News: Ambani gambles on chance

(FE 23/06/2006) Mumbai - Close on the heels of its foray into film production and distribution and radio through Adlabs Films, Reliance Entertainment, part of R-ADAG, is now entering the online gaming business.

The company will launch a dedicated gaming portal by September this year for which it has recently poached senior officials from leading gaming company Level Up Network.

Reliance already possesses the infrastructure in its 'WebWorld' stores to be able to launch its own gaming portal. According to Angel Stock Broking research analyst P Phani Shekhar, "Infrastructure is the main hurdle for the gaming industry. Since Reliance already has it, it makes sense for them to foray into this space.” According to sources, Reliance's plans are still on the drawing board stage. Apart from casual games that will be offered on the gaming portal, Reliance may also look at acquiring licenses for massively multi-player online games (MMOG) and distribute them in India. The company is targeting an audience between five and twenty-five years of age.

The gaming market in India is a pre-nascent market and it is expected to show huge growth over the next three years. The online gaming industry alone is expected to clock revenues of $210 million by 2010.