 2.3 times to INR 120.59 crore in the financial year 2021-22, compared to INR 51.36 crore in the previous fiscal year. This is mainly due to the significant increase in advertising expenses.
